# Cleaning keyboard after spillage (Tea with honey and lemon))



## Seeker (Dec 10, 2009)

Ok, I had my keyboard to taste, a little bit of my tea, with honey and lemon.

It is laptop, we are talking here about.

I did used q-tips and alcohol and pushed it beneath a keys(without removing keys) and moving forward - backward, hasty.

Everything was ok, until next morning.
Now they are sticky again! 

Some keys are hard to press, until pushed hard. Then you hear a little 'snap' and then key works normal, for a while...
Then, other keys, when pushed, stay down and are going up incredibly slow. Just like, in a slow motion.

What am I supposed to do now.
Again same method? :\


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## bjs (Dec 10, 2009)

After my 2 yo daugther decided my laptop needed a small drink of coffee, with cream and suger, I cleaned it the same way you did. Luckily enough there wasn't very much left in the cup at the time... It did take repeated cleanings but eventually the keys stopped sticking...


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## SirDice (Dec 10, 2009)

If you're up to it, take the laptop apart. Remove the keyboard. 

Now, you can either replace it with a spare or....

Just put it under the tap (warm water), crazy I know but it will get rid of the crap. Leave the keyboard to dry for at least a day. Then put it back in the laptop again.

A 'regular' desktop keyboard is a lot easier, I've spilled craploads over it over the years, normally just plain warm water should do.


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## Seeker (Dec 10, 2009)

bjs said:
			
		

> After my 2 yo daugther decided my laptop needed a small drink of coffee, with cream and suger, I cleaned it the same way you did. Luckily enough there wasn't very much left in the cup at the time... It did take repeated cleanings but eventually the keys stopped sticking...



I guess I will go for your tactic of _repeated cleaning_ with alcohol... and hope that _'eventually the keys will stop sticking'_ 

I also didn't spilled whole keyboard but ~40% of it,  upper line and right corner.



			
				SirDice said:
			
		

> If you're up to it, take the laptop apart. Remove the keyboard.
> 
> Now, you can either replace it with a spare or....
> 
> ...



Well it would be easy if it was not a laptop.
It is unbelievably hard to pull keyboard out on Dell Latitude.


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## SirDice (Dec 10, 2009)

Seeker said:
			
		

> It is unbelievably hard to pull keyboard out on Dell Latitude.


Not really. If I'm not mistaken you can download maintenance manuals from Dell's website. It'll exactly show you how to take it apart to get to the keyboard.


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## Seeker (Dec 10, 2009)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Not really. If I'm not mistaken you can download maintenance manuals from Dell's website. It'll exactly show you how to take it apart to get to the keyboard.


I already have it on my laptop and did consulted it before opening it.
Even with everything disconnected and unscrewed force that I need to apply is immense and it moved just a little.
I simply _"aborted mission"_, as toy is too expensive.
And generally D830 is very robust.


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## SirDice (Dec 10, 2009)

My Inspiron 9100 came apart really easy when I had to change it's keyboard.


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## Ruler2112 (Dec 10, 2009)

I've had a half dozen dell laptop keyboards out of different models and they have all been pretty much the same.  Here's how to do it, in plain terms:

Open the display so that the laptop is flat and pop the piece of plastic out with a flat screwdriver.  Swear about the fact that it's held in by little plastic tabs and that you have to pry it off instead of simply having a set screw holding it in.  Unscrew the 2-3 screws at the top of the keyboard and put them somewhere very safe so they won't get lost, then forget where this is.  Wiggle the keyboard toward the LCD of the laptop until the little plastic tabs on the bottom clear the case.  Flip it up and gently pull the flat plastic ribbon cable that dell seemed to think didn't warrant the extra $0.04 to put a plug on out of the connector on the motherboard.  Wash the keyboard thoroughly, blow it out with compressed air, and let dry for 8-10 weeks to make sure it's absolutely dry.  After not trusting it to be entirely dry, go to Flea-Bay and buy another keyboard for $11 (after you make sure it's the same type as goes in my sister's laptop, which my niece broke off 4 keys on because she lost a flash game - can you guess what my sister's christmas present is?  )  When you're ready to reassemble, pull the little white thing on the keyboard connector toward the LCD, lift it up, and gently put the ribbon cable in place, again inventively cursing dell out for not putting a stinkin plug on it.  Press the white plastic thing down and pull it toward the front of the laptop to 'secure' it.  (I use the term 'secure' loosely here, as it basically doesn't do much other than stop the cable from falling out.)  Wiggle the keyboard in so that the plastic tabs fit under the shroud.  Go crazy looking for the safe spot you put the screws, then get the huge jar of itty-bitty screws and start looking for ones that will work.  After forcing screws that are close in, remember where you put the original screws and swear at yourself for cross-threading the holes.  Press the plastic thing back in place, swear at dell again for designing it so poorly, and turn the laptop on.  After it won't turn on, get scared that you screwed up and killed the machine.  Then notice the press-fit piece of plastic isn't 100% flat and press it down in the center.  Listen to the hidden plastic tabs snap into place and think excessively evil thoughts towards dell.

