washed my laptop keyboard and now it works great LOL

[LED-holic]

I spilled some juice on my laptop keyboard over the weekend. The keys and space became hard to use because they started sticking badly.

I removed the keyboard, rinsed it under tap water, and then set it to dry for a day and half, until it was absolutely dry.

Put it back on and it works like a charm. Keyboard saved LOL.

 

[qip]

did you have one of those spill proof keyboards...that is risky good thing it worked out:thumbsup:

 

[Fallingwater]

I splashed some water on my laptop keyboard and lost the use of half the keys.

 

[LED-holic]

did you have one of those spill proof keyboards...that is risky good thing it worked out:thumbsup:

No it's just a regular Dell keyboard. When I took it out it was clear on one side, and the other side was just standard keyboard.

I took care in rising it, and then made sure it was completely dry before I put it back on. Seems like these keyboards are fairly robust.

 

[LED-holic]

I splashed some water on my laptop keyboard and lost the use of half the keys.

Sorry to hear that. Was your laptop on when you did that? The juice was thicker than water so it probably minimized the damage. I sucked the juice out once I spilled it, and it worked fine, but was sticking. Washing when disassembled was the trick.

 

[Black Rose]

The guys at work toss really gummed up keyboards in the dishwasher and let them dry for a few days. Seems to do the trick.

 

[LED-holic]

The guys at work toss really gummed up keyboards in the dishwasher and let them dry for a few days. Seems to do the trick.

wow that's amazing.

 

[jzmtl]

That's a trick I read years ago about cleaning desktop keyboards, throw in dishwasher and let dry. It was on a big computer magazine so should be real.

 

[jrmcferren]

The only change I would make is that you should get 99% alcohol (not the drug store variety) and clean them out that way from now on. The alcohol will dry a lot faster and will not leave any minerals or other things that tap water does. I've even heard about military installations washing mainframe circuit boards in soap and water solutions for regular maintenance.

 

[Stereodude]

I tried running a keyboard through the dishwasher once. It didn't dry very well, even after several days. I had to take it apart to get it to dry completely. After putting it back together it worked ok, and was quite clean, but it wasn't quite the same. The keys didn't seem quite as smooth. It was like some lubrication that kept the keys smooth got removed by the washing.

 

[LukeA]

I tried running a keyboard through the dishwasher once. It didn't dry very well, even after several days. I had to take it apart to get it to dry completely. After putting it back together it worked ok, and was quite clean, but it wasn't quite the same. The keys didn't seem quite as smooth. It was like some lubrication that kept the keys smooth got removed by the washing.

The rubber boots under the keys might have been damaged by the heat.

 

[Stereodude]

The rubber boots under the keys might have been damaged by the heat.

Don't think so, I didn't use the heated dry. Regardless, I replaced it with a sub $10 keyboard from Newegg, and it's all good.

 

[greenlight]

Are you talking about a laptop keyboard or an external keyboard?

 

[Fallingwater]

Or you can just disassemble the board. Remove the electronics, throw the rest in the washer, reassemble when dry.

 

[LukeA]

Don't think so, I didn't use the heated dry. Regardless, I replaced it with a sub $10 keyboard from Newegg, and it's all good.

Dishwashers still heat water up past the hot coming out of the tap.

 

[Stereodude]

Are you talking about a laptop keyboard or an external keyboard?

I'm talking about an external keyboard.

 

[RA40]

PC World I think did a short article about washing your keyboard a month or so back.