Beer on the keyboard!

[bigboxes]

Had a friend over last night. Maybe it was destiny, but he spilled his last beer all over my mouse and keyboard. The mouse buttons wouldn't work and I had to take out the batteries and plug in my backup wireless mouse. Now, I have a nice Cherry keyboard with the blue MX switches. The buttons on the keypad, the directional arrow keys and the right half of the QWERTY keys don't work. I am in the process of taking each key out and cleaning them. I'm having difficulty getting in between the switches to clean the dried beer. Would the circuitry be fried or will air drying solve the problem? Do I need to get some distilled water or is my keyboard likely toast?

 

[Glagorx]

I had same problem with my keyboard. I used hair drier (cold stream) + towel. You must dry everything, + little wash all adhesive parts. When you'll be cleaning your circuits. dont break them, and don't forget (as I did) that there are many layers of them so you must separate. I had 3 layers (it looked like only 2) not sure if all keyboards are the same. Hope this helps you. let me know PM if you'll need something.

 

[bigboxes]

Ok, I got cleaned about half of the keys (right side of the board) and finally pried the board open. I have removed the PCB and I can see beer on the backside on the right side of the board. What is the best way to safely clean this? Distilled water? 70% isopropyl?

 

[bigboxes]

I've read online of using the shower and drying for 12 hours. Is this safe? Effective?

 

[bigboxes]

Here's some pics of the keyboard taken apart:

 

[Glagorx]

Oh as I see you have different circuit than me, I have plastic 3 layer circuit... I don't have much experiences with that. I think careful cleaning with destiled water, then air drying should be the best way.

 

[Matt1970]

I have cleaned PCBs before. Use alcohol whenever possible. It will evaporate quicker and leave less chance of a short.

 

[bigboxes]

Bad news. Took apart and meticulously cleaned the mouse. I figured out how all the parts fit together and was very happy with my work. Mouse lit up but no mouse cursor. Bummer. That was my favorite mouse. I've had it close to eight years. It wasn't too big or too small. It ate batteries, but the thing worked like a tank. I never experienced any perceptible lag. It was one of the first cordless optical wheel mice available. RIP Logitech mouse

Good news! I finished cleaning all the keyboard keys and had taken the device apart (see pictures). I finally decided to go for it. With just the PCB and the switches I took it into the shower. I then shook as much of the water off the board as possible. I then blotted both sides of the PCB with paper towels. I used a hair dryer on lo settings. There was still considerable water clinging around the switches so I used some canned air and repeated the above process. I let the board dry overnight. My first test found that the switches were working. Yay!

I started to put the keys back on the board and all seemed well. I had the delete keys swapped and I got impatient and ended up damaging the PgDn switch (didn't have the key on yet). Thankfully these things are built like a tank. I pulled it apart and reassembled it. After I got all the keys reinstalled and the case put back together, I then rerouted the usb cable to my KVM switch. SOB lit up, but would otherwise not work. I was dumbfounded. I took the keyboard apart again when I heard a rattling. Turns out that the support pieces that flank the Enter key switch had come loose. I reinstalled the support pieces, snapped the Enter key in place and then plugged back in the keyboard. Lights on, but keys still wouldn't work. I reboot and prayed. Yay! My keys work! I put the casing back together, routed the usb cable and the keyboard still worked. Whew! I'm going to miss my mouse, but this keyboard is pleasure to work with on a daily basis. I got a reminder of just how awesome it was when I had to use my old rubber dome keyboard. Not even close to being in the same league!

 

[Glagorx]

Bad to hear about your favorite mouse :-( What was her name ? Don't feel bad about it mate, she is at better place right now. And nice to hear about solved keyboard. Yeah I forget to tell you that when you connect keyboard onto running PC it just doesn't work sometimes. All you need to do is restart (I didn't know that so I thought my keyboard is dead) But everything is good now. Take it like a man, it's lot of deals around right now, just pick up some new super duper mouse and show can go on.

 

[Puppies04]

Bad to hear about your favorite mouse :-( What was her name ? Don't feel bad about it mate, she is at better place right now. And nice to hear about solved keyboard. Yeah I forget to tell you that when you connect keyboard onto running PC it just doesn't work sometimes. All you need to do is restart (I didn't know that so I thought my keyboard is dead) But everything is good now. Take it like a man, it's lot of deals around right now, just pick up some new super duper mouse and show can go on.

Yeah go buy the most expensive one you can find, I take it your "friend" is paying .....

 

[bigboxes]

Here it is a week and a half later and I got the mouse working. I was just about to pull the trigger and buy a new full-size mouse. Couldn't get my notebook mouse to work with my KVM switch anyways. So, I am very happy. Well, except for the buying all those batteries still. One of these days I'll have to get a new KVM switch with USB. That's another day.