Comments on: Heatmap distribution of dirt in a keyboard

By: Johannes

Johannes — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:12:52 +0000

RRabins, I simply dunk regular keyboards in water! Of course, I wouldn’t try it with my more expensive keyboard (for now anyway).

The keyboards I have tried this on so far take no damage from water alone, but a trace of water on the PC-board could cause a short circuit (and the end of the keyboard) if were plugged in.

I wouldn’t suggest using soap though. Then let it dry for a day (a low-temperture oven dries it faster — careful to not melt the thing, though)

By: K. Praslowicz

K. Praslowicz — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:54:43 +0000

I just hit this post randomly via stumbleupon.

Kind of peculiar since today I was looking at my keyboard and thinking that I was time to yank all the keys off and clean it again.

Even more peculiar, Is that I own the same keyboard.

I think the cosmos are telling me to clean my keyboard before some horrible life form rises from the dirt.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:00:16 +0000

Sadly, I don’t need to do all of that to see my results – the dirt is on top of the keys! My PowerBook is quite frankly disgusting, but it does stop other people using it when I’m not around!

By: RRabins

RRabins — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:46:02 +0000

Buy a spillproof keyboard (such as those sold by Kensington), and to clean it, you can literally wash it. Just dunk it in water (or soapy water), hose it off, let dry.

By: Gregers

Gregers — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:45:01 +0000

Back when my desktop worked, I regularly cleaned the keyboard by flicking off the keys as mentioned above (YUCK!)

my laptop is currently missing the right shift-key. The reason fo this is I had gotten a crumb under it, and instead of just crushing the crumb and blow at it, I chose to take the key off and remove the crumb (one of the cats had shown me how to remove keys a few days previously). After remowing the crumb, it was time to put the key back on, but alas! the *snap* I dreaded was heart, and the key could no longer be attached!

I’m curently considering to pay the 50$ it would cost to get the manufacturer to put on a new keyboard, as it is 1) annoying to miss the right shift-key, and 2) difficult to touch type, as the thingies on j and f has been worn off.

BTW, my father gave me a tip for cleaning between the keys, it isn’t perfect, but it gets the worst dirt:
take a post-it, fold it, so you have glue on both sides of the paper. drag your double-glue-side along the row of keys, and see how much you catch.

By: Pastryboy

Pastryboy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:20:31 +0000

After hearing all your tales of keyboard keys ending up everywhere but on the keyboard I think I shall learn from your mistakes and just blow the grime out with compressed air instead, because my computer is my pride and joy and the last thing I need is missing keys.

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 23:23:30 +0000

@Shayral - I've briefly explained the heatmap in an above comment. Ideally you would want some specialized software to calculate gradients of concentration levels. Though in this case it's just a subjective approximation done in photoshop. New layer, brush, blur, repeat with a "higher" colour.

By: Suey

Suey — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:15:32 +0000

Hi Catlady, I to have lost keys when trying to clean my keyboard, ended up buying a new keyboard and I haven’t attempted to clean it yet! But I’ve just had a go at your tip (banging the edge of the keyboard on the desk) and I’m amazed at what fell out! Looked like a whole loaf of bread crumbs and that was with a few minutes of tapping! Will be doing it all the time now thanks for the tip!! p.s there are 5 in our house who use the computer 3 of them are teenage girls!!

By: Shayral

Shayral — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:14:52 +0000

how does one make a heatmap?

By: Czarina

Czarina — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:30:59 +0000

I love the responses! You guys are so imaginative at cleaning. I’m thinking that just plunging the laptop into the dishwater or dishwasher will clean just about anything that might be gummed up, and it will have that nice, bleachy-clean smell, too. Then, when you plug it in, it will also have that nice, acrid, burning-electronics smell.

And I think we should chip in for a new keyboard for Patrick! Or duct tape. He absolutely has done everything possible to conserve resources relative to the materials in his keyboard!