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From: wiseman@tellabs.com (Jeff Wiseman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: help! my keyboard is drunk
Message-ID: <3581@tellab5.tellabs.com>
Date: 27 Aug 90 17:31:48 GMT
References: <3804@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> <1990Aug25.171119.15812@swbatl.sbc.com>
Sender: news@Tellabs.COM
Organization: Tellabs, Inc. Lisle IL
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In article <1990Aug25.171119.15812@swbatl.sbc.com> george@swbatl.UUCP (George D. Nincehelser) writes:
>In article <3804@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> cspencer@ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Cliff Spencer) writes:
>>malfunctions. The power on key seems to be in a continuous "on" state. 
>>The keycaps DA indicates that a number of other keys think that 
>>they are pressed. I notice two chips inside. Does one of these typically fail?
>>Is it cost effective to have the keyboard repaired? Should I just buy a
>>Datadesk keyboard? 
>
>I'm not really recommending this, but I know a guy who had a similar
>problem.  He bought a new keyboard and then, since he felt he had
>nothing to lose, ran the old one through the automatic dishwasher
>(top rack, I think, and I don't remember if he used detergent).

You know, I've been washing PC boards for a long time. Everything from
engineering COFFEE to salt water damage to equipment left on the deck of a
boat.

Allow me to make a suggestion or two (as if you had a choice! :-)

Don't use soap or any solvents initially. Some IC's that are not MIL spec (and
even some that ARE) can have some solvent wick up inside the molding of an IC
and hurt it. Plain water can be made to work very well--someone had suggested
distilled water. Good idea but try this first.

Take the circuit board out and remove everthing from it that can prevent water
circulation. For example, remove the key tops. This is important as the problem
that youare seeing may very well be goop that has gotten INSIDE of the keys.

Take the board out into your backyard and place it on something clean such as a
peice of wood or whatever, then turn you garden hose on it (gently though, some
switch types have internal contacts that could be bent from the excessive
pressure of a direct hoseing. I remove the hose's valve and just use the hose
without a fitting on its end).

Completely flood the board and keep flooding it for a while (I do it for as
much as 20 minutes depending) and keep changing the angle of the water hitting
the board so that the board will not get any pooling of residue anywhere.

Now comes an important part.

If you like, now you can rinse the board with distilled water but afterwards,
try to shake out as much water as possible and then turn a hair dryer on it.
Try not to get the board too hot, just keep the warm air moving so that every
drop of water evaporates very quickly. This will further reduce any residues
that may be left.

If there is ANY place that water can get trapped, after you have gotten the
board as dry as you can, place it in front of a fan for a day. For a keyboard,
this can further help to remove any moisture that may have gotten trapped
inside any of the switches (There's no rush you know, after all, the board
doesn't seem to work presently anyway :-)

If you are lucky, you may discover that there is just something currently
caught under or inside of some of the switches. This technique has worked for
me on several occasions that I have had to clean up boards that this kind of
thing has happened to.

Good Luck!

--
Jeff Wiseman:	....uunet!tellab5!wiseman OR wiseman@TELLABS.COM