Tips for getting latte or soda out of your keyboard?

Somewhat controversially, Throw it in a dishwasher!

Pro + Howto: Scott Mochella

Against: NPR

Anecdotally: Worked great for me, but make sure you let it sit for a day or two to let it dry completely. Water doesn't hurt electronics, water hurts electronics that have power to them.

Otherwise, yes, pop the keys off and wash/clean those. It's a long process, but it does tend to work well.

My suggestion is similar to the one above only I suggest using isopropyl alcohol as your cleaning agent. Isopropyl alcohol has several advantages over soapy water. Soapy water is conductive and if you do not remove a sufficient amount of the residue, you will still have issues with the keyboard operation. Generally speaking it is easiest to just take the keyboard apart and separate the key assembly from the backing circuit board itself.

Once you have the circuit board removed from the key assembly, you now have access to all of the contacts the keys use. Use a paper towel or a Q-Tip to scrub the contacts for best results. The picture below shows the most common keyboard contact type. There is a conductive rubberized material that bridges the contacts and registers the key being pressed. At the end of this process the isopropyl alcohol will evaporate within a minute or two. Once this happens, you are clear to re-assemble and then 'keep on truckin'....

Unplug the KB immediately. Use a thin instrument to gently but firmly start popping keys from numeric keypad and work your way left. When you've removes all the keys, soak them and the keyboard in warm soapy water. After a good long soak, pull everything out of the water and allow to dry completely. (This is very important!) the keyboard itself will take quite some time to dry out and may need the assistance of a hair dryer of fan.