Cleaned Keyboard--Now Some Keys Won't Work

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BMJ - 23 May 2008 05:31 GMT

I spilled some tea on my iMac keyboard earlier this evening. I removed
some of the keys and removed the bottom cover to clean it. I then put it
back together but now I find that some of the keys don't work (the diagonal
which includes the - [ ' and right-hand Shift).

I don't believe that any of the tea touched was spilled on those keys, so
I'm wondering if, while I was cleaning the keyboard, I may have either
disconnected something or broken a lead.

Any suggestions, others than replacing the whole keyboard, would be greatly
appreciated. Thank you.

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Ecnerwal - 23 May 2008 15:19 GMT

> Any suggestions, others than replacing the whole keyboard, would be greatly
> appreciated. Thank you.

Liquid spills are bad news, and often difficult to resolve due to the
pesky flex type circuits that make up the keyboard's working parts.
Liquids (spilled and/or cleaning) get trapped in between the layers and
short things out. The shorted-out parts can affect keys far from the
short - and liquids can travel a long way between the layers.

Replacement is your most likely route - non-Apple costs a lot less,
works as well or better IME, with the exception of matias - avoid those
like the plague.

Low-effort - dry it well, and hope. If there was no sugar in the tea,
this might work. If you used some sort of fluid for cleaning other than
isopropyl alcohol or distilled water, that may be adding to your problem.

Much higher effort, and not even possible on some vintages due to
"assemble and glue" rather than "lots of tiny little screws" - take
keyboard completely apart, wipe all circuits down with isopropyl
alcohol, wait for them to dry completely, reassemble. Even when it is
possible, it's usually not worth the effort, as there's no guarantee
that it will work, and it takes a lot of time - but if you are bored and
want to give it a try, and your keyboard is not glued or welded, it
sometimes works.

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BMJ - 23 May 2008 15:33 GMT

>> Any suggestions, others than replacing the whole keyboard, would be greatly
>> appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for your reply.

> Liquid spills are bad news, and often difficult to resolve due to the
> pesky flex type circuits that make up the keyboard's working parts.
> Liquids (spilled and/or cleaning) get trapped in between the layers and
> short things out. The shorted-out parts can affect keys far from the
> short - and liquids can travel a long way between the layers.

I disassembled the keyboard last night, cleaned the plastic sheets, and
checked some of the circuits with my multimeter. Some keys still don't
work and I can't find where the faults might be.

> Replacement is your most likely route - non-Apple costs a lot less,
> works as well or better IME, with the exception of matias - avoid those
> like the plague.

It looks that way.

> Low-effort - dry it well, and hope. If there was no sugar in the tea,
> this might work. If you used some sort of fluid for cleaning other than
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> want to give it a try, and your keyboard is not glued or welded, it
> sometimes works.

I prefer to see if I can fix something myself before considering replacing
it. I just *had* to see what it looked like inside. So far, no luck.

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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / May 2008

Cleaned Keyboard--Now Some Keys Won't Work