Is it a good idea to take the keys of your keyboard?

[Glom]

The space between the keys gets so dirty that it often needs a good clean. Is it sensible to remove all the keys to give it a proper cleaning?

Half the fun it figuring out how to put it back together.

[Roy Batty]

Hmm good question. Takes keys off... Rplaches thnem. Yip!% itk alld seemds to wurkl KO!!&^&^ ;) :D

[Lance]

You might want to try it one someone else's keyboard first.

[GDwarf]

Depends on the keyboard. Most of them are fine with you removing the key caps and picking out most of the grit (or even turning them upside down and shaking), but getting them wet is probably not a good idea.

[Moose]

You can actually soak a keyboard (with the key caps off). It will survive so long as you make absolutely sure it's had plenty of time to dry out before you plug it into anything.

[LurchGS]

absolutely. As technical support for one of my employers (years ago). I had to deal with a secretary who regularly spilled coffee in her keyboard. It got so I'd just take it down to the shower and give it a thorough rinsing. In a day or so, it was ready to go back to work.

Got so I kept 4 keyboards at that location, and gave the key to her boss. Strangely, the coffee spilling stopped when she discovered that she couldn't get the day off any more...

[Gillianren]

You can actually soak a keyboard (with the key caps off). It will survive so long as you make absolutely sure it's had plenty of time to dry out before you plug it into anything.

Depends on what you soak it in. Keyboards and Cherry Coke aren't friends. Believe me, I know.

[Frog march]

I should think that Diet cherry coke would be ok.

[LurchGS]

I should think that Diet cherry coke would be ok.

Only if it's a Tandy...

[Titana]

I just turn my keyboard up side down and shake it a little. That usually does the job....;)



Titana

[LurchGS]

that's good against particulate messes... crumbs, fingernails, nose-boulders.. but you have to reverse your field a bunch of times to get it all. and it won't usually deal with lint and hair...

[captain swoop]

careful how u put the spacebar back on and the 'lolg' shift key, they have a little wire pivot thing that needs cklicking into place.

[captain swoop]

USB Keyboards can go pop if they get wet and the PC is on, they have a voltage on them, remember USB is an 'active' bus that can provide power.

[Argos]

I use volatile petroleum derivatives like benzine [that´s toxic!] with a cotton stick. Sometimes I just buy a new one.

[enginelessjohn]

If you don't wan't to pull the keys off, a can of compressed air can do the trick. The keys on older keyboards do pull off, but if done frequently it will loosen the keys a bit. However I don't know if this is still valid on modern USB keyboards.

A standard joke where I used to work was prising off certain keys and rearranging them into naughty words. Note that any consequences of following this advice is entirely your own business... :)

Cheers
John

[mickal555]

My keys are really tricky to get on and off... the enter key is a bit weird after I took it off to see why it was sticky...

[NEOWatcher]

First attempt: Upside down shake. (although for some reason that usually clears my screen)
Second attempt: Blow or suck air.
Third attempt: Pop off the keys (except the larger ones). Since the keys are hollow, and sometimes there is sticky stuff, 1&2 never seem to be complete enough.
Fourth attempt: new keyboard (probably necessary if you're not good with #3)

I've never tried soaking since I don't have the nerve. I would have #4 on hand just in case anyway.

[mickal555]

If my keyboard is embedded in my laptop, is soaking still a good idea?

[weatherc]

If the keyboard is just a standard USB keyboard, I say just replace it. New ones only cost about US $30 anyway. If it's an expensive ergonomic keyboard, I guess that's another matter.

[mahesh]

Hi guys and gals

switch- off / unplug keyboard from hard-drive...

use Johnson's Baby wipes... :D suitable for sensitive skin...no more tears!

works a dream.....

mickal555...same goes for you too

don't know about spilt liquids....

[NEOWatcher]

switch- off / unplug keyboard from hard-drive...

Directly into the drive? :D
don't know about spilt liquids....
Depends on the keyboard. Many have a single piece below the keys that acts like a little dish that is "flared" up for each key. The key mechanism sits inside this, and as long as the fluid is not "sloshed" above the flare, there is absolutely no danger. Otherwise, all previous suggestions sound valid.

[Gillianren]

If the keyboard is just a standard USB keyboard, I say just replace it. New ones only cost about US $30 anyway. If it's an expensive ergonomic keyboard, I guess that's another matter.

That's really, really wasteful. In fact, I find the "don't bother to fix it" attitude really irksome from a society that is always saying it needs to consume less. I mean, yes, I ended up replacing the keyboard I spilled Cherry Coke on, but not much choice there--and I replaced it with someone else's old one!

[weatherc]

That's really, really wasteful. In fact, I find the "don't bother to fix it" attitude really irksome from a society that is always saying it needs to consume less. I mean, yes, I ended up replacing the keyboard I spilled Cherry Coke on, but not much choice there--and I replaced it with someone else's old one!It's not like I throw away a keyboard once a week or anything. Or even once every couple of years, for that matter. And I certainly wouldn't throw it away if only one or two keys got stuck, or just because there are a few crumbs between the keys. But if I have a choice between removing all the keys (without breaking any of them, which is difficult with the flimsy construction of modern keyboards) and then putting them all back (and having all of the keys sit exactly like they did before and maintaining the proper key response), well, getting a new keyboard suddenly sounds like a great idea.

