[at-l] Cleaning Your Keyboard (was Orangebug's trip)

[charles@uswnet.com (Charles Copeland)]

A bathtub has soap in it.

A better experiment (and one that I did in high school) is to fill a bowl
with tap water, take a lamp and separate the two power leads on the wire.
Cut one of them and stick each end of the cut leads in the water.  Plug in
the lamp.

Turn on the lamp.

The light will not turn on.

Add salt to the water.

The light will magically turn on.

The water I wash my keyboard with is a whole lot safer than the coke I
spilled in it.  You have a better chance of shorting your keyboard with
contaminates than oxidizing your keyboard because it was washed with water.


Charles



> From: "Billie H. Cleek" <cleek@cleekhouse.com>
> Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 15:05:47 -0600 (CST)
> To: Charles Copeland <charles@uswnet.com>
> Cc: AT List <at-l@backcountry.net>
> Subject: Re: [at-l] Cleaning Your Keyboard (was Orangebug's trip)
> 
> All it takes is for the contacts to oxidize a bit, which can possibly
> short circuit the circuits between keys, and consequently give you some
> really strange behavior with your keyboard. If you do this then you're
> taking a risk. Granted, it won't happen every time, but it is a real
> possibility
> 
> And if you really believe that water doesn't conduct electricity
> then I'd challenge you to fill your tub with water, jump in, and then
> have someone throw your toaster in there with you. I think you'd find out
> very quickly that water does conduct electricity. And even if you disagree
> with this (and we could probably argue the finer points for a long time --
> I really do know my chemistry) then I'd simply ask you how pure you think
> that water coming out of your tap is. ;-)
> 
> Anyway, the point is that cleaning your keyboard with water is a bad
> idea. It seems akin to filling your brake lines with water: yes, it would
> initially work, but the system isn't designed to work that way, and will
> inevitably lead to problems.
> 
> Cleek
> 
> On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, Charles Copeland wrote:
> 
>> I've been washing keyboards for years - just let 'em dry before you plug
>> them back in.  (Clean water doesn't conduct electricity but you never know
>> what's in the keyboard).
>> 
>> Charles
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> From: "Billie H. Cleek" <cleek@cleekhouse.com>
>>> Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 10:15:13 -0600 (CST)
>>> To: James Bullard <bullard@northnet.org>
>>> Cc: at-l <at-l@backcountry.net>
>>> Subject: Re: [at-l] Cleaning Your Keyboard (was Orangebug's trip)
>>> 
>>> You've got to be kidding. If people do this then you owe them a new
>>> keyboard. If any of the contacts oxidize they'll lose keys. DON'T DO THIS.
>>> 
>>> On Thu, 15 Mar 2001, James Bullard wrote:
>>> 
>>>> At 11:00 AM 3/15/01 -0500, kahley7 wrote:
>>>>> You owe me a keyborad cleaning fee.........LOLWCIMM(with coffee in my
>>>>> mouth)
>>>> 
>>>> Run several inches of water into your bathtub or other large container (no
>>>> soap). Submerge the keyboard, let it sit for several minutes to soften any
>>>> dried matter, then slosh it about to dislodge foreign matter and drain the
>>>> water out of the keyboard. Let it dry completely before reattaching it to
>>>> your computer and send me $30 (minimum service charge). :)
>>>> 
>>>> Saunterer
>>>> LAN Admin for the State of NY and part-time computer consultant
>>>> 
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