Keyboard Cleaning

Until computers finally learn to understand spoken English, we're stuck typing on keyboards. And oh, how we abuse them. Pets seem to find them irresistible, and they're magnets for coffee, muffin crumbs, and the hair you pull out when your Internet connection goes down. It's a wonder they keep working as long and as solidly as they do.

The reliable longevity of keyboards is thanks to their being mostly-mechanical objects that haven't changed much in the past 20 years. Below your keys, there's usually some sort of plastic protective layer, a circuit board, and some wires. When you press a key, it activates a switch on the circuit board that sends a signal to your computer. That's pretty much it, and the simplicity is what lets keyboards survive Coke, cotton candy, and cats.

My attractive wireless keyboard is cased in clear plastic, and hairs creep up from under the keys and get lodged in the plastic. It looks disgusting, and that's not even counting the tea stains.

First I had to buy an allen wrench set to get that clear case off. Once that was done, I began popping off the keys with a plastic knife and it worked really good. As each key came off, I arranged them as they where on the table and took a picture when done.

Then I put all the keys in a Zip-loc bag and filled it with soap and water. After a few mins of shaking, I rinsed them out in a spaghetti strainer and laid them out on a towel to dry.

While the keys where drying, I spent some good time getting all the gunk out between the keys with Q-Tips and alcohol.

Once the keys where dry, I placed them back in according the reference picture I took.

The only part that confused me was when the L key as well as the I key where rotated 180^o. I then used this find to swap around the arrow keys, as well as the volume up & down (for better recognition). Now my keyboard's got some character!