That was scary

[D-Dan]

Had a small accident when I knocked a glass of juice on my desk, and sent copious amounts all over my monitor screen, with peripheral damage (literally) on my mouse, trackball, gfx tablet, keyboard and printer.

After some immediate cleaning (monitor first) everything working except the KB (CM Storm mechanical, which I love) with some dead keys.

Straight off to the workshop (kitchen) and set about pulling it apart to clean (and there was a lot of crud in there), cleaned the case off, and using a pastry brush, cleaned under the key caps. No go. “B”, “M”, left, right and down keys completely dead.

Wiped down under the PCB with clean water, no go. Took a hairdryer to it, re-tested and all the keys were dead.

Now I have a spare mech (a Corsair), but it isn’t full sized and can be annoying, so even resorted to see what I could buy locally today (even CeX are selling decent Mechs at £75, so that wasn’t sounding pleasant.

Anyhoo, after leaving it standing to cool down from the hairdryer treatment, one last test and all keys are working again.

Phew.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Ed P]

The stock solution to your keyboard problem is to stick it in a dishwasher and give it a long rinse cycle. Remove, drain, . If worried about springy things rusting then souse with 100% IPA (isopropyl alcohol  not India Pale Ale!) then stick it in your airing cupboard for a couple of weeks before testing

Glad the disassembly worked for you this can be fraught, and not novice friendly..

[Dave Rice]

You had me at IPA ?

F-I-L still has an ancient white Compaq mech keyboard. It’s that old it’s got an orange USB plug as it matched the PS2 colour we were used to. I’ve since learned that may indicate Logitech made them. Anyway I dare not take it away from him.

[D-Dan]

@edps I know that the correct procedure would have been to use some IPA and give it all a good clean, though I have none, and so had to compromise (I don’t even have any whiskey), but it seems I got lucky this time. Gonna call into town after my shower and get some for future use.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Ed P]

A lot cheaper and easier to get a litre of IPA from Amazon than the half strength expensive stuff most towns stock.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

An absolute must is to remove the power immediatly. The remote for my panasonic VCR survived 3 or 4 serious dousings in lager followed by rinsing the PCB under the cold tap.

On the last occasion I was too drunk to notice the spill so the batteries stayed in. A rinse under the tap the next day reveiled that 4 of the pins on the main IC had corroded to nothing so that was that ?

[D-Dan]

First thing I did was cut all power to anything that got splashed, and then started cleanup as quickly as humanely possible.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[The VFM Addict]

Losing a favorite keyboard is almost like losing a pet.   My beloved Cherry mech which I had had since 486 processor days died about 4 years back.   Must have been about 16 year old by that time.   My other half hated it because its off-white colour clashed with everything else around it (Women !!!).    I loved it though because it coped with my heavy handed typing when in a hurry or typing in anger.   I’ve  been through four or was it five budget keyboards since its departure so I think I might bite the bullet and blow a wedge on another Cherry mech.

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During the Covid-19 Epidemic I will be wearing a mask and goggles while posting so that if I become infected I won't spread it to you.

[D-Dan]

The Cherry mechs are awesome. Nice satisfying clicks, and reliable accuracy (even for my unreliably inaccurate typing).

I believe this is reds, though I could be mistaken. Suffice to say, I’m glad it recovered, and as a bonus, got a damned good clean.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

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