Author Topic: Spilled herbal medicine mud all over my mac keyboard  (Read 1853 times)

Unionville

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Spilled herbal medicine mud all over my mac keyboard
« on: February 17, 2014, 05:51:10 PM »
I have one of those older Macbooks with Aluminum keys that don't have any protection, and I knocked over a glass of thick liquidy-muddy herbal medicine mix all over my keyboard. 

Here's what I did to fix it in case something this weird ever happens to you (coming from a non-tech hardware gal who was clueless what to do):

1. First I laughed (It seemed beyond hopeless).
2. I unplugged the computer.
3. I read online to turn it upsidedown but this case was so thick and messy, I thought it would just make everything messier.
4.  I soaked up as much as I could with a bunch of kleenex
5. I watched videos online and learned how to pull all the keys off (and all the weird plastic parts attached underneath the keys).
6.I used an artist's bone paper folder (picture) to pull them off. It was the only thing I could use that wouldn't make me cringe when I heard the keys crackle.
7. I got a million Qtips and a toothpick connected to a dental probe (pic), and spent about 2 hours getting all the mud out.  Luckily there was a lot of cat hair already there, which soaked up a lot of the mud and made mudballs which were easier to get out.
8. I soaked all the key parts in water and tried to get the gunky orange turmeric stains off.
9. I let it dry for a few days and removed more mud which was hard by then.
10. I watched 4 other videos on how to reassemble all the key parts (all different sizes).  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upfwg2BQDx8
THIS WAS HARD, because I can't see worth a crap and reading glasses did not help. I had to use a magnifying glass and try to work with one hand off and on.

Well the computer still works and I'm sure I saved some money doing it myself.

Here is the result (pic).  I should have taken a "before" picture, but I was running around in circles like a maniac trying to figure out what to do.

« Last Edit: February 17, 2014, 06:05:30 PM by meteor »

Greg

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Re: Spilled herbal medicine mud all over my mac keyboard
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2014, 10:41:19 PM »
Hey nice job. 

Next time, if there is a next time, you can remove the keyboard if you want to get really into it and then just rinse it off and dry it well, like with compressed air and some quality time in a rice bin.

But it sounds like you handled it well.