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Cleaning Your Keyboards?
myKeyb0ardsAreD1rty asks: "Okay, I am a little bit messy, but never have I been a dirty person. Nonetheless, looking at my computers, I get the feeling I am. My beloved Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard's keys have ugly black marks after 5 years of continious use (and I like this keyboard, I don't want another one). The same happened to keyboards used by others in this office. I do clean my keyboard from time to time, but now, I just cannot get it clean anymore. I have seen similar stains in other offices, so it must be a common problem. How do folks clean their computers to get rid of this?" We did a topic on cleaning computers back in June, but the tips there were more on generic computer cleaning. What specific suggestions do you have for cleaning what is probably the dirtiest part of your computer?
Jerry Pournelle wrote in his Chaos Manor series that he had a keyboard that stopped working; he took it and rinsed it under the kitchen faucet and a ton of ants were washed out. As an exercise to the student, find out what attracted the ants. The keyboard worked afterwards.
Pulling the keycaps off the stems and cleaning them separately from the keyboard works. After you pull the keycaps off, turning the keyboard upside-down will let lots of not-good stuff escape. One keyboard, sez the reporter, had a ton of cat-hair from his three American Shorthair cats. Several keys that had been "iffy" started working reliably again. His caution, though, was to watch out for the bales on the space bar.
I've resurrected Macintosh keyboards by disassembling them, washing everything in alcohol, letting everything dry, buffing the contacts with a clean, lint-free cloth, and reassembling. One of those keyboards is still working fine.
I agree that trying to clean $20 keyboards is a lost cause, with the possible exception of pulling keycaps and soaking them.
By the way, for those keycaps that have worn smooth and show nothing but pristine background, try using a fine magic marker ("Sharpies" by Sanford is what I use) to renew the image on the keycaps. One keyboard I have needed this done on three keys. Works.
If you have a membrane or Chicklet keyboard, don't bother trying anything...
y coputer i in the kitchen, in the little "eating nook". It a bit unconventional but the fridge i at arm length. The only downide i that oetime thing can go wrong.
A couple week ago I duped about 20 ounce of ice water into the keyboard. Buer. I anaged to hut the PC down and unplug the keyboard. Then I duped all of the water out (or o I had thought). Four hour later water cae guhing out of the corner when I picked it up. At that point I figured I had nothing to lose and tarted prying keycap. Every bit of lint and cruft had congealed into ytery pudding under the keycap. Diguted, I pried off every cap and took the thing into the hower. Five inute with the aage nozzle and it wa factory freh again.
Then I diaebled it to dry and tuck it in front of the fan overnight. Everything work great and I havent had a proble ince. In fact Im uing it right now.
-BW