Some Keys are not working
There are two reasons you may need to clean a keyboard: the slow accumulation of gunk, and keyboard emergencies such as dumping a cup of coffee on your keys.
If you dump liquid on your keyboard, shut down your computer immediately, disconnect the keyboard, run it over to the sink, and turn it upside down to drain. If you spilled a sticky liquid, such as Coke on the keyboard, you can squirt water on the upside-down keyboard to rinse it, says Mike Nadelman of computer-repair.com. Don’t submerge the keyboard in water; let it dry upside down.
Compressed air is the keyboard cleaner’s best friend, and it’s the quickest and easiest way to get dust and hair out of a keyboard. I started by disconnecting the keyboard, carrying it over to a clean surface, and giving the keyboard a few good zaps with the cold gas. I kept hitting the keyboard with the compressed air pretty often throughout the cleaning process.
To cope with stained keys and the hairs trapped under the plastic, though, start popping keys off. Keyboard manufacturers don’t recommend popping off keys, but it’s generally harmless if you handle the keys gently. Stick two plastic knives under opposite sides of a key and pry upward, exerting equal force on both sides. The key is guaranteed to fly off across the room, but that’s how you do the job without breaking the key or the switch. Once keys are off, they’re actually washable. Rub stains with a wet cotton swab dunked in soapy water, which does the trick for most messes. Save the alcohol for truly stubborn gunk, because it can damage the ink on the keys, and never, ever, ever use ammonia-based solvents such as Windex.
At first, avoid the big keys, such as the Spacebar, SHIFT, TAB, BACKSPACE, CAPS LOCK, and ENTER. Those keys may be loaded with springs or hinges that make them difficult to remove or replace.
If your keys feel sticky or are grinding, a drop of a light machine oil, such as WD-40, placed in the center of where the key strikes the keyboard, on the hinge, or on the spring (if your key has one) should do the trick, Nadelman told me.
As you remove keys, you’ll need to remember where to put them. Some people make diagrams or put them on the table in the exact order they were in on the keyboard.
3/15/2009 8:05:54 AM •
Logitech...
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Answered
on Mar 15, 2009