Voila - you're done! :e 



I've had great luck with washing desktop keyboards with a garden hose, but haven't done a laptop.  (Yet.)  They're remarkably resistant to water, as long as you make sure they're dry before plugging them in.  I work at an auto dealership and noticed a keyboard disappeared after one of our tent sales.  Turned out that one of the sales people who dismantled the setup (because they couldn't wait the 20 minutes it took me to drive down there) left it on top of a Tahoe.  Of course this wasn't discovered until the Tahoe was sold 5 months later.  It'd been through several storms.  Tipping it caused water to run out of it.  I figured it was dead, but after leaving it sit on my bookcase where it gets a lot of sun for several weeks, I plugged it in and it worked fine!  In fact, that was ~2 years ago and it's still going strong.


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## graudeejs (Dec 10, 2009)

Once i accidentally spilled tonic on my new keyboard.... it was unusable...

So I dissembled it as much as I could.... (it was laptop type keyboard), and put all parts [except circuit] in hot water until water became cold.

after that I hang my keyboard outside on a rope, in sun... until it was dry.... [weather was good]....

after that I assembled it... and it works till this day, without problems.... {in fact I use it right now}


I find this story funny, especial if you could see how keyboard was hanging on rope like wet clothing.


But I wonder could you be able to disassemble laptop to point, where I disassembled my keyboard.


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## phoenix (Dec 10, 2009)

Can't speak for laptops, but you can put normal keyboards through the dishwasher (on gentle).  Just be sure to let them dry completely before plugging into a computer.


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## SirDice (Dec 10, 2009)

PCBs shouldn't have a problem with some clean water, just don't use any cleaning products. And let it dry sufficiently before plugging back in :e

Ok. It may shorten it's life time a bit, but spilling that drink already made quite sure of that :\


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## OMGSnarf (Dec 12, 2009)

Ruler2112 said:
			
		

> I've had a half dozen dell laptop keyboards out of different models and they have all been pretty much the same.  Here's how to do it, in plain terms:
> 
> Open the display so that the laptop is flat and pop the piece of plastic out with a flat screwdriver.  *Swear about the fact that it's held in by little plastic tabs and that you have to pry it off instead of simply having a set screw holding it in.*


I can attest to this.  I've taken apart a C840 and a D600 and by far the worst part is the cover surrounding the power button.  Actually the worst part is getting to the BT module on the D600 and how poorly made the connectors are, but I digress.

If the D830 is taken apart the same way, I understand.  Prying up one end is easy, but somewhere on the right third is a plastic bit that seems like it's going to break.  Be careful, pry gently until finding that bit, and then give it heck.  Once you've gotten that bit open once or twice, and know how much force it really takes to open it, it won't scare you, but that first time, you've just got to trust that it'll come out eventually.

And if you give it too much oomph the hinge cover is also ~$13 on Flea-bay.  But like you said the Dell IS very robust, and shouldn't break.  Then again, YMMV.

Best of luck!


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## Seeker (Dec 16, 2009)

Exactly that hinge cover, is a least problem to me.
It is a keyboard, that unscrewed, requires immense force, to be applied under even more specific angle(needs to be pulled 5 mm up), in order to pull it out.


I did cleaned it again, with alcohol and tips for ears and now, it is even better, until alcohol evaporates, but still better.
Look like I'll have to repeat it 2-3 times.

I've also removed 1 key and cleaned it and it's naked "pressing part" on keyboard.
While holding key in hand I saw 4 very small holders
When I started to clean a little harder with tip, one broke 
I thought this is it...., bye, bye...
Put after attaching it to keyboard all went well and is same to an eye as to finger when pressed.

I expected it to break while removing and not while cleaning it with... a tip. 

Thanks for yours insights guys.
And a..., how much is needed for washed keyboard to dry completely?


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## ocean (Dec 16, 2009)

Seeker said:
			
		

> And a..., how much is needed for washed keyboard to dry completely?



mine took a few days when i cleaned it with alcool (i think something was in short-circuit, because some keys weren't working until it fully dried).


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## Ruler2112 (Dec 17, 2009)

Seeker said:
			
		

> Exactly that hinge cover, is a least problem to me.
> It is a keyboard, that unscrewed, requires immense force, to be applied under even more specific angle(needs to be pulled 5 mm up), in order to pull it out.



If it's that hard, there's something else holding it.  Are you certain you have all the retaining screws out?  I just had mine out night before last (cracked my LCD and was trying to transplant one from a different laptop; dell put the port on the mobo the LCD plugs into under the stinkin keyboard!) and it literally popped off once the little tabs were released.  Mine has two on either side near the top and several on the bottom - once you get the top ones out by very slightly flexing the keyboard, simply pull the keyboard toward the back of the laptop to release the bottom ones.




			
				Seeker said:
			
		

> I've also removed 1 key and cleaned it and it's naked "pressing part" on keyboard.
> While holding key in hand I saw 4 very small holders
> When I started to clean a little harder with tip, one broke
> I thought this is it...., bye, bye...
> Put after attaching it to keyboard all went well and is same to an eye as to finger when pressed.



You are SO lucky to have gotten the key back on after breaking one of those holders off!  My niece broke 4 keys off my sister's laptop because she got mad after losing a flash game; I tried for nearly an hour on the first one and could NOT get it to stay on.


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