Experiencing a series of display problems.

Question

Okay, I've got a slight problem. I'm hoping someone can help me. The other day, a glass of Pinot Grigio spilled onto my keyboard. Also ahem some small shards of glass. It's all cleaned up now. A minor, stupid mishap. But I turned my Mac off after this happened, and when I went to turn it back on the next morning, things started to get messed up. Over the course of the last several days, I have experienced a handful of different things, many of them several times each. These things seem to happen when I'm either starting up the computer or waking it from sleep mode:
* A completely blue screen with a really loud fan noise (this has probably happened twice, and both were on start up).
* A fuzzy, almost vibrating picture, beginning with the appearance of the Apple logo on start up.
* A weird screen condition I can only describe as randomly displaced pixels.
* Completely black program windows (this has only happened after waking the Mac up from sleep mode).
* A screen covered entirely in what looks like small gray bricks (sometimes accompanied by noise from the fan).
As I said, most of these things have occurred multiple times each. Sometimes these symptoms occur in conjunction with each other, sometimes they don't. I've tried resetting the PRAM and NVRAM, but, assuming I did it right (which who knows, maybe I didn't), neither of them worked. So now I'm sort of lost as to what to do. The wine that spilled on the keyboard didn't touch any other components of the computer, so, ideally, I don't feel like I should be experiencing these problems. But I am. Can anyone help?
G5   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  

Answer 1

Hi, readjdm, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
You may feel that spilling wine on your keyboard shouldn't cause it or the computer to malfunction, but your keyboard and other keyboards everywhere beg to differ. They all require a liquid-free diet. Cracker crumbs, cat hair and household dust are about all they're willing to consume, and those only in moderation.
The easiest way to test whether all your symptoms are due to the inebriated keyboard is to substitute another keyboard temporarily. If all is well with a different keyboard, yours needs drying-out and rehab.
A keyboard is full of tiny microswitches, which in turn are full of tiny crevices that liquid can get into and short things out or gum them up. It's very hard to dry everything out completely; at best it takes several days. When a keyboard is treated to a drink containing sugars or other stuff that leaves a gummy residue after the liquid evaporates (yes, wine qualifies here), simply letting it dry may not be enough — depending on how far the liquid has penetrated, which you can't tell visually. In any case where, after 3-4 days of air-drying at room temperature, the keyboard continues to malfunction, you may want to try disassembling the keyboard and rinsing the circuit board at its heart under lukewarm running water for several minutes, or soaking it for half an hour and then rinsing it under running water. That will remove most water-soluble residues fairly effectively. (If your water has lots of minerals in it, use distilled water instead.) After washing, let it dry completely — again, it will take several days for the water to evaporate out of all those little crevices. You can speed things up some by aiming an ordinary household fan at it, continuously blowing room-temperature air over it. Don't try to use a hair dryer to speed things up more; the heat could easily damage things.
If this all seems like a bit too much hassle, just buy a new keyboard.