How do you clean a keyboard?

[Alpha]

My keyboard is extremely old and who know's what living in it. Sometimes you got pizza crums popping out of the keys when I type. It's pretty bad and I don't really know how to clean a keyboard. I use to just open it up and it was a pain in the ass to put back together again. Anybody have a clue?

[Weirdy]

grab it real good

 

turn it upside down

 

and give it a good slap

 

..then maybe go through the crevices with a cue-tip then a vacuum

[Robert]

LOL about crumbs flying up while you're typing!

 

I would have thought you could take out screws and tip the crumbs out. Maybe use a blower or vacuum cleaner to remove the stubborn ones. Or, if its too late and it's already filled with cockroaches, buy another one.

[Madman]

you can remove they keys with a screwdriver, carefully push it under the keys and then lift it up, the keys will pop out and you can remove them all.

Clean the board itself and each key, then assemble them again, simply push them back into place. May come in handy to have a list of which key to put where.

 

May look like this then: (Not mine i found on google )

 

 

Some loose keys drying:

 

 

Usually the space key has some wirelike thingy beneath it, take a good look on how it is fixed so you can re-assemble it the way it was used to be. Same may appear for the Enter key.

If you clean everything well it will be like new.

 

More pics: http://images.google.de/images?q=cleaning%20keyboard

 

 

Yours may look like this: http://blog.ignore-your.tv/images/dirty-keyboard.jpg

Edited December 26, 2005 by Madman

[CJ Jackson]

I clean my keyboard with my bear hands, rub all the dust off with my fingers. I have done it before. after spray something on it to make the keyboard smell nice.

[Sturmvogel]

You know that there are these key remover things you can buy. They resemble hair pluckers, and you slide these metal prongs underneath the key and it detaches it.

[Weirdy]

the keys on a laptop are actually a big esier to remove than normal keys (since they're flat and really thin

 

I've been thinking of turning this keyboard into "Das Keyboard" ghosty style (using a sharp object to scratch off the labels to tell me which key I press)

Edited December 26, 2005 by Weirdy

[Gryph]

You can use compressed air. I usually just turn it upside and shake it really hard or use a bent paper clip to dig in.

[olaf]

computer keyboards are submersible in water, it does not harm them. you just need to air them out over night or use a blow dryer.

Edited December 26, 2005 by olaf

[Shibathedog]

WARNING-TAKING YOUR KEYBOARD APART IS A BAD IDEA!!!

 

Making keyboards like that is a very old fashioned thing that is barely ever done anymore, be careful, i think it might be deliberate so people have to buy new keyboards but with alot of boards nowadays once you take the keys out they arent going back on...ESPECIALLY with laptops, i think ive come across one laptop on my time where the keys could go back on.

 

I would just go through it with an air duster and a feather or q-tip or something and maybe tweezers for the big bits.

 

Or just buy a brand new Saitek Eclipse board O_O Thats what im doing soon because im sick of cleaning out my old one. I found a dead earwig in it once. (If youve ever lived in michigan...yeah....instead of getting mice, you get earwigs there....gross..and everyone gets it, no avoiding it, there was even one in my gamecube)

[ken_cinder]

No it's not, I take mine completely apart to clean it. I remove the circuitboard and wipe it down with a cloth (Not the breadboard with the LEDs on it!) they're completely plastic coated, the rest goes in the sink and gets washed like you'd wash dishes.

 

Keyboards are such simple pieces of equipment, it's nearly impossible to do any real damage to them unless you're careless.

 

As for this statement:

 

computer keyboards are submersible in water, it does not harm them. you just need to air them out over night or use a blow dryer.

 

Don't be telling people this. The circuitboard for the keys may be plastic coated, but the other one for the LEDs and the wiring harness is NOT. Water won't hurt the connectors either, if you dry them off right away......but leaving them air dry will cause them to rust or corrode over time.

The wiring inside is also not always very well insulated either, water gets inside the harness and you could wind up frying the PS/2 port on your motherboard with a short circuit backtracing through the keyboard into your computer.........if your keyboard is USB, you could lose a port, or worse an entire USB Root Hub.

[Shibathedog]

Yeah that too, i think i should get into teh habit of buying crappy 5-10 dollar keyboards and then just throwing them out when they get too dirty or full of chunks that dont let me press the keys down all the way

 

Sometimes they have things on ebay where you get like 50 sets of keyboards/mice for cheap

 

I dont really think you can get away with using a cheap mouse though...thats just me

[Lucandrake]

computer keyboards are submersible in water, it does not harm them. you just need to air them out over night or use a blow dryer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That is so much bs. My keyboard broke because I tried cleaning it like that, now, thank god that I have a logitech Lol. I use the can sprays while the keyboard is upside down.

[Weirdy]

your keyboard must've been old then, Drake

 

I've spilled a little bit of coffee on the previous two I've had (on a separate machine btw) and water and soda, and they function just as they did when they were new

 

just make sure liquids don't spill through any cracks leading inside (inside != below the tops to the keys)

[ken_cinder]

 

A "Spillproof" keyboard doesn't mean you can submerse it in water, there are still openings to the innards through the slots the keys sit in. I have a "Spillproof" keyboard, and sure it's great for spilling stuff on and not having it cause some issues, but stuff still gets inside on the circuitboard. Just not as easily, or as much as a non-spillproof.

Keep submersing your keyboard in water and see what happens to the edge connector on the circuitboard.