Coffee Disaster in Keyboard

[rjs735]

Although I am very careful as we all are around the keyboard with a cup of coffee. I knocked mine over. In a split second it was all over evrything papers etc.

Initially I din't think there was any damage. This morning after what I thought was a thorough cleanup there was this ticking sound. Couldn't figure it out. Also my keyboard was acting weird. It's wireless. I changed the batteries.

Long story . Short I took the keyboard apart. It's a logitech high end keyboard several years old but still functional.

It was easy about a dozen screws and the keyboard came apart. Now for those pesky plastic ribbon cables there are 3 of them. Gently removed and the keyboard seperated. Cleaaned up what ever I saw and closed it back up and attached same issue. Most of the keys wouldn't work.

Took it apart this time since I had nothing to lose. I seperated the keyboard part. There are three very thin mylar sheet's that are the keyboard. The coffee even though it was spill on a very small portion of one corner not even over the keyboard the liquid had migrated to the mylar sheet between the sheets. SO I wiped the sheets down with plain water and dried with a paper towel. Put it back and hooked up and tested and lo and behold the keyboard woorked 100%.

The moral of the story is if you are careful you can save the coffee spilled keyboard. The clicking not very load appeared to be the result of one key allways sending not that you saw anything. If maybe I had opened a text application I might have seen the stuck key. This is hind sight.

I hope some else will find this useful.

[CrowdAds]

[yamawho]

Someone spilled something like butter on my Benq mini keyboard last year.
The Q - W - S - A- keys are sticking ...

I tried taking it a part twice and no joy.
I removed all the screws I can see but it won't come a part

Maybe one day I'll figure it out.

[rjs735]

Yamaho that's why I specified a Logitech Keyboard because I know from experience not all Keyboards are created equal. Especially special use like you have.

I had taken an older keyboard apart that had springs under the keys and that was a dead story. The keyboard I have has the rubber tops under the keys for spring effect.

Your keyboard doesn't have any tabs that would allow you to push in and or seperate the keypad??

[yamawho]

The tabs are there and I can pull the edges apart but I fear if I keep pulling, it will break. It just won't release like it's glued in the center or something ...

[MadCow3333]

Switch to black coffee. No cream, no sugar. It flows in, it flows back out. Or you can put the keyboard in the car and leave it there a few sunny days until it all bakes out. :bigsmile:

[Sandog]

You spilled coffee? That is a disaster.

I think they should make a keyboard with a drain spout on the bottom so you an poor spilled liquids back into the cup.

[fischbitz]

What about washing/flushing it out with isopropyl alcohol

[gtirr]

I heard once where a keyboard was placed in a dishwasher and washed and drained and let set to air dry for several days and it worked like a charm afterwords. Don't know if I would try it with today's modern keyboards or not.
I do have an old PS-2 keyboard by Keytronics that has stopped working and I'm about ready to try out my dishwasher for the first time to see if that story is true or not. I'll let you know if it works!