Wet keyboard

mike peelmike peel
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Shortly before the keynote, my tea got spilt all over my nice keyboard... It was literally dripping tea when I picked it up afterwards. So it's now sitting in a corner, and I have my crappy old keyboard hooked up, which is the sort of thing you wouldn't get on any recent computer, perhaps save dell. But I think even their keyboards are better...



How long should I give my hands agony before connecting the decent keyboard back up? Is it OK now, 5 hours later? Or should I give it a day, two days, a couple of weeks, ...?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    Pour distilled water over it. You really can't do any more harm with more moisture, but the stickiness of the tea could spell trouble. By pouring distilled water through it, you'll hopefully get rid of it, and then let it dry for several days.



    Just make sure that it's dry before plugging it back in.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    rendevousrendevous Posts: 23member
    This happened to me 2 weeks ago. I soaked the keyboard in cold water for 10 minutes or so - I then left it to drip dry over night and put it in a warm place for a few days. Works fine now.



    Plug the mouse into the keyboard and then plug keyboard into mac. If the optical light doesn't work wait a while longer. Same if the keyboard keeps repeating keys...



    Worth waiting until its dry...
  • Reply 3 of 18
    magicfingersmagicfingers Posts: 703member
    my daughter spilled water on my apple pro keyboard(the new white ones) 2 weeks ago and didnt tell me til the next morning, and it was trashed, the contacts corroded really bad and most of the keys on the left side where the water spilled wouldnt work anymore.

    had to buy a new one....$50. If you take it apart and dry it out right away you may be ok but i had no such luck. I tried to clean and dry it 3 times, NO GO.

    good luck, Randy
  • Reply 4 of 18
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    Oh man, that sucks....the rapid corrosion might've had something to do with the kind of water in your neck of the woods. I'm sure your daughter is sorry about ruining the keyboard.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    spotcatbugspotcatbug Posts: 195member
    I spilled half a glass of water into my keyboard a couple of months back. I immediately dumped the water out (of course) and tried using the keyboard. It didn't work (duh). I just assumed, at that point, that I had ruined the keyboard forever. It's attached to my "secondary" Mac (an older Mac that I haven't gotten around to donating to a family member) so I wasn't really concerned.



    I did absolutely nothing to try and save the thing (except for dumping the water out). I didn't even disconnect it from the Mac. A couple of weeks later: it's working just fine. I guess it dried out.



    Moral: apparently you can soak your keyboard with water, and, once it's dry, it'll work again. So, I guess, don't be scared to wash the tea away. Distilled water would probably be best.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    magicfingersmagicfingers Posts: 703member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by drewprops

    Oh man, that sucks....the rapid corrosion might've had something to do with the kind of water in your neck of the woods. I'm sure your daughter is sorry about ruining the keyboard.



    We live near Lake michigan and the water around here is harder then Chelsea's Ass(whatever that means) But I learned of it about 8 hours later and the contacts were corroded together, stuck. I gently pulled them apart and cleaned it up, but it was all over.

    Oh and yes, my darling 14 year old daughter who can't stand to do anything wrong couldn't even look at me for a week after it happened, even though I said it was no big deal. She takes it all to hard.

    Hope you guys have better luck with you wet keyboards, Randy
  • Reply 7 of 18
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    yeah...



    really, water itself should not really hurt the keyboards... as long as they are off.



    It's when you get residue and the like in there, or short out some connections that you really get in trouble. Of course, if there's water in there for too long, it can corrode contact points and such, but that's moot since there's already tea in there.
  • Reply 8 of 18
    influenzainfluenza Posts: 146member
    If it's sticky, you should be able to put it in the dishwasher (not with your dishes, of course!) and then let it dry for a few days.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    mike peelmike peel Posts: 185member
    Dishwashes? Nowt so fancy in student accomodation...



    I've left it to dry, and plugged it in again. No luck. I'll give it a go with water later... Am browsing for a new one at the moment, though. Any reccomendations for a laptop-style keyboard? (I prefer those keys, plus the ability to rearrange them to Dvorak...)



    At least it's not as bad as the time I spilt milk on my laptop keyboard.... Thanks for your help...
  • Reply 10 of 18
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Quote:

    . I'll give it a go with water later...



    lol, that's the funniest thing I read all day. Oh man, do you have a ProMouse bush too? (Hmm, I appear to be stoned...)



    Yea I have spilled all kinds of crap in my Pro Keyboard, I wash it out with water and then a little alcohol. Keep in in a dry place for a few days and it works like a buet. When I'm doing service calls on PCs tho, I just trash the keyboard and have IT order in a new one; however I view my ProKeyboard as a work of art, so it gets cleaned and saved.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    The last time I cleaned my keyboard out I found ramen noodles under the numbers. I guess that's bad.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    mike peelmike peel Posts: 185member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Crusader

    I wash it out with water and then a little alcohol.



    Red wine do?



    I'm not really on an Apple yet - I have two PCs. So no Apple kb, etc. £20 one from maplin, that can be seen here . It actually seems to be coming back to life slowly - some keys work, some don't, and the computer's stopped beeping madly at me now when I plug it back in...



    I'll be getting an iBook soon though - I'll keep drinks well away from that one...
  • Reply 13 of 18
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Wow, it appears someone had the luck to spill water in my keyboard 5 hours ago. Man, not cool at all. Now I have to go find the bloody distilled water... then the red wine



    Crazy question, but does anyone know where 10.3's equivalent of KeyCaps is? I remember using it in 10.1 but for the life of me I can't find it now.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    It's in the System Preferences somewhere... I can't find it now.



    If you want the old 10.2 app, (it still works on 10.3) I can email it to you.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Hmm, I can't find it. Darn. Bauman, if you could e-mail it to me, that would be great. I'm pretty sure my e-mail link is to the right account. Yea it is. Thanks alot!
  • Reply 16 of 18
    mike peelmike peel Posts: 185member
    I gave up with my keyboard, and replaced it. That was one expensive cup of tea... It won't stop me drinking near the computer, though. Although I'll have to find somewhere else to put the cup now.



    Thanks for the advice.



    Quick edit: wohoo, this post means I'm no longer a junior member. 8)
  • Reply 17 of 18
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    KeyCaps is at System Preference -> International -> Input Menu. If you select it there it should be accessible in your menu bar.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Hmm, just tried my KB, everything works except the space and second Apple key. Guess I'll let it dry out some more and see what happens.
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