MS Natural Keyboard, destroyed by a splash of water??

[aakerman]

Arg!

I was watching a divx movie the other day, when I accidentally knocked over my water bottle, standing on my desk. Water spilled out, and landed right in the middle of my MS Natural Pro keyboard 🙁 Well, I wasn't worried, because I have once spilled cocoa milk all over it, and after a night of drying, it worked flawlessly.
So, I finished watching my divx movie, after which I turned my keyboard upside down, shaking it, trying to get the water out. After that, I left it over the night to dry. When I got op next morning, it wouldn't work at all. So I used a high-pressure air-blowing can that I have, cleaning out the keyboard, and then I left it to dry for one more night.. hoping, praying.

But to my horror, it still won't work - the three green lights in the middle keeps flashing in unison, even when the computer is off. When it's on, none of the keys respond at all - when I enter word2002 for example, it just starts spitting out endless lines of "{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{" !

Is there any way to fix it? And do you think the warranty will cover this? 🙂

 

[Daniel]

MS is very good about warranty coverage, it would be worth calling them. Otherwise I've taken a few of them apart and there is probably water stuck in the plastic membrane, I've just dried them out, put them back together and they were fine. If the warranty won't cover you then it is surely worth a shot as it really isn't that hard to do.

 

[Mday]

unless you fried the traces on the membrane.. that's what i did to my old ms natural pro...

 

[sniperruff]

if i were you, i would turn off the machine ASAP instead of finished watching the movie...

especially if ur watching godfather...

 

[Anonemous]

yea, I once did that.... I mean Twice.... thrice... anyways the first time I thought it was no biggy so i turned off the comp as soon as i could and opened her up to be dried. When I put it back together it didn't work 🙁

Second and third time I did the same thing and try to actually fix it. I opened up the keyboard. Dried it the best I could then put it back together. No go. After a couple hours of putting the keyboard back together and testing I found out there is a power connector that needs to align with the pcb board located around the space bar and you actually had to turn the keyboard (keys facing to the floor) to actually get a chance to align the darn connectors to the plastic. Scotch tape helps a bunch 🙂

Anyways just return it to the store and say it was defective.

=)

 

[fhexz]

This happened to my Natural Keyboard too man, I so feel for you, I'm using some no name brand now and typing is soo much slower and unconfortable. I give props to Microsoft for making such a hand fitting keyboard but mad at them for making such a weak keyboard.

 

[mooojojojo]

well like Mday said - you might have fried some of the traces.. or whatever they're called.

I once spilled juice on a mitsumi keyboard.. it started to act really funny. then I took it completely apart, washed it, but noticed that some of the tarces had become brownish.. well put the whole thing together, and now the left windows key won't work at all, and the 4 of the keypad is flaky.. have to press it real hard (which is kinda funny since the juice was spilled on the left end of the kbd.. ).

anyway - you can try and take it apart and take a look at the traces.

 

[beatle]

I think I went through about 6 keyboards my freshman year at college from "MAD SPILLIJ." No matter how fast I turned the computer off or how thoroughly I thought I dried the keyboard, they always stopped working altogether within a short while.

 

[0roo0roo]

your mistake was not instantly taking apart the thing. once you get it open your realize why you should have done it. if your lucky in a spill, liquid doesn't seep between the layers of printed circuit sheets underneath the keys. but if it does, the traces corrode away within hours.



btw, you find a cheap place to get a replacement? i'm in the market🙂

 

[aakerman]

I sent it in for repairs, along with a good story 🙂 Just yesterday, I called the shop, and was informed that it was unfixable! It took them a month to figure that out.... gah. But I got some money for it instead, about 80% of what I originally paid, so I have to find a new keyboard now..

Problem is, MS has stopped making MS Natural Pro keyboards !!! They make a Natural Multimedia keyboard instead, but it doesn't have Danish keys... (we have 3 letters in our alphabet, the English one doesn't) - So my only option, if I want a natural-style keyboard, is to buy microsofts "Cordless desktop" thingy, but I don't need the stupid mouse that comes with it, I already have a better one (MS 3.0) ! 🙁)

 

[buleyb]

Originally posted by: Anonemous


Anyways just return it to the store and say it was defective.

I'd like to discourage this...

If you break it, swallow the cost and chaulk it up to experience. Taking advantage of warrentees and RMAs will only ruin the system for the rest of us.

its not like a new keyboard will break your bank...

besides, why didn't you just unplug the keyboard and finish watching the movie?

 

[martind1]

If you break it, swallow the cost and chaulk it up to experience. Taking advantage of warrentees and RMAs will only ruin the system for the rest of us.

Despite what we were told during the Punky Brewster Shoplifting episode, the stores do NOT liek shoplifters so they can get the insurance money. Any and all forms of product loss(stealing, returns) hurt the companies bottom line, and thus increases the price they must charge(heaven forbid they lower their profit margin)

Just keep that in mind when youa re trying to scam a store to take back something you broke yourself. When you start seeing prices rising (or worse, failing to drop), you will know you had a part of that.


and another thing, just spring for a $20 new keyborad, if you are at school and fear this might happen again ... get a cheap flimsy 5$ one. Or better a cheap plastic cover for the keyboard. OR dont put drinks near your sensitive, expensive equipment. See there are alternatives.