Cleaning Your Laptop Keys

When you are the type of person who only uses your laptop at home you might not even notice the painful truth until you go outside. Those nights you have studied long and hard with only light coming from the laptop itself, or reading the news in the dim light of the morning sun filtered through the kitchen blinds didn’t prepare you for what you see in the broad honest light of day. Dog hair, dust, smears and just plain gunk on the keys all spell out the need to clean the key board.

Things you will need

Find a very soft brush, a cleaning cloth, and a cleaning fluid that is made for computers and electronics. You don’t want to use a firm or wire brush or cleaning products that contain too much alcohol because the keys take enough wear and tear on a routine day they don’t need to have the letters scrubbed off.

Don’t be afraid to take things apart.

You can get by with compressed air and holding the laptop upside down and shaking it out for so long. Sooner or later you need to take the keyboard apart and clean underneath. Many people look at taking their keyboards out with the same fear as open heart surgery, but really this process is literally a snap.

Simple steps to follow

First turn the laptop off. Power it down and turn it off completely. Then you are going to disconnect the keyboard from the computer. Each model is different so consult your user’s manual for the best method of accomplishing this. Should you have lost the manual turn the laptop back on and search for a copy online.

Now with the laptop off and the keyboard disconnect pop the keys out. You can use a small screwdriver or car keys to do this. If you are a hunt and peck typist this could be an issue. While this might seem sort of funny, unless you have the arrangement of letters memorized you might want to do only remove a few at a time.

Soak the keys for a few minutes in warm water. Look at each one and if you find one with grime or smudges that the water didn’t affect then spray the cloth with the cleaner and rub the key until it is clean. Don’t use paper towels for this since you will find yourself chasing the smudge around and leaving tiny pieces of paper behind instead of getting much cleaning done.

Putting it back together

Wait until the keys are completely dry before popping them back in. While you are waiting use compressed air to clean out the underside where the keys attach and look for anything like dog hair or dust bunnies that can get between the connections and the keys. Anything you can’t get out with compressed air carefully pluck out with a pair of tweezers.

Return the keys and reconnect the keyboard. Turn the laptop back on and perform a check to see that everything is responding. You will really enjoy the feeling of typing without grit under the keys.

Photo Credits: footloosiety

Originally posted 2010-05-30 03:42:56.

This post involves:

cleaning keyboard, keyboard, keyboards

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Computer Tips, Keyboard and Mouse

Posted by How To Computer on January 17, 2012 in Computer Tips, Keyboard and Mouse. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.