Member Avatar for aVar++
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Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

or maybe this

Edited by Ancient Dragon
Member Avatar for aVar++

Can you use soap and water?

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

You could -- but you may never use that PC again. I hope you realize I was just joking :)

commented: I was curious as I read somewhere a guy cleaned his motherboard with soap and water then let it dry, then you said it :) +0
Member Avatar for JorgeM

Yes you can use the compressed air inside the case. If you do use compressed air, take the case outside before you use it. Works great on keyboards.

Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

Yes, I use compressed air as well, it is pretty much the only way to clean it, and it is also sufficient (it clears the dust, which is really the only thing that is dirty'ing up your PC). I guess the only other thing that could be used is a swab of rubbing alcohol, but that is for an extremely thorough cleaning, which you would never really need to do unless there was something major that happened.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

I found that using compressed air on keyboards just drove a lot of the hair (two cats) and lint farther under the keys. Now I use a wide soda straw on the end of a vacuum cleaner.

Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

Yeah, I've noticed that too, i.e., that the compressed air blows particles up under the keys, or more importantly, between the key and switch beneath it. it is a bit annoying as it causes some keys to malfunction a bit (have to press harder) for a little while until things fall back in place. I might try your trick next time.

Member Avatar for aVar++

Ok, thanks :)

Member Avatar for <M/>

Sometimes if I can't find any of those tools like compressed air, or if i am just to lazy to search the garage or shed, i would use a sharp point like a tip of a thin mechanical pencil (like a .5) or a needle to remove pieces like crumbs out from the keys.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

I might try your trick next time.

Just make sure you use a straw that it too small to pass a key. I don't know how much suction would be required to suck the keys right off the keyboard and frankly I'm not keen to find out.

Incidentally, a co-worker (pre-retirement) once decided to use an aerosol based electrical contact cleaner on an IBM Thinkpad laptop to clean the surface. Bad idea. It melted.

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

I will take a lot of suction to suck the keys off my keyboard -- I had to use a screwdriver to remove the Windows key because I kept hitting it while playing games. Years ago I used to clean the keyboard by popping off all the keys and washing them in a soapy solution. I would take them all off and lay them out on a table in the same order that they are on the keyboard so that I could easily put them back. Some keyboard have (or had) a small spring under the keys which made that more difficult.

Member Avatar for aVar++

Funny you should say that ancient dragon, I did that a few days ago. I took it all apart to paint the frame and was amazed with all the dirt that was inside the keyboard! So i put the frame and keys in a sink to soak (took it apart first obviously) and now it looks brand new.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

AD - I'm thinking your keyboard looks something like this:

23e1d952daa4007d3c16a7bd62099547

commented: lol +0
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