CPU fan powers 4 seconds, then stops. Debug power pads work ok.

The laptop had some liquid spilled recently. The power connector was dirty and the battery wasn’t charging. I cleaned the contacts and it worked for 2 months.

But now when you press the power button the CPU fan spins for 4 seconds, then shuts off and keeps looping. When I press the power button a lot every now and then after a minute or two it could chime and start to boot.

Once I was able to press Command-R and it loaded the progress bar from left to right very slowly. It reached 100% about 10 minutes later, but never went further than that.

I’ve taken out the boards and cleaned any sticky liquid residue. I disconnected the touchpad/keyboard connector and when I short the Debug Power Pads the fan starts up really loud and I hear the Chime. About 30 seconds later I see the apple logo and then it’s at the login/password screen 1 second later.

I plugged in a USB mouse and select shutdown. It seems to chime and boot every time I short the debug power pins.

Does this mean I have a bad keyboard/power button? I’m concerned about the time it takes to display the Apple logo, maybe that’s just the Debug mode. I’ve tried a Cmd-Opt-P-R too. I don’t want to spend $120 eBay logic repair service if not needed.

EDIT: At first it did power loop when I disconnected the keyboard and used the Power Pads to power it up. But now the power pads are not working anymore and it just keeps power looping the CPU fan.