Sorry for the caps but my computer is
really acting strangely. earlier
tonight i accidentally spilled water
on my apple pro keyboard. i
unplugged the keyboard immediately
and turned it upside down. i then shut
the computer down and checked to
see if it was wet. it appeared to only be
slightly damp on the bottom. i dried
the keyboard because it did not seem
to be that wet. i started the computer
back up and immediately noticed that
my keyboard would only type in
caps(as you can see) it also wont type
out some of the characters. i found
this strange and shut down the
computer and restarted. i then
noticed that it was booting in safe
mode..having never seen that before i
was perplexed. the same issues kept
occuring with the keyboard. i logged
out instead of shutting down and
logged back in and that seemed to
solve all the problems but when i
restart the computer it still starts
up in safe mode. i purposely tried
inducing safe mode by pressing the
shift key during one of the start ups
in hopes that when i restart the
computer it would be back to normal
but no such luck. does anyone have
any recommendations for me? should
i bring the computer to be repaired or
is the computer acting this way
because of the keyboard? someone
please help me because im very
worried that this is an expensive issue.
thanks!

Liz,

This sounds quite serious. In here we can all see
your text quite normally - NO CAPS - and any
liquid spills involving iMacs usually means a trip
to an Apple Service Centre (apologies for being
the bringer of bad news).

However - you could just try testing your iMac
yourself.

Insert the first Mac OS X Install CD into your iMac
and restart your iMac. Just as the screen goes
black, hold down your "C" key on your keyboard
and keep it down until you see OS X's grey
circling tracks animation appear - then let go.

Your iMac will boot directly off the Mac OS X
Install CD - however - you do not wish to install
nor deinstall anything.

Wait for it to fully startup and when it brings up it's
Installation panel, go up to "File" and scroll down
to "Disk Utility". The Installer will vanish and bring
up the Disk Utility.

Select your HD from the left hand panel to
highlight it in blue, and then select the "First Aid"
tab on the right hand side of the panel.

Click once on the "Verify Disk" button - it will go
through a series of tests - if it, at the end of the
test, it tells you that the Disk needs to be repaired,
simply click on the "Repair Disk" button.

After it has gone through the Repair procedure,
click once again on the "Verify Disk" button - just
to be extra sure.

If you "Verify Disk" first time and no errors appear -
time to take it in to an Apple Service Centre and
tell them your spillage story.

To get out of "Disk Utility" just go up to "File" and
scroll down to "Quit". The installer will reappear
again. Quit out of the installer to restart your iMac
of its own HD again.

Your iMac may alaso have come with a silver
Hard Ware Test CD - which tests all the important
Hard Ware components. To use it, again insert it
into your iMac - restart - and hold down the "C"
key on your keyboard - then follow the onscreen
instructions.

The Hard Ware Test CD may not be able to fix
your iMac - but it will be able to tell you which
parts of your iMac have passed or failed. This
information can then be made note of and passed
onto an Apple Technician.

Another possibility again is that because the
spillage hit your keyboard, it may be that your
keyboard is bust and is now sending false signals
to your iMac - so if you can get hold of another
USB Apple keyboard and/or Mouse - you'll be
able to see immediately whether your iMac is the
faulty one - or if it was just the keyboard that
drowned.

I'm really don't know how to crack out of Safe
Mode - i don't even think such a thing exists
without the shift button down.

You could try restarting in Single-user mode
(Apple-Command key + S) - restart again with
Apple-Command key + V - down to start up in
Verbose mode - and then restart again without
any keys depressed and see if "Safe Boot"
message vanishes.

Best options:

1. Switch keyboard and see if that brings it back to
normal.

2. Take it in to an Apple Service Centre for
repairs.

good-luck Liz

cheers

clockwork

Thank you for your suggestions! I stayed up trying
to figure out how to fix it and then I decided to plug
the usb connector for the keyboard into one of the
other slots on the mac and i also unplugged my
modem and shut the computer down and then
booted it back up and seems to have done the
trick. Perhaps something got screwed up with the
USB slot that the keyboard was orginally in? I'm
going to go ahead and do that hardware check
you suggested just to see if everything is ok
otherwise because you can never be too careful
right? I had spilled water on my iBook (r.i.p) a
year ago so I totally freaked out this time, luckily I
dont think any water got on the mac itself this time.
Anyway thanks alot for your help! :-)

-Liz

No problem Liz and good thinking on pulling out
the USB devices - thankfully water (in general)
leaves no residue behind, unlike coffee or wine -
after evapouration.

ummmmm.... yeah... keep those liquids clear of
your iMacs and iBooks Lizzy - buy one of those
cyclist bottles that only has a straw sticking out of
the cannister =)

cheers

clockwork