Ok, as promised, I'm reporting back with results.
I had SUCCESS
with the isoprophyl alcohol.
I applied it to the 'Enter' key on tuesday, and the offending sound has
been gone since. I also did it with the 'O' and 'I', but it returned on the 'I',
I may have put too little alcohol or not repeatedly hit the key correctly before the
alcohol evaporated.
I was a bit sad that it returned on the letter 'I', but seeing as it hasn't returned
on the other keys, I'll try it on all of them this weeked.
Now is Saturday, and I just applied it to the 'G' key and took a picture. Tomorrow
I might film how I'm doing it and upload it to youtube.
Basically I'm following this advice:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1393125/double-tapping-issues-with-razer-blackwidow#post_20077316although it was meant to fix chattering keys (double registers on a single key press),
which I had none, it inspired me to try something.
Method:
I hold the switch slider down with a thin screwdriver, while I gently push
the alcohol spray. Veeery little alcohol !!!. I don't want to affect the switch,
I only want to have some alcohol reach the bottom of the housing to the base
of the spring, to reduce friction there and have the spring rotate into place,
and untwist. Then, while the alcohol starts evaporating, I hit the switch
repeatedly with my finger alternating between quickly hitting it or
holding it down for a few seconds.
Immediately I notice that the "rusty spring sound" goes away. It worked
so far but it returned for the 'I' key in a matter of one hour.
I still don't know what is the cause of the sound but I have three theories:
1) The one contributed in this thread: that the spring might have rotated
too much and cannot go back into its natural state because of friction
in the base.
2) That two loops of the springs got tangled.
3) Debris inside the switch.
I type at between 80 to 110 wpm, according to typeracer, and I have been
using the keyboard heavily. And though I've been learning to type without
bottoming-out, I think that most of its almost two months of usage I've been
bottoming out the keys.
It doesn't matter though, I shouldn't have to expect these kinds of issues on a
new keyboard.
I'm angry that these strange sounds showed up on these keys, and that I don't know
what to do to prevent it, except not vacuuming it again if I can help it (that might
have sucked debris to the top of the stem, which could have found its way inside the switch).
I will not force myself to not bottom-out the keys, because what good is the keyboard then..
But in the end I'm happy that I found a fix.
I haven't de-soldered the switches yet. From what I've seen in youtube videos,
these razer keyboards are a bit tricky to dissasemble (not just screws, but hidden
plastic latches too). Eventually I know I will :-)
All in all, I still like this keyboard a lot. Even though it seemed to
develop quirks and a personality so quickly. The layout is exactly the one
I want (not easy to get here), and I really love the orange switches.
BTW, a few days ago I went through my old boxes. I found my first
PC keyboard, it turns out that it was a mechanical BTC. It has been under a
box, and it needs a lot of love, and de-yellowing with hidrogen peroxyde, which I never
tried and will sure be worth a nice post with pictures. It is completely linear,
and because of that I'm not sure I'll use it much, but it would be fun to use the
BTC for a week or so to bring back memories.
So I actually have 3 mechanical keyboards!
(Actually, counting membrane/rubber dome keyboards in my boxes and in use, I currently
have 11 keyboards in total!!!, some with a particular layout or with a story to tell.
I always have been able to fix spills by restoring shorted traces with graphite paint
on the membranes. I have only thrown out lousy keyboards that came with some of my old PCs).
Cheers!
.KeyHopper.
PD: Sorry for the long post!!
PD2: Following are attachments of my home made key puller :-), the isoprophyl alcohol spray
used (doesn't specify concentration on the label, it only says "high purity"),
the place on which I applied it (though I had to hold the camera with my other hand,
I actually pushed the slider with that hand), and my first PC keyboard ever, my BTC
(though technically, my first keyboard ever period was the Commodore 64, and the IBM Model M
on my cousins XT computer).
