off if they are removed from laptop. i have done this to remove coke spills. It will work as long as you do not submerge it. i have cleaned a bunch of them, the girls at the bank I used to work at spilled everything from juice, to coffee to coke on them at one time or another. those keyboards are pretty tough. the boards are a who other story. i did have a customer once have a roof leak in the rain on a monitor. it was off at the time, I poured abouth 2 cups of water out of it. I opened the cover andf let dry for 2 days and it was fine LOL. Some crazy shit.