Major Keyboard Cleanup

[3v0]

After many years of use my keyboard had gotten so dirty that it was painful to look at.

I started thinking about how I cleaned PCBs after soldering.

I rounded up the back brush from the shower and an old tooth brush. At the kitchen sink I turned the water on hot and put a small amount of dawn dish soap on the back brush. I scrubbed and rinsed the board using the sink sprayer a few times.

Next I used the tooth brush to clean the few remaining dirty spots.

I shook out all the water I could and set it near a heater to dry.

After two hours I tried it and nothing.

Two hours latter and the mum-lock came on when I plugged it in. Good sign.

As you can see it is working. Or maybe you noticed none of the words in this posting use the letter that falls between u and w in it.

I find it odd that only 1 key would fail. More like a row or column in the matrix. Could be it is still on the damp side. Time will tell.

If you see me posting text with THAT letter missing you will understand. On the bright side as letters go if you had to loose one "v" is not too bad.

 

[kchriste]

We have a PCB drier at work that you set at around 105C to dry out wet PCBs. You could preheat your oven to 105C, turn it off and put the opened keyboard in there for a couple of hours.
Just make sure you tell the rest of the household so they don't preheat the oven for something else without looking inside first. Better yet, put a sticky note over the control!

 

[Marks256]

Nothing to do with the OP, but i feel that it is story time....

A few months ago, i was drinking Pepsi (similar to coca cola. It is a pop (or soda [or soda pop) for all you people that don't know the correct words for things... ), and the can started to tip over on my desk (don't ask why), but i caught it before it toppled over. Unfortunately, a few drops fell onto my keyboard (a very nice logitech wireless keyboard...) I didn't think much of it, so i grabbed a napkin and a can of air, and wiped what i could get off. A week or two later, a keys stopped working (i think they were the "A W D F and a few other keys.

I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so i bought a new one (a NICER logitech keyboard), and then tore the old one a part. It turns out that i didn't get all of the Pepsi off the keyboard. A small drop of it got underneath the "1" key on the numpad. It literally ATE the trace off the plastic. Just goes to show how acidic that stuff is... won't stop me from drinking it, though.


anyways. story time with Marks256 is over.

 

[Torben]

Nothing to do with the OP, but i feel that it is story time....

A few months ago, i was drinking Pepsi (similar to coca cola. It is a pop (or soda [or soda pop) for all you people that don't know the correct words for things... ), and the can started to tip over on my desk (don't ask why), but i caught it before it toppled over. Unfortunately, a few drops fell onto my keyboard (a very nice logitech wireless keyboard...) I didn't think much of it, so i grabbed a napkin and a can of air, and wiped what i could get off. A week or two later, a keys stopped working (i think they were the "A W D F and a few other keys.

I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so i bought a new one (a NICER logitech keyboard), and then tore the old one a part. It turns out that i didn't get all of the Pepsi off the keyboard. A small drop of it got underneath the "1" key on the numpad. It literally ATE the trace off the plastic. Just goes to show how acidic that stuff is... won't stop me from drinking it, though.


anyways. story time with Marks256 is over.

Hehe. A few years back I poured a whole cup of coffee, with cream and sugar, into my keyboard. I found that it is actually fairly easy to clean. I just disassembled the keyboard after removing all the keycaps (make sure you know where to put them when you reassemble) and wiped the whole thing down with soapy water, then with clean water. The membrane under the keyboard is easy to clean, and the little black contact thingies clean up well with some 70% or even 99% rubbing alcohol. Let the whole thing dry out for a day or so and put it back together, and it is still working happily years later.

I don't know what modern keyboards are like. I paid close to $100 for a good, simple IBM keyboard many years ago (the thing weighs a ton but the keys feel SO good to type on) and it's still going strong.


Torben

 

[crusty]

those roll up membrane only water resistant keyboards rawk.
**broken link removed**

 

[Torben]

those roll up membrane only water resistant keyboards rawk.
**broken link removed**

Yeah, but I'd rather eat glass than use one all day long.


Torben

 

[3v0]

The V is back

This is **** chat so stories are wellcome.

FWIW the v has come arround. It may have just been the last bit to dry.

It was worth the gamble. In about 10 minutes and 12 hours of drying time I went from a keyboard ready for the trash to one that looks and works like new.



I have to agree with Torben.. Maybe nails too.

 

[Brian Hoskins]

I cleaned mine a couple of months ago - I removed every single key, cleaned them one at a time, then put everything back together. My keyboard was spotless but the amount of time I spent on it, I may as well have bought a brand new one!

Brian

 

[Marks256]

but then you would have ended up with a piece of crap keyboard that wouldn't last nearly as long.

Stuff is made WAY to cheap these days. But then again, the economy isn't all that great, so what harm could it do? (EXTREME SARCASM)

 

[audioguru]

I can't see any symbols on the keys of my new keyboard (2 years old) so I installed the 14 years old keyboard from my 486 pc and it looks like new.
The old one weighs 5 times as much as the new one.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The old one weighs 5 times as much as the new one.

And probably cost more than 5 times as much?.

 

[Marks256]

And probably cost more than 5 times as much?.

And lasted 5 times as long.

 

[audioguru]

In 1994 I bought 4MB of RAM for $200.00. Then my 486 pc had a whopping 8MB total of RAM. I replaced its 66MHz processor with a 100MHz one that was surface-mounted on a daughter board that plugged into the old socket for the huge old 486 processor. No heatsink. No fan.

My old 486 pc ended in 2005 with 52MB of RAM, a broken 2.1GB hard drive and running Windows 98. It still boots but a lot of programs don't work.

 

[Krumlink]

And looked 5 times better!

I clean my keyboard with can o air, a total waste of muny

 

[crusty]

compressed air in a can? yall ever heard of an air compressor? rofl.
Last time I cleaned mine out (beer spill) I just took out the board and threw everything else in the dish washer, just don't use heated dry, it'll warp the plastic

 

[Marks256]

Did you find that out from experience, crusty?

 

[crusty]

Did you find that out from experience, crusty?

yes i did on one, atleast it was a 10 dollar cheapy.

 

[3v0]

compressed air in a can? yall ever heard of an air compressor? rofl.
Last time I cleaned mine out (beer spill) I just took out the board and threw everything else in the dish washer, just don't use heated dry, it'll warp the plastic

Unless you have have a compressor with a dryer/filter to trap oil and water blowing it out could inject water and or oil into your keyboard.

 

[Marks256]

I don't think i would be allowed to bring the air compressor into the house...

 

[3v0]

I don't think i would be allowed to bring the air compressor into the house...

Why take the mountain to Mohammad when you can take Mohammad to the mountain?