Cleaning a laptop keyboard.

Nick Harvey · Fri 01 Jul, 2005 21.49

J.Christie wrote:school

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

J.Christie, in another thread wrote:Okay, see you in a few months. Bye!

So what happened?

Pete · Fri 01 Jul, 2005 21.59

summer hols?

cdd · Fri 01 Jul, 2005 22.05

Hymagumba wrote:summer hols?

Dammit you've just reminded me...

TROLL WATCH

J.Christie · Sat 02 Jul, 2005 10.53

I think you've misunderstood.

Pete · Sat 02 Jul, 2005 19.51

you misunderstood from the moment you clicked register

Lorns · Sun 03 Jul, 2005 10.06

I've got to admit that i was bit nervous about pulling the keys off. So i thought i'd settle for a good hoovering first.
I thought it might be a good idea to remove the little brush attachment. BIG mistake, the hoover got carried away and sucked a few keys into the hoover bag. I don't need to tell you how awul it was retrieving the bloomin' things ( my common sense failed me there). Thank god i took Mr. Nicks advice and took a pic of my keyboard first.
Credit where credit is due, my hoover is one hell of a sucker and i don't mean it's easily fooled.
I removed the rest of the keys ( well, you can't wash just a few of them).
Gave them a good wash and dry ( Oh yeah, it's not advisable to use a hairdryer to speed the drying process - common sense failure #2).

Anyhoo! I now have a super clean keyboard, a sneaky feeling that my cat uses the laptop judging by the amount of fur that was lurking beneath the keys, a nice pic of my keyboard and 2 dodgy keys. The F10 key is a bit wonky but that dosen't matter as i don't use it and don't know what it's for, and the F still makes a crunchy sound. The problem is either a stubborn crumb or something far more technical.

Thankyou all for your help.

cdd · Sun 03 Jul, 2005 10.26

miss hellfire wrote:Oh yeah, it's not advisable to use a hairdryer to speed the drying process

Yes I've done that -- but it went a bit futher, had to order in a whole new keyboard!

J.Christie · Sun 03 Jul, 2005 10.34

Hymagumba wrote:you misunderstood from the moment you clicked register

I know, I was drunk.

Gavin Scott · Sun 03 Jul, 2005 21.23

Nick Harvey wrote:This will sound slightly odd, but if you've a digital camera, a quick photo of the keyboard before you start often aids key replacement later.

PRINT the photo first, though, as the machine often won't do exactly as it's told while all the keytops are removed.

Inspired by this thread I cleaned my mini keyboard yesterday. I took a snapshot just as you suggested.

Hooray for me.

However; In my haste to get all the keys off I was a bit heavy handed. I've broken open the little spring mounted switch under the keytop. I (eventually) found the spring and managed to reassemble it long enough to get the pc to reboot (after crashing and showing keyboard errors).

The teeny tiny switch assembly is now held together by thin slithers of pvc tape under the "K" keytop, with another piece stuck on the top of the keys to stop the whole thing pinging off again. Typing is a nightmare. I have to delete endless strings of repeated characters each time.

There are lessons to be learned;

1) Have an unopened tube of superglue in the cupboard - used ones dry up.

2) Don't undertake a potentially hazardous keyboard-servicing task when you were planning on trying out your newly installed broadband line.

3) Steal another keyboard from the office.