Laptop resurrected, Keyboard won't work

[Grilly]

I have an HP G62-340US Notebook PC with Windows 7 Home Premium. AMD Athlon II P340 dual core processor 2.2 GHZ. 2 GB RAM, 64 bit operating system. About one year old.

Three nights ago, I spilled about an ounce of beer onto the keyboard near the spacebar and touch pad. I grabbed a paper towel and wiped it off and continued to use the computer without a problem for a couple of hours.

I left the computer on overnight and through the next day. That evening, my keyboard wouldn't work. I shutdown the computer, and windows installed some updates while it was shutting down. When I tried to power back up again, I got NOTHING. No LED light for the power supply, not a thing.

The next night, last night. The computer was still dead. I tried several times to remove the battery, hold the power button down for 30 seconds, and re-insert the battery. No luck.

Tonight was the same. Dead computer.

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I tried to take the keyboard off. I took out all of the screws out of the laptop, pulled out the CD-RW, the Hard Drive and the RAM. There's some sort of connection with no external access directly under the center of the keyboard. It seemed like it would be a bad idea to try and pull it apart from the bottom of the laptop, so I put the whole laptop back together again.

Then, I hit the power button, and couldn't believe it when the little blue light came on! It's alive! And here I am now, typing this on the laptop in question, but with a USB keyboard attached. The laptop's keyboard still doesn't work. Not one key, anywhere.

I ran the "troubleshoot problems" diagnostic under "System and Security" in Control Panel and no issues were detected.

So, what's next? Do I just wait? Get a new keyboard and try to install it? Or do I take the hard drive out, rinse the entire laptop and let it dry out for a week in the hope that it will clean up the laptop, while still being able to retrieve all of my files if it goes kaput?

Also, out of curiosity, did taking the hard drive out and putting it back in somehow reset the computer, thereby allowing it power up again? Or maybe the RAM? I ask because I've been on the net reading accounts of people who can't power up their laptop, and I don't recall coming across this as a solution (if it even is one).

Thank you.

[Geek-9pm]

Any liquid with stuff in it is hard to clean and my do permanent damage to electronic components. Clean water is a lessor problem, but also promotes oxidation. Water and isopropyl  alcohol is a fairly good solvent. Whenever electronic circuit boards are exposed to mildly nasty  liquids, they liquid must be dispersed or removed completely ASAP.

This is NOT and endorsement for the Carlsbad repair shop. But the article makes a interesting read. Read and weep.
http://laptoprepaircarlsbad.com/laptop_fluid_spill_keyboard_repair.html

If you have spilled fluid in your laptop, do not use your laptop at all until you repair your laptop. Continued use of the laptop when in need of a spill clean up can lead to permanent damage to your laptop motherboard.