My Keyboard Is Messed Up

[Matt]

Ever since I spilt a drink on my keyboard about a month ago (yeah I know I'm clumsy) it's been acting very strange. When I press the down arrow and the left arrow, I get 3's (???). Up arrow I get p's and the pressing the delete key types f. Can anyone help me fix it? Are there settings on the computer I can change? This keyboard is only 6 months old.

[Guest]

The new keyboards are basically disposable. The have 2 sheets of plastic under the keys with the circuit paths printed on them. After I spilled a coffee into my keyboard I tryed taking it apart and cleaning it then drying it. Getting all the little rubber cups to line up properly and the sheets of plastic to stay in 1 place was a nightmare. Finally I scrapped the keyboard and bought a new 1. At $20-30 bux for a new keyboard the headaches it saved was worth it. You might want to look into a rubberized cover for your new keyboard if you still plan on drinking around your keyboard in the future.

[straight talker]

dismantling a keyboard is really not a big deal, usually only a few small screws or tiny points to insert a small screwdriver to pop the clips undone. the main thing to do is make sure when dismantled that you dont drop all the keys unless it is the type that are clipped into place, once dismantled the best thing to clean it is proper electrical cleaing solvent or if you cannot obtain this then a bottle of methylated spirit will clean electrical contacts and does not leave any residue. just make sure there are no sources of ignition near you when using this product. make sure you clean all the rubber cups and their contacts which is the small carbon part of them (looks like a black dot) after that clean the circuit board that they connect to giving it a real good clean with a non abrasive cloth and do not press too hard take your time they are quite robust but not indestructible . any spilt drink marks are easily seen just give it all a general clean until the drink marks dissapear.the only other problem you may encounter is sticking keys caused by the drink residue on the stems but you can always pop them out one by one and give them a wipe so as not to mix them up. this may sound a little harrowing but is a relatively simple job and may get that keyboard back to normal, if not you have nothing to lose as your only other option really is to replace it anyway

[bmh67wa]

Looks like straight talker needs to follow his own advice. His SHIFT key is apparantely broken!!! :lol:

Seriously though, unless you want to spend hours thinking that all will be better then have it not, just buy a new keyboard. It's not worth the headache. I bought one at a local shop for $10.00 new. Even at $30 it's better than the time involved to get everything working right again.

[straight talker]

Originally posted by bmh67wa@Oct 5 2004, 12:10 PM
Looks like straight talker needs to follow his own advice. His SHIFT key is apparantely broken!!! :lol:

Seriously though, unless you want to spend hours thinking that all will be better then have it not, just buy a new keyboard. It's not worth the headache. I bought one at a local shop for $10.00 new. Even at $30 it's better than the time involved to get everything working right again.

hours ? cleaning a keyboard does not take more than a half hour i have done many of them. why just throw it away that would be pointless when it may well just need a good clean

[locustfurnace]

Keyboards today can be had for $10. Is it worth cleaning? Maybe, depending on how much you value your keyboard.
I've a collection of keyboards for many different systems.
Overtime, many keyboard layouts have been changed. Some of my older keyboards have functions keys numbering 22. Most today just have 12.
Some keyboards have larger return keys, some have smaller ones. Some keyboards have moved the backspace key underneath the Return key. Some have even moved the arrows keys. Some are DIN while others are Ps/2 plugs.

Can they be cleaned? Some can, some cannot.
If you have a second keyboard, then use it for the key layout and with the dirty kbd, pop all the keys off and soak them for a while in some hot water and a dishwashing soap (degreaser).
When they are clean, stick them back on.
This will cost you nothing but a few cents and time.

If you plan to open the case - which should not be too necessary, be careful not to break the circuit board. Use some denatured alcohol, clean with a q-tip swab.

If you got a $5 OEM special kbd, then it might be worth buying a decent one.

[Matt]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I've never seen the inside of a keyboard and knowing me I'd probably screw it up more so I'll just replace this one. The sooner the better as just typing this out is quite the task. Seems almost every key does something it's not suppose to do now.