oops

[meriad]

Well, I'm the proud owner of a new keyboard and mouse The old keyboard is well and truly kaputt (for now); too many keys sticking and just not working.... it may release in time but for now I needed a replacement. So hip hip hooray for Argos

[Kaz]

[Workingman]

Ria, you need the tried and tested techy method.

1. Set out two saucers, a bowl, an egg cup, washing up bowl with warm and not too soapy water and a sieve.
2. Lay out the keyboard, keys down, on a tea towel.
3. With a small cross point screwdriver remove all the screws and put them in one of the saucers.
4. Gently split the case and carefully life off what was the bottom - the bit with the circuit board.
5. Remove the keys from what was the top and place them in the bowl, put lid in the washing up bowl.
6. Slowly peel the film with the operating studs from the circuit board and give it a wipe on both sides with a damp cloth of glass cleaner - do this a few times
7. Remove the screws holding the circuit board and take it out. Put the base in the washing up bowl.
8. Put a couple of sprays of glass or shower cleaner in the egg cup and brush onto the circuit board using a basting brush or small paint brush. Pat it dry with paper towel - DO NOT RUB. Repeat.
9. Put some of the wash up water in the bowl with the keys and give them a swish. Tip them out into the sieve and rinse. Wash the case parts and drain.
.10 Go away.
11. Come back.
12. Reassemble in the reverse order making sure the keys are in the correct qwerty order and screw together.
13. Plug the refurbished keyboard in to the lappy or desktop.
14. Unplug the keyboard.
15. Lift up the lid of your green recycle bin and drop the keyboard in.
16. Go to Argos (other electrical stores are available). Done.

It's the techy way.

[Weka]

New keyboards and mice are always nice, but you know you really don’t need to go to such extreme lengths to treat yourself.

I once spilt a full extra large cup of coffee on a keyboard at work. Took it to the kitchen and let it drain into the sink. Then popped all the keys off it, washed those, moped up as best I could inside and then took the whole lot into the “server” room to dry out. (Glorified cupboard with a lock on the door, but you could walk around the wall by the window so yeah, really secure )
After a week I put it all back together much to my colleagues amusement, as I was testing my QWERTY keyboard memory, and hey presto it worked and I only got 1 set of key swapped around. 2 of the symbols.

Around 2 years later, different keyboard, I spilt a small water droplet on a keyboard. Half the keyboard refused to work from then on.

[Workingman]

Weka, you and I are techies, Ria isn't.

She needed the check list to break it properly.

I could have given her the "throw it on the floor and jump up and down on it" method, but that's far too much fun for Ria to handle.