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On Friday 18 February 2005 12:47 pm, Eben King wrote:
> Failing that, I guess you could try to shake it upside down and see what
> falls out (maybe with the help on a can of air). Or, take it apart and
> clean it. Some people evven wash them and let them dry for days before
> they try to use them. Me, I'd try methods that didn't involve water first.
I 'do maintenance' for a small contract packaging plant. From time to time I
end up holding a keyboard whose (fill in the blank) key sticks or doesn't
show up onscreen at all. After disassembly and staple extraction (world
record thus far is 72) I go straight for the sink. With only a couple
exceptions, all the guts are plastic or synthetic rubber and can simply be
rinsed off or even immersed. I blow them dry with compressed air from the
shop airline. Keep away from the small circuit board and you'll be fine. You
may even get away with soaking the circuit board ... I have, but it wasn't
deliberate and I can't recommend the practice. You can even use almost any
liquid detergent to get rid of the last traces of soda and 'sketti. Just pay
attention to the silk-screened circuit traces -- break one and you are down
for a new keyboard. (Haven't tried that brush-on stuff from Radio Shack ...
might be worth a trial if I ever trash a trace.)
The way I see things, the keyboards are dead when I pick them up. Most of the
time I can resurrect them. But, if I shank it, it isn't any deader than when
I started.
It takes me about 30 minutes to clean our specialized keyboards (Unix terminal
models with LOTS of weird keys ... such as one labeled "ALICE"). That's 30
minutes vs the price of a new keyboard (you can bet the computer 'pro' we
have doing tech support isn't going to pop the lid on one of these!) which, I
am told, is somewhat north of $100 each.
Bill
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