Tea on my Keyboard

Zillah

So, I spilled a cup of tea on my keyboard a while ago, and now neither of my ctrl keys work. This is very very annoying (ctrl+c ctrl+v being the most missed shortcuts). So, I was wondering if there is any easy way to assign my, say, alt key to be a new ctrl key? I did a search on google but didn't find anything I understand (something about macros...).

Any ideas?

eggshapedfred

Any ideas?

buy a new keyboard?

kdouglas

you could just pop open the keyboard and clean the keys. just undo the screws at the back and clean anywhere that has tea on it, dont put any liquid directly onto the pcb though.
i've actually used those kleenex hand and face wipes on several occasions to clean liquid damage. just squeeze them out as much as possible and then wipe the dirt off, then dry it off.

should get your keys working again, but do this at your own risk, you could make things worse (unlikely but possible)

AlienGav

Tea's the worst! you're better off getting a new one, as the tea won't evapporate cleanly, like water sometimes does, get a new keyboard!

Recently i bought one of those new laptops from aldi, cost a good 1500yoyos, and in my stooooopidity spilled a glass of water over it! from the looks of things it's destroyed beyond repair Spilling stuff can bed very expensive!

TimTim

Odds are since its been a while after you spilled it, this probaly won't work

Get the keyboard, put it upside down in the hot press and leave for a week.

Zillah

Wonderfully quick responses.

Hmm, dismantling my keyboard...it might just work...

As for buying a new one, what do I loook like to you?! Someone that isn't a college student?

("student" being code for "pennyless hobo")


There's got to be a software solution though, if cleaning it internally doesn't work. Surely there's some way to reprogramme windows or something to think an alt key is a ctrl key?

Edit:

TimTim wrote:

Odds are since its been a while after you spilled it, this probaly won't work

Get the keyboard, put it upside down in the hot press and leave for a week.

Yeah its been weeks so I doubt that'll work. Turning off my pc now to try to clean it though... Here's hoping I don't fck it up nicely...

Ciaran500

When your putting it back toghter just but the control button in the alt slot

Zillah

You're not helping ciaran....


Anyway, that did nothing, at all.

Why would spilling tea on it make both keys stop working? And why would dry tea residue short circuit it? Does dry tea conduct electricity?

kdouglas

hmmm...forgot about the fact that it's only the ctrl keys, i'd imagine tea would conduct electricity due to the fact it's water based though.

Zillah

kdouglas wrote:

hmmm...forgot about the fact that it's only the ctrl keys, i'd imagine tea would conduct electricity due to the fact it's water based though.

Yes but it's dry, so there's no water in it, so it's just the dried residue...


Oh well I've given up, I'll be getting a new pc in a few months anyway...until then stupid lack of nice shortcuts...

Lump

You can get a keyboard for like €15. Just don't eat for a year

John

Mutant_Fruit

i spilt juice on my macintosh keyboard a few years ago, and it stopped working. So i decided to open it up, gave it a nice good clean with water, towled it dry, lovingly placed it on a radiator to make sure everything evaporated nicely, and the next day i put it back together.

Then, i gently reinserted the USB plug, and walla (sic)! It worked.

Capt'n Midnight

If you are in Dublin check out www.marx-computers.com or www.jaguarcompsys.ie for cheap keyboards or check computer recyclyers

Any use of solvents/water is kill or cure and should only be used as a last resort, I've heard of people putting keyboards into dishwashers ....

How many sugars do you take in your tea ?

Jaeger

There are a few key remappers available out there. It's a better idea in theory to remap them but in practise you have to get your fingers used to pressing a completely different key...it's weird.

Instead of ctrl c just use shift delete, then shift insert (cuts and pastes would take longer you would think but I find it ten times easier to do, and I copy and paste a lot in work

Instead of ctrl v use shift + insert

Much better solution.

smorton

i have a keyboard for free if you want it. i live in castleknock in dublin.

this is the keyboard:

http://maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=31587&TabID=1&source=15&WorldID=&doy=23m1

Zillah

Thats really cool of you but it's alright, it's not actually broken, its just two keys. I'll get over, but thanks for all the help on such a trivial topic.

Johnny Storm

I had same problem. I opened it up and got it going again.

Word of warning: if you do open it up do not, as I very nearly did, turn the section with the keys in it upside down SO THAT THE LITTLE F@CKERS ALL FALL OUT !!! Oh Yeah - that'd really make your day.

In my one, underneath the keys there were two plasic sheets with metallic contact points that obviously make the circuit when you press on a key. I took those out and very gently dried them with a paper towel. Gently wash off any dried on tea/gunk. Be careful not to rub off the "metallic" stuff which AFAIR is just painted on. I seem to remember there was a trickier spring arrangement under the space bar but it was fairly obvious how it fitted back in

As another poster suggested I left mine in the airing cupboard in disassembled state for a few days to get out any residual moisture. Then I put it back together and it worked 100% fine.

Grimlock

Had more or less the same problem 2 years ago where I spilt a glass of milk on my keyboard will playing C&C Red Alert 2 (damn Russians attacking by surprise),
I plugged the keyboard out and put it on my radiator to dry out....but my radiator was too hot and melted and warped the keys, mangling the keyboard.
Given that it was now totally unusable I took it apart, just for curiosity, that's when I discovered that the keyboard was water proof

My advice bite the bullet and get a new one.