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aaron.lee2006

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 23, 2006
1,215
0
Ontario, Canada
Hey everyone.... So last year I spilled coffee in one of the school's apple wired keyboards lol I know yell at me all you want. Anyway, I decided I'm gonna clean it out and see what I can do to get it working again.

EVERY KEY IS WORKING EXCEPT SPACE (I'm typing on my MBP keyboard)

Any tips? I have it taken apart and ready to go.
 
Umm.... Wipe all the moldy coffee off.

I think you can put wired keyboards in the dishwasher.
 
Remove the space key, and check that there's no coffee in the middle hole where the key goes. If there is, clean it with a Q-tip and replace the key. If everything is working except the space key, I guess everything will be fine if you clean it up.
 
We had a mishap with soda and our wired keyboard. I actually ended up soaking it in the tub to get rid of most of the sugary residue and drying it out completely with a combination of hair dryer, a fan, and a couple days evaporation time. The down arrow was flaky but the rest of the keyboard made it through. WARNING: impurities could remain if you do not use distilled water.
 
put it in the dishwasher!

i've heard it works, and you don't really have anything to lose. Just make sure you don't put soap in it.
 
Before I do this:

When I put it in, do I take the keys off?
Should the keyboard be in two pieces?
Should it be apart at all?
What about the USB cable? Will it be okay?
 
It would be easier to put in a pillow case and then in the washing machine. /end sarcasm

Also when trying, keep your matches away so that nothing catches "fire" like your magsafe did. You seem very prone to corrupting Apple products.

:p
 
How about not eating/drinking anything within 15 feet of your electronics?

Other solution would be to get an iSkin.
 
Okay so I ran warm water all over ir. The cicuit board was so sticky so I did it to that to. I dried it all last night and all day to day. I then blow dried it to make sure. I inspected every part of it and put it back together. The only thing that is wet is underneath but nothing touches there so it is okay.

Problems:
Keys are improperly wired ex. when I press delete it enters /0

The order in which the keys are wired change about every half hour. Is it still drying?

Is there a chance it will still work?
 
I'm not so sure that washing is a great idea with these particular units.

The trouble with the late model Apple keyboards is the membrane. It's three layers of plastic, two conductive with an insulating layer in between, and the sides aren't sealed. Liquid seeps in and gets sucked in there and can't easily air dry.

You can carefully separate the layers and try to dry them off (easier said than done unless you have a nice, seriously absorbent cloth), but be careful of the points where the layers are welded together, the plastic is easily torn. Those weld points also have a tendency to want to hang onto the liquid :p

The next problem is that coffee in particular seems to be especially good at eating away those printed conductive traces. That and the wiping and bending action can easily break the traces. If you're lucky and it's not in too bad of a spot, you can manage an effective repair with plain old tin foil and cellophane tape, and lots of patience (don't even think of attempting a repair with anything hot). Don't worry too much about tightness, the keyboard when assembled will provide enough pressure.

At this point, $25-30 for a nice basic non-Apple keyboard starts to look like a bargain :p
 
had already tried that

Still, not sure what a dishwasher is going to do that you can't do by hand...

A dishwasher is going to wash the whole thing... The whole thing does not need to be washed... Only 1 key...

Personally I would take a q-tip and some alcohol to see if I could clean it out...
 
Still, not sure what a dishwasher is going to do that you can't do by hand...

A dishwasher is going to wash the whole thing... The whole thing does not need to be washed... Only 1 key...

Personally I would take a q-tip and some alcohol to see if I could clean it out...

I said I already tried that lol.
 
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