Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!samsung!viewlog.viewlogic.com!peter
From: peter@suntan.viewlogic.com (Peter Colby)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: removal of beer from keyboard
Message-ID: <1991Jun12.140309.2546@viewlogic.com>
Date: 12 Jun 91 14:03:09 GMT
References: <56023@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Sender: news@viewlogic.com
Organization: Viewlogic Systems, Inc., Marlboro, MA
Lines: 40
Originator: peter@hari
Nntp-Posting-Host: hari


In article <56023@nigel.ee.udel.edu>, johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu writes:
|> In article <13230@aggie.ucdavis.edu>, krweiss@ucdavis.edu writes...
|> >In article <1991Jun11.131710.20086@sci.ccny.cuny.edu>
|> >sukenick@sci.ccny.cuny.edu (SYG) writes:
|> >>Maybe spilling some coffee will help it :-)
|> >>        Dip the entire thing in distilled water
|> >>for a while, then hang it out for a while and then put it into a
|> > 
|> >A residue-free electronic solvent like Electrowash might work. We've had good
|> >luck using it to clean boards with V-8 juice and Pepsi spills.
|> 
|> My experience with "residue-free" cleaners is that they make things
|> worse when it comes to keyswitches.  I spilled coffee on a Mac keyboard
|> and ended up with one intermittently sticky key.  After spraying 
|> an electronics cleaner I had 5 sticky keys.  All the solvent did 
|> was move the dirt around; most of it ended up somewhere where it
|> could do even more harm.  It would have been much easier to replace
|> the single bad keyswitch at the outset.
|> 
|> Bill (johnston@minnie.me.udel.edu)

	I concur with Bill, I had an (original 128K) mac keyboard that
developed a sticky "D" key - probably due to that popular substance - beer.
I got a spray can of solvent (freon based - this was before the "ozone"
problem was publicised). After dismembering the board and cleaning it off,
I had lost function of about 6 or 7 keys. In the end it actually cost me
less to get a refurbished keyboard than to have the problem keys replaced.
	However, I did successfully unstick my beer-laden mouse. I'm still
using the same mouse 7 1/2 years after buying it and 5 years after fixing it.
(My 7 1/2 year old Imagewriter I still works great, too - Of course I didn't
manage to spill beer into that).

	I suppose the moral to this story is "don't drink and drive"

	PC
-- 
      (O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)     (O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)
      (O) !the doctor is out! (O)     (0) peter@viewlogic.com (0)
      (O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)     (O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)