I've found the easiest/best way to do it is to actually remove the keys from the board.
About once every year to 18 months, I take all the keys off my keyboard(s) and clean them and the board itself (the part underneath the keys).
It's pretty easy to pull the keys off and then put them back after cleaning. The first key is the hardest to remove because of the keys around it. Start with one of the keys with some room - on my older pro keyboard the right shift key has lots of room. Note: the spacebar is just a really wide key with a metal bar that stabilizes it so you can press anywhere along its width. Just be aware of this as you remove/replace it (I can't remember if there are other keys like this).
For the actual cleaning, just use some alcohol-based cleaner.
edit: a little more info:
To remove the keys, just pull upward on them. They aren't screwed or glued on, but the fit is snug. Try to pull evenly upward. To put them back, just press them back into place.
<strong>I've found the easiest/best way to do it is to actually remove the keys from the board.</strong><hr></blockquote>
But not all at once! (Unless you take a picture) I learned the hard way.
The second time I cleaned my keyboard, I just blasted air from my compressor (I refuse to buy 'cans of air' from Fry's). Takes out everything that fell in there. Pasta...BBQ sauce...cat hair...bread crumbs...
(Come-on! I'm just joking!) <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
<strong>Note: the spacebar is just a really wide key with a metal bar that stabilizes it so you can press anywhere along its width. Just be aware of this as you remove/replace it (I can't remember if there are other keys like this).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Granted, I don't have the keyboard in question, mine is the older beige "AppleDesign Keyboard," but on it, the delete key, and (if i remember correctly), the shift keys also have the metal stabelizers. BE CAREFUL WITH THESE KEYS! I have managed to break the little plastic things that hold the metal to the key. And that's no fun.
Yeah, take off all the keys, use a tiny bit of soapy water with an old toothbrush to get all the gunk out. Maybe use alcohol on a second pass to get soap residue off...
really annoying is when you turn the pro k/brd over to find (inexplicably) dust etc trapped underneath your transparent beauty. They seem to be sucked under there by static (I could be wrong-it happened once:-)).
I just hoover the k/brd every so often..interesting if it's still plugged in to an awake computer!
...and all the gunk that accumulates underneath those two little 'ears' on the Pro Mouse? Filthy, I say! <img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" />
<strong>But not all at once! (Unless you take a picture) I learned the hard way.</strong><hr></blockquote>Heck yeah, all of 'em!!
If you really can't remember them, just open up Key Caps and, voila! Instant keyboard on your screen! [quote]Originally posted by Badtz:
<strong>wouldn't those "cans of air" solve all of this w/out you even having to disassemble it?
do you need to clean the optical mouse?</strong><hr></blockquote>While a can of compressed air does work well for light cleaning, it still won't get *everything* out. When I was in college, all sorts of crud got in my keyboard from hair to dust to paperclips and staples to crumbs of food. I would take the whole thing apart once every few months to wipe nice everything and clean.
I've never needed to clean the lens around the mouse's LED. I do, though, sometimes take a warm, damp, slightly soapy washcloth and wipe off the top of the mouse because it tends to get a slight film over an extended period of time.
Throw it in the dishwasher. At the county office for the school district my mother worked for, they had about a hundred keyboards used by different groups of sticky-handed children on a daily basis. Kids really gunk those suckers up! So, they just tossed them all in the dishwasher (without detergent, of course). They came out good as new. Of course, these were the old beige ADB keyboards, so maybe you ought to throw in a little rinse aid to keep water spots off your shiny, clear plastic keyboard.
Comments
About once every year to 18 months, I take all the keys off my keyboard(s) and clean them and the board itself (the part underneath the keys).
It's pretty easy to pull the keys off and then put them back after cleaning. The first key is the hardest to remove because of the keys around it. Start with one of the keys with some room - on my older pro keyboard the right shift key has lots of room. Note: the spacebar is just a really wide key with a metal bar that stabilizes it so you can press anywhere along its width. Just be aware of this as you remove/replace it (I can't remember if there are other keys like this).
For the actual cleaning, just use some alcohol-based cleaner.
edit: a little more info:
To remove the keys, just pull upward on them. They aren't screwed or glued on, but the fit is snug. Try to pull evenly upward. To put them back, just press them back into place.
[ 05-27-2002: Message edited by: spotbug ]</p>
<strong>I've found the easiest/best way to do it is to actually remove the keys from the board.</strong><hr></blockquote>
But not all at once! (Unless you take a picture) I learned the hard way.
The second time I cleaned my keyboard, I just blasted air from my compressor (I refuse to buy 'cans of air' from Fry's). Takes out everything that fell in there. Pasta...BBQ sauce...cat hair...bread crumbs...
(Come-on! I'm just joking!) <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Edit-Spelling
[ 05-27-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
<strong>Note: the spacebar is just a really wide key with a metal bar that stabilizes it so you can press anywhere along its width. Just be aware of this as you remove/replace it (I can't remember if there are other keys like this).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Granted, I don't have the keyboard in question, mine is the older beige "AppleDesign Keyboard," but on it, the delete key, and (if i remember correctly), the shift keys also have the metal stabelizers. BE CAREFUL WITH THESE KEYS! I have managed to break the little plastic things that hold the metal to the key. And that's no fun.
I just hoover the k/brd every so often..interesting if it's still plugged in to an awake computer!
do you need to clean the optical mouse? [the led, the mouse itself?]
<strong>But not all at once! (Unless you take a picture) I learned the hard way.</strong><hr></blockquote>Heck yeah, all of 'em!!
If you really can't remember them, just open up Key Caps and, voila! Instant keyboard on your screen! [quote]Originally posted by Badtz:
<strong>wouldn't those "cans of air" solve all of this w/out you even having to disassemble it?
do you need to clean the optical mouse?</strong><hr></blockquote>While a can of compressed air does work well for light cleaning, it still won't get *everything* out. When I was in college, all sorts of crud got in my keyboard from hair to dust to paperclips and staples to crumbs of food. I would take the whole thing apart once every few months to wipe nice everything and clean.
I've never needed to clean the lens around the mouse's LED. I do, though, sometimes take a warm, damp, slightly soapy washcloth and wipe off the top of the mouse because it tends to get a slight film over an extended period of time.
[ 05-31-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
actually, i shouldn't talk, i'm sure my old keyboard had mounds of crud in it [like starfleet......from college eating