[Todd Madson]

Well, this morning a glass of water got spilled into the
pro keyboard for my G5.

Brilliant maneuver right? It spilled all over the desk,
all over a bunch of things.

I quickly disconnected the keyboard from the mac,
shook excess water out of it and dried off the wet
spots with a clean cloth and leaned it against a heat
register to dry any excess moisture inside.

I'm using the cruddy old keyboard from my G4 on it
now but after letting the nicer Pro keyboard dry for
10 hours it's inoperative.

Ideas? Literally no power, no lights, nothing.

Replacing the keyboard would be great but I'll have
to wait at least a week since I just paid bills.

Anyone else run into a similar situation?

[bourgeoisie]

stupid pro keyboard dead? or stupid pro, keyboard dead? just joshin' good luck

[Todd Madson]

Sigh. I don't think Applecare covers spillage.

I refurbed an old pro keyboard from the G4/400 and removed the old keycaps,
cleaned the mess up and put newer keys from a keyboard that was in better
shape but defunct and I'll use that until I can pay the freight on another pro.

Interestingly, the newer pro design isn't really as sealed off from moisture
as the old ones were.

Anyway, this keyboard will go back on the G4 when I'm done with it.

[gdiddy]

I'd wait a while longer. Maybe by Monday you will be back in business. I had an older pro keyboard that i got from a friend that barely worked due to chocolate, soda and a variety of other human waste covering it. Tried it after drying fro two days and some of the keys would lock up and type repeated characters. let it dry for two more days and it has been perfect since.

Be patient.

[gdiddy]

doubled!

[tooki]

So is it a "Pro Keyboard" or just "Keyboard"? (Look on the back.) G5's all shipped with the non-pro one.

Anyhow, 10 hours isn't anywhere near long enough for it to dry out to the point where it might work. If you took it apart, 1-2 days would be sufficient; left whole, you should wait a week.

But you're probably better off just buying a new keyboard.

tooki

[OreoCookie]

I second tooki's suggestion. Practically all keyboards sold today use capacity switches (including the Apple Keyboard and the Pro Keyboard) -- and water or moisture might render them inoperative unless all excess moisture has dried out.

[Djliftinlive]

what about pouring some silica gel into the keyboard?

Maybe it'll help absorb the water sooner, and after a few days just shake the balls out

[Grrr]

New ones are dirt cheap, even here in 'Rip Off' England. If it doesn't work after a couple of days, just buy a new one. Its no biggy.

[Todd Madson]

I ended up buying one out of the refresh bin at the
Apple store for $19 over the weekend. IF I'm lucky
the old one might dry out enough to use it for my
old G4 - it was in pretty good shape condition-wise.

If not, I took considerable pains to clean up my old
G4 keyboard and that thing was really, really disgusting
(eaten too much breakfast cereal near it) but it's pretty
clean now.

Thanks for the hints, all.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

I second tooki's suggestion. Practically all keyboards sold today use capacity switches (including the Apple Keyboard and the Pro Keyboard) -- and water or moisture might render them inoperative unless all excess moisture has dried out.

Come again?

Capacitance switches are one type of switch used in costly keyboards with clickety-clack keys. The Apple Keyboard and Pro Keyboard, like almost all keyboards on the market, are membrane keyboards, where a circuit board with small contact pads is covered by a rubber membrane with domes molded into them, one dome per key. In the top of the dome is conductive rubber that closes the circuit on the circuit board pad below, registering a keystroke.

tooki