The old beer and laptop mix (keys not working)

KdjaCL

Mate spilled Heinken on his laptop sometime over the weekend, i have it now removed the KB and cleaned the affected keys with alcohol and ear buds but still 1234 789 refuse to work, they are completley clean of any sticky beer but still wont work.


Anyone did this before (oh everyone has) and got the Keys working again?



kdjac

Cuddlesworth

Have you tried hitting them really hard?

KdjaCL

krazy_8s wrote:

Have you tried hitting them really hard?

Yeah not happening completley removed them and cleaned off any residue beer, still not working.


kdjac

gnashrr

It happened to me and then I tried to fix it whilst still drunk. This is definitely not the road to go down. I went at it again the following morning only to discover that some of the more unique keys such as shift and return are incredibly difficult to get back on. The laptop deteriorated over time until it was a write off. All you can do is keep the keys of the ones that aren't working and hope they will dry out more of the next few days. I feel for your mate, was it a new laptop? Keep me apprised.

zero19

man that sucks...

gnashrr

I hope someone threw the 'idiot towel' at your mate after he did this!

stevenmu

Not a keyboard but I have cleaned 6 month old coke gunk off a dead motherboard bringing it back to life so a keyboard should be a piece of the proverbial to get working again. One thing I found doing the mobo was that bits had pooled under the actual PCI slot connectors. I used one of the of those long plastic nozzles to spray the alcohol right under it and some tissue on a really small jewellers screwdriver to clean it out. Something similar may be the case with the connector for the ribbon cable on your mates keyboard (or possibly the cable itself ?). If so, you may want to find a slightly gentler way of cleaning it but it should be possible.

zilog_jones

Yeah, get a contact cleaner spray if you haven't already used one. And try dismantling the whole thing to see if said lame beer got inside any further. The manufacturer's website often has guides to taking apart laptops if you look hard enough (I know IBM and Dell do, at least).

In all fairness this is your friend's comuppance for drinking crappy Heineken in the first place!

Mutant_Fruit

Happened to me before, i just whipped open the keyboard, washed it gently with a wet tissue (the kind that doesn't disintegrate) and let it dry for a few hours. When i put it back together, it was all perfect again.

Smoggy

i bought a new keyboard from ebay and swapped them over, could work for your mate.

Capt'n Midnight

external usb keyboard/keypad ?

KdjaCL

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

external usb keyboard/keypad ?

Seems to be heading that way, http://homepage.eircom.net/~kdjac/DSC00146.JPG it comes off alright. its only 1234 789 that dont work.

Using alchol wipes and ear buds with isopropanol still wont work



Guess what his windows password is .....LOL


kdjac

snappieT

That's a fairly standard dell keyboard. I'd be surprised if you couldn't pick one up on eBay, or failing that, from Dell themselves.

gnashrr

KdjaC wrote:

Guess what his windows password is .....LOL

That can be remedied easily enough. There is alot of software that will allow you to do it via a CD before logging in. Still though, bummer about the keys, doesn't using a USB keyboard defeat the very purpose of a laptop?

stevenmu

Can't those ribbon cables themselves short circuit if there's something on the actual cable ? Not sure if that could be cleaned with alcohol though.

g5hn710m4xpdwy

theres only 2 ways to find out,
google
or
try it;)

nuttz

dell laptops are surprisingly resilient. My laptop had some beer spilt on it, it refused to boot for a few days and of course the keyboard was sticky, but after disassembling and drying for a few days, it finally booted again! and been going ok since!

coldfeet

The exact same thing happened my Dell laptop a couple of months ago. I fully removed the keyboard and then split the plastic contact sheet underneath and cleaned the contact points with alcohol. I got it all working except for a few keys which were unrepairable. I spilt vodka & orange on mine which coroaded some of the contacts. I bought a replacement on ebay for €20.