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davidflas · Jan 10, 2002, 08:01 AM

Greetings!

Last night I made the stupid mistake of spilling Coca-Cola into my keyboard. Only a small amount spilled, but now some of the keys stick making my Mac impossible to use. Has anybody opened their keyboard? If so what size tool to I need? I'd rather not have to haul my keyboard into a hardware store. Thanks for the help.

Jansar · Jan 10, 2002, 09:23 AM

You know, thanks for bringing that up. My keyboard has around two years of junk inside it, and there HAS to be some way I can get it open. Although you may think Apple thought ahead on this one, but apparently they didn't. If you look around the keyboard, there are places to insert small tools. What Apple didn't realize, though, is that about 1% of homes have tools like that.

davidflas · Jan 10, 2002, 09:42 AM

Jansar, I'm going down to Sears on my lunch hour, keyboard in tow. If they have the necessary tool, I'll post its name, size, and cost. I've been thinking of doing this for a while as my keyboard has lots of cat hair in it. Now I have to as the stuck keys prevent my mac from working correctly.

Jansar · Jan 10, 2002, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by davidflas:
<STRONG>Jansar, I'm going down to Sears on my lunch hour, keyboard in tow. If they have the necessary tool, I'll post its name, size, and cost. I've been thinking of doing this for a while as my keyboard has lots of cat hair in it. Now I have to as the stuck keys prevent my mac from working correctly.</STRONG>

That would be so helpful. I bet a lot of people would like to know how it's done.

driven · Jan 10, 2002, 10:48 AM

Oddly ... I would like to know this info as well.

Thanks in advance for your efforts.

iNeusch · Jan 10, 2002, 10:53 AM

I've opened one of them once... I had a HARD time

you have to take all the screws out, separate them (they ARE different) and then take the sticky part off and finally wash (SOFTLY) the 3 layers of plastic that are between the metal part and the keys (let it dry afterwards, use little water)

Have fun...

zac4mac · Jan 10, 2002, 11:25 AM

All the internal screws I have left over from backlighting a Pro-keyboard are phillips. I think there were several Allens that hold the outside together.You will need a "hex key" Allen wrench, 1/16", possibly .050".

You really don't need or want to open this thing if you aren't ready for teeny-tiny parts.

Your new best friend is gonna be distilled water and compressed air.
Just douche liberally with distilled water, press the keys a lot. Let the water run through the keys. Once the keys don't stick, shake it a few times and blow out with compressed air.
Give it a day or two to fully dry out before appying power.

Zack

elzinat · Jan 10, 2002, 11:57 AM

you probably actually don't want to open your keyboard, if all you're trying to do is clean up some spilled soda. the most recommend method for cleaning a keyboard is the dishwasher. yes, i'm serious. no i've never done it myself (cause i don'thave a dishwasher). check out these links.
http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ulti...4&t=001030
http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ulti...4&t=003359
http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ulti...0&t=001395

also note that even if you don't want to put it in the dishwasher, all you need to clean the keys is just to pop all of the keys off, for which you need no special tool (flat-head screwdriver, needle-nose pliers, pen, anything works).
remember to never clean with water when your keyboard is plugged in.

[Edit: put links on seperate lines

]

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: elzinat ]

davidflas · Jan 10, 2002, 12:23 PM

Here's an update on the tool necessary to open the keyboard. It is in fact a .050 inch hex wrench. I bought a two wrench set from Sears. Its Sears Craftsman two piece set, part number 946730. It comes in a red vinyl pouch and cost me $3.72USD including sales tax. I'm going to attempt the open heart surgery method tonight, it would be silly to even attempt it at work. I'll post a step by step procedure after I complete the cleaning. I appreciate the cautionary statements in previous posts, but I need to clean the cat hair out of the bottom of the keyboard and I can do that by popping off a few keys.

cacarr1 · Jan 10, 2002, 12:40 PM

Though not the Pro keyboard, I did recently clean my iMac (333 mhz...Rev D) keyboard by unplugging it, running under luke-warm water and letting dry for about two days. It works just as it did before, only now it's clean. The dishwasher method sounds nice, but my dishwasher gets pretty freakin' hot! Don't know if I'd risk it...Chris.

SirCastor · Jan 10, 2002, 03:15 PM

Hey Folks, I actually have opened my Pro keyboard.
It is, (to say the least) difficult and annoying. I would do it only as a last resort. I had spilled water on it and tried to clean it out. It literally took a good 2 weeks for it to start acting properly even after I had gotten the water out. Unfortunately a number of the screws that connect the metal plate to the circuit board and key pads together got stripped when I took the unit apart. I'm pretty much convinced that they are irreplacible. I can't find screws like that anywhere. Not at computer centers, hardware stores, or even Fry's.

By the way, to take apart the keyboard, you'll need to punch through the paper which gives the keyboard it's silvery look. I just plain took mine off. It looks kinda Industrial though, so that's a plus.

Anyway, if you can get it cleaned some other way, do it. The effort isn't worth it (My keyboard still isn't all together.)

-Aaron

driven · Jan 10, 2002, 03:22 PM

Originally posted by zac4mac:
<STRONG>All the internal screws I have left over from backlighting a Pro-keyboard are phillips. I think there were several Allens that hold the outside together.You will need a "hex key" Allen wrench, 1/16", possibly .050".

You really don't need or want to open this thing if you aren't ready for teeny-tiny parts.

Your new best friend is gonna be distilled water and compressed air.
Just douche liberally with distilled water, press the keys a lot. Let the water run through the keys. Once the keys don't stick, shake it a few times and blow out with compressed air.
Give it a day or two to fully dry out before appying power.

Zack</STRONG>

Can we just submerge it in a tub of water? Wouldn't that have the same effect?

davidflas · Jan 10, 2002, 05:04 PM

Here's what I just finished doing: I used my .050 inch hex wrench to remove the four main screws holding the cover on. I removed the cover and also the caps lock key, the left shift key, the left control key, and the option key. I then used wet q-tips to remove the stick coca-cola residue. I also removed the + key on the number pad and the 6 on the number pad and removed the small phillips head screws there. That didn't allow the guts of the keyboard to be removed, nor did taking out the two larger screws near the usb cable. At that point I thought I'd better play it safe and I put those four screws back and just cleaned up the best I could. I put everything back together after making sure it was dry, and: success my keyboard is back to normal. I was really hard to use my Mac with the control key stuck, so I'm glad I could fix it so easily. I couldn't get all the crap out of the bottom of the keyboard, but that's only cosmetic so I'm not going to worry. I did clean every surface I could and my keyboard looks better than it has in a long time. I hope this info helps someone out there in MacNN land!

Rychiar · Dec 1, 2003, 10:31 AM

umm how the hell would u wash a keyboard. i accidentlaly splashed water on mine and even after drying it and waiting a week its still dead as a doornail. this is the 3rd time in 3 years that this has happeend to me by the way. these things aint cheap

i just ordered a used one on amazon...

chabig · Dec 1, 2003, 11:48 AM

Full instructions here:

http://www.technology.niagarac.on.ca...ardrepair.html

Chris