Hosed the keyboard

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Greg_Lewis
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Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:44 pm
Location: Fresno, CA

Hosed the keyboard

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Just had to share this..... I was sitting in the dining room this morning reading the newspaper when I heard some discouraging words from my wife who was in our home office. Seems she dumped an entire glass of freshly squeezed, pulp-filled, orange juice into her keyboard. I grabbed the board, turned it upside down and dumped out most of the OJ but there was still some inside including bits of pulp. I took it out to the shop, pulled it apart and, figuring that we had nothing to lose, held the keyboard panel under the hose bib on the side of the barn and gave it a thorough rinsing. After washing out all the OJ, I blew the water out with an air nozzle and set it in the sun to dry. After reading this far, you have already figured out the end of the story. After reassembly, it works just fine. Some days you get lucky.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Richard_W
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Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2003 1:00 am
Location: Molalla, Oregon

Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by Richard_W »

A lot of people use the dish washer with the key side down with good results.

Richard W.
dly31
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Location: Northeast Alabama

Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by dly31 »

In the 50's and 60's detergent and water was the standard method of factory and field cleaning for Tectronix oscilloscopes, followed by a distilled water rinse and dry. Still works for a lot of electrical and electronic equipment.
Don Young
spro
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Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by spro »

Good tips. I saved one I spilt too much whine into. No cleaning that.
PeteH
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Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by PeteH »

Guy I worked with dropped his (brand-new, expensive) cell-phone into the drink. Yes, salt water. He had the sense to take out the battery as soon as he fished it out. Brought it to me the next day. I soaked it in a couple of changes of distilled water for a few minutes each, then put it in a drying cabinet (105F) and said "come back in three days". It worked too.
Pete in NJ
STRR
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Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by STRR »

Here's another one for cell phones, PDAs, and such. As was noted, get the battery out fast as you can. Rinse in distilled water a time or two, dry it off with a towel. Then bury it in a bag of uncooked rice. The rice being dry, pulls all the moisture. I've seen this work several times. No, I never drowned my phone.......YET! I think this would work with a keyboard as well. Worth the price of rice.

Good Luck,
Terry
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by Greg_Lewis »

I must add to my original post that the hosing turned out not to be flawless. This morning several keys stuck, but I popped them off and cleaned out the little holes they fit into and all is well now.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Harold_V
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Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by Harold_V »

Greg_Lewis wrote:I must add to my original post that the hosing turned out not to be flawless. This morning several keys stuck, but I popped them off and cleaned out the little holes they fit into and all is well now.
Hmmm! Makes me wonder if that's why some folks wash theirs with their dishwasher. Bound to get to every nook and cranny.

Good job, Greg!

Harold
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
ronm
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Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 9:32 am
Location: Colorado

Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by ronm »

I ran one of my first cellphones through with a load of laundry, left it in a shirt pocket...pulled the battery as soon as I found it, laid it on the baseboard heater for a couple days. I think it actually worked better after the wash job-I have a lot more respect for LG stuff after that... :roll:
thomas harris
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Re: Hosed the keyboard

Post by thomas harris »

go one step more and disassemble the keys. they are captive on most boards, so they won't all fall out. then you can clean them with lots of warm water and air dry. some of the contactors respond well to pink pearl erasers. just rub them to remove any oxide from them. i use this method and my keys never stickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. ha. ha.
atlas 618,MM challenger wire welder, 4x6 cheapo bandsaw, assorted junk, spears for hunting mastadons.
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