Yet Another Soda in Keyboard thread

[letsgetCUTTY]

hi

i spilled ginger ale and gin on my unicomp customizer 101 the very day i bought it.

It spilled over Tab through Ctrl, and Q - Z. Since I was very drunk I didn't really care and just kept on playing my vidya games.

The next morning I noticed that Shift was a ***** to push down, it felt very mushy. If I keep hitting it it starts to feel like normal, but after about 5 minutes it starts to feel mushy again. At its worst it takes about .5 seconds to go back to its resting position after hitting it. Ctrl also feels ****ty but not as much.

I still didn't do anything about it that day since I had to go to work, then went straight to bed. Today I decided to try and fix it.

I took 91% rubbing alcohol and Q-tips, popped off the offending keys, and thoroughly swabbed every visible inch. Then I took a hairdryer and made sure it was dry. Then I got some compressed air, then popped the keys back on. Then I noticed it didn't do anything so I did it all over again. I also cleaned out the insides of several keys this time. I have managed to fix Ctrl, but I didn't do anything to Shift.

Every single key is registering as it should.

Wat do?

[Brian8bit]

All I know of Gin is you should never ever drink a bottle of it by yourself (I've never known drunkenness like it). Unless you have malaria. And don't give it to women.

[bugfix]

This might help in the future:

[keyb_gr]

If cleaning the keys and insides and outsides of the key barrel doesn't help, some of the stuff might have gotten between the hammer and membrane. That would mean major trouble.

Pick up the spring and move it around a little. There should be a bit of a rattle to be heard as the hammer moves.

[letsgetCUTTY]

Hello, just an update on my situation.

As I said earlier Ctrl works fine now, the only key giving me any trouble is Shift.

For those of you that have this keyboard and have looked underneath the shift keycap you will see that to the left there is a normal buckling spring, but to the right there is a thin hole that a male 'connector' fits into. I popped off a random key, inserted it on the left side of where Shift would go (where the spring is), and it works and feels perfectly.

So where exactly is all of the residue? Why does it only occur if the male connector of the Shift key is inserted into the keyboard? I can get a cotton swab into the hole perfectly, and I'm pretty sure there's no residue left there.

I would try your suggestion Ripster, but as far as I can tell I only have one key malfunctioning and I don't know if that is necessary. I might inadvertently break something in the process. Also why do you recommend denture cleaner? If you or anyone can diagnose my problem that'd be great, I'm more curious than worried at this point.

Sorry if this sounds confusing. I can take pictures when I get home.

[theferenc]

Sometimes, those stabilizer inserts can act "sticky". This usually seems to happen after I've taken it out and reseated it, and the "depth" of the stabilizer is wrong, in some fashion.

Removing and reseating it again usually fixes the issue.

In your case, it's possible some crap is still in the stabilizer insert itself. Pull it out, and thoroughly clean it (inside and out), and clean the stabilizer stem on the shift key. Just make sure you pay attention to the orientation of the insert, so you can put it back properly.

Hopefully that takes care of the issue. But given that the actual switch works fine with another key, I would lay money on the stabilizer being the issue.

Oh, and in terms of denture cleaner: it's probably the best and easiest way to remove grime and filth from keys. After all, it's designed to sanitize fake teeth, which have all kinds of nasty gunk on them. Just think of how your teeth feel in the morning after a long night of drinking...

Anyway, denture tabs work magic. And they are completely non-harmful.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

Thank[strike]k[/strike]* god I  only spilled water on my RK-9000. Made me more rigorous about keeping the water bottle on the polar opposite side of my desk from the tray. Not close enough to knock on the keyboard or tray, but within reach.

Despite having problems with it, I've been kind enough to never give my Filco a bath.

* And thank god I'm still in warranty. Bizarre that I'm getting all this chattering at once!

[letsgetCUTTY]

Sometimes, those stabilizer inserts can act "sticky". This usually seems to happen after I've taken it out and reseated it, and the "depth" of the stabilizer is wrong, in some fashion.

Removing and reseating it again usually fixes the issue.

In your case, it's possible some crap is still in the stabilizer insert itself. Pull it out, and thoroughly clean it (inside and out), and clean the stabilizer stem on the shift key. Just make sure you pay attention to the orientation of the insert, so you can put it back properly.

Hopefully that takes care of the issue. But given that the actual switch works fine with another key, I would lay money on the stabilizer being the issue.

Oh, and in terms of denture cleaner: it's probably the best and easiest way to remove grime and filth from keys. After all, it's designed to sanitize fake teeth, which have all kinds of nasty gunk on them. Just think of how your teeth feel in the morning after a long night of drinking...

Anyway, denture tabs work magic. And they are completely non-harmful.

We are referring to the little white hole?

Sorry that's as descriptive as I can be

Anyway yeah? I don't wanna be trying to take something out that's not supposed to be coming out. How do you suggest I try to take it out?

[theferenc]

Oh, sorry, forgot to mention that.

And yes, the little white hole. It's a plastic insert filling that hole in the barrel plate.

The easiest way I've found to remove it is to use two sharp pointy objects, and poke at both sides simultaneously, and lift it up. It should just come right out.

If it doesn't, you can use the edge of the barrel for leverage. My preferred tool to do this is the blade from a box cutter. The corner digs in to the plastic ever so slightly, and makes it super easy to pry out.

And alternative that I've had some success with (though I keep losing it) is to put a sharp bend in the last couple millimeters or so of a needle. Small enough that it will fit through the hole in the bottom of the insert, but large enough that it will give enough grip to pull it out. Insert that, grab with pliers, lift straight up. Just don't push too hard to get it down there, or you might poke right through the membrane.

[letsgetCUTTY]

Cool, thanks bro!

I will try it when I get home from work and update this thread.

[letsgetCUTTY]

I took it out, cleaned it, cleaned the thing holding it, and cleaned the shift key again, still didn't do anything. Then I popped out the stabilizer in the OTHER shift key, put it in the mushy slot, and that didn't do anything either.

By the way, I noticed that it was much more difficult to insert the stabilizer in the mushy key than in the shift that is working fine.

It's pretty difficult to get these things out. The first time I used a paperclip and did something similar to what you did with a needle theferenc. It came out easily, but after that it was tough, I had to use a pair of tweezers and keep prying it out little by little.

Anyway, at least now we know it's not the stabilizer itself.