coffee on keyboard

Oct 26, 2011 46 Replies

It must keep out dribble, unless nursie keeps wiping his mouth as he types.

You could try a good dousing (holding keyboard upside down) with switch cleaner

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's saved my bacon with a few beer-soaked electronic musical instruments/effects!

Perhaps it's something to do with the feel of those cheap sealed keyboards people just don;t like typing on them. Most KBs have a particular feel and when you've used a mac laptop KB which are mostly backlit too using a cheap KB feels like it. The KB on my iPod touch is 'sealed', but I don;t like using it for real typing, even my PC one is better. A school teacher friend of mine has gone through two imac KBs one with tea damaged the other with lager. So the second time he 'invested' in a cheap USB KB via ebay =A35.99 I think, he said he just could touch type on it as fast as his mac one (before diluting it) so he binned it and ordered a Mac KB.

I'd like to know the spill restance of iPads, I doubt you should use them in the bath but maybe a spill would be OK.

Thanks for this Tim. I just poured coffee on my Vaio laptop and was shattered to bits. Was too scared to do anything at the time cause the thing was a 13.3" from the US and cost me a fortune. I'll try getting this product from Maplin first thing tomorrow.

-John

Don't think it is the right stuff:- "Q) Hi, can the above be used to clean dried sticky coke off my laptop? A) No sorry this product does not support that."

I used to spray switch cleaner into things like crackling volume controls etc about 40 years ago. Marvellous but I have seen it suggested since that it is a short term solution that actually makes thins worse long term. As far as I now it is not going to shift water soluble stuff like coffee residue.

A keyboard I was quite happy to dismantle and use wet kitchen towel to wash off the various layers. If I could not dismantle a laptop to see exactly what needed cleaning I would take it to an expert or recycle it.

I would be dubious about any cleaning operation on a miniature circuit board but on a decent size one with decent gaps between the copper I might give it a go.

In message , snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote

Often a new keypad assemble can be purchased on ebay for around a tenner. They are often fairly easy to replace and only require minimal disassembly of the machine. On mine it was: prise of small cover at top of keypad, remove 2 screws, release ribbon cable keyboard connector (care must be taken[1]) --- then fit new keyboard. A five minute job!

Use Google to search for "Youtube laptop keyboard replacement" and you should find a video guide for your laptop, or similar.

[1] Example of how to remove keyboard and connector
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use a digital camera to photograph each stage before you take it apart and then if you cannot remember which way things came apart you have a record of how it was.

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