Cleaning a mechanical keyboard

E

Eej

n00b
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Messages
32
So I made the dumb mistake of eating a fruit cup at my computer and accidentally spilled some of the syrup over my keyboard. I took out the keys and wiped everything down but my enter key is still a little sticky. I have a Das Keyboard so I'm thinking there might be some syrup that got into the mechanical switches. Any suggestions on how to clean this thing out?
 
Oh boy, I tried windex over night and when I plugged it back in, all the lights came on and the keyboard was unresponsive. I reset the computer and now it just straight up doesn't work. I'm gonna need a new one aren't I?
 
Eej said:
Oh boy, I tried windex over night and when I plugged it back in, all the lights came on and the keyboard was unresponsive. I reset the computer and now it just straight up doesn't work. I'm gonna need a new one aren't I?
Click to expand...

Give it a few days to air out before you give up (hopefully you did this before plugging it back in the first time :( ). For future reference, Das does not recommend that you immerse your keyboard in any type of liquid:

http://www.daskeyboard.com/support/

Since warranty is no good right now anyway, it may help to remove the keys and take the casing off to help everything dry out. Good luck!
 
Windex is a SOLVENT--it eats things. Windex will cause the metal traces to peel off from mylar keyboard overlays. While this isn't going to affect a Cherry key switch (E.g. this is not specifically what's wrong with that DAS), it'll utterly ruin any rubber dome/scissors/buckling spring keyboard on earth.
 
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Rubbing alcohol is the only cleaning liquid I use on computer stuff... mixed with distilled water in a spray bottle it's also the only thing I use for cleaning LCD's.

And I've never had any computer parts fail... even brought some back to life with it..
 
Okay, well, good news is that my keyboard isn't dead. I let it dry out for a couple of days and it worked when I plugged it back in. Bad news is that the keys are still sticky. I tried some 99% isopropyl alcohol but that didn't work. I figure I'll need to immerse it in distilled water to get it out since sugar is a polar molecule.

Anyone have any thoughts?
 
Wait? Now it's MORE than the Enter key that's sticky?

Maybe you need to stop a second and not worry about polar molecules. It sounds to me like you've stripped the grease off of the switches and they all need relubing.
 
Nah, it was like that before I tried alcohol. More than half the keys work just fine but you could be right.
 
Try soaking it in laundry detergent overnight.

edit; just incase, this is a joke
 
I love my deck legend so I ban all food and drink near it. When I do a deep clean on my keyboard I pop the keys off, throw them in a bucket of mild soap and water, blast the board with a shop blower, and swab the crevices and switches with a q-tip+rubbing alcohol.
 
Rubber ducky, you're the one!
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I'm doing a little rust experiment to see how bad the risk of rust this truly is: The RipOruster.
 
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