And as far as my rate of consumption and throwing things away go, I finally threw away the old book bag that I used in high school (from which I graduated in 1991), and all through college, two months ago. That's nearly twenty years of useful service, and that bag was thoroughly abused for most of that time. I have had the same pair of sneakers for well over three years (I only wear them for short periods of time, so, no, they don't stink), and rather then being thrown away, they will simply become my lawn-mowing sneakers for another three or four years after they wear out. I kept a cheap pair of sunglasses in my car that I bought while on my honeymoon (nearly eight years ago) until just a few months ago, and I only replaced them because I couldn't see out of the scratched lenses anymore. Unlike just about all of my coworkers, instead of using three or four styrofoam cups for my coffee and water every day, I use plastic mugs that I have had since I started working here. My current home computer is a laptop (less power usage, less materials to be thrown away someday); I leave the power strip that the VCR, TV, and stereo system are plugged into switched off to keep those devices from using electricity when I'm not using them.

Sorry if this reply sounds a little self-righteous and snippy, but I don't like to be lectured about things that I'm not necessarily guilty of. And it's not my fault that today's economy is based on getting things as cheaply as possible, which means that nothing is even built to be fixed anymore. When I'm given a choice, I will usually choose the better-than-standard option that will last longer and not need to be replaced quickly. However, I am often not even given that choice, because all that is available these days is the cheap junk that gets shipped in from sweat shops overseas.

[Gillianren]

Fair enough. However, since a lot of the suggestions did not involve removing all the keys, you can, I hope, see where I'm coming from. I just used that one point as an excuse for a rant, but it seems we're on the same side, here.

[Doodler]

Hold longways vertical. Aim compressed air can extra-long, ultra-narrow tube into crevises. Proceed to FOOOSH!

Works well. I've also use Q-tips. Pick off about 2/3 of the cotton, and on most keyboards, that's enough to get it into the underspaces and draw out any hair or whatnot.

[Doe, John]

If you're careful you can take it apart, lift out the flexible circuit board the keys tap on and use air and a mild solvent like isopropyl alcohol to clean the mechanical portion of the keyboard. The fun part is making sure everythings lined up properly when you put it back together.

[Pleiades]

Hold longways vertical. Aim compressed air can extra-long, ultra-narrow tube into crevises. Proceed to FOOOSH!

Works well. I've also use Q-tips. Pick off about 2/3 of the cotton, and on most keyboards, that's enough to get it into the underspaces and draw out any hair or whatnot.


Yeah, that's pretty much my technique that I use at home and at work; it seems to do job rather well. I've only done this on desktop computers and I haven't tried it on my laptop, yet.

[Avatar28]

Well I work in tech support so I'm definitely qualified to chime in here.

Generally speaking, yes, it's perfectly safe to remove the keys to clean the keyboard. However be warned that some keyboards have these metal bars that fit into tabs below them on some of the longer keys and these can be a real PITA to get back into place.

Another solution (and I have given this to customers before) would be to take the keyboard and stick it in the dishwasher. I kid you not. Just don't use the heated dry since that can sometimes mess it up. Once you take it out, put it somewhere to drip/air dry for a couple of days or better place it in front of a fan to blow air into it for awhile. Just make sure it's good and dry before you plug it back in. If it's not it PROBABLY won't fry anything, just give you wrong characters, stuck keys, etc, but it's possible it could be damaged or damage the system.

I have a couple of keyboards that after a couple of years of use were REALLY grungy. I popped all the keys off and took some 409 and a bunch of paper towels and scrubbed them nice and clean.

One thing NOT to try is making alphabet soup. I had an expensive MS Natural Keyboard I wanted to clean the keys on. I took them all off, stuck them in a big pot of water and boiled it. I don't think that, in itself, really caused the problem. However I also put some pine sol into the water to help with the cleaning. The pine sol contains pine resin that as I later found out apparently soaks into the plastic causing the keys to swell. The upshot is that the keys could not longer be depressed, they were too tight where they fit into the hole and nothing I could do made them work so I finally gave up and trashed it.

You can also do the dishwasher thing on a notebook keyboard first, just make sure to remove it from the system first. I would hesitate to remove the keys from it since I have had less than extraordianary success with replacing them.

[Glom]

However be warned that some keyboards have these metal bars that fit into tabs below them on some of the longer keys and these can be a real PITA to get back into place.

I noticed that. I think I put them back right. It took some bashing before spacebar and the backspace button felt right. But they work just as well as they did before.

On the subject of removing dust from computer hardware, have you noticed how dusty the towers get?

I took a peak inside and saw a blanket of flat dust between the processor radiator block and the fan. This explained a lot because when the processor gets too hot, I hear the cooling system go into hyperdrive. Lately, it's been seeming to do it more often, and this dust contamination probably explains why. I cleaned it out.

So far, the computer seems to be working normally, which is fortunate because I accidentally dropped a screw driver on the motherboard. :doh:

[LurchGS]

of course, one of the most effective ways to get a clean keyboard is to steal one from the new kid at the other end of the cubicle farm