Coke spilled in keyboard, post-cleanup just getting garbage from keyboard

[khaytsus]

I had the most horrible thing happen just before Christmas, one of my cats knocked a can of Coke Zero over onto the right half of my Lexmark M15.   

I had it unplugged within 45 seconds, dumped out what had spilled into the keyboard, and rinsed it in the sink under warm water for 2-3 minutes, then dumped rubbing alcohol into the keyboard and swished it around, then took the back off, unplugged the keyboard connector cable, removed the ribbon cables, removed the board on the back of the case, blew out/shook out what moisture I could, and then put the upper half of the keyboard and the circuit board into a container of rice over the holidays on top of my PC..  The bowl was decently warm the whole time the two days.

Two days passed in the rice, there's no moisture anywhere in the bowl I can see, so I reassembled carefully and plugged in and I'm just getting garbage..   Seemingly random characters, some function characters perhaps too, seeing stuff like llllllllllln=================~4~4~4, similar stuff like that.

I don't think the board/cables/etc on the right hand side of the keyboard got wet when it was plugged in, as the coke was mostly the lower keys, and it mostly spilled over the keyboard, but it did get some in it obviously.  The lefthand section of the keyboard was unharmed.  I have not dissembled/reassembled yet again, as I'm afraid of messing with the ribbon cables too much.  I figured I'd post and see if you guys have some suggestions first.

Ribbon cables look like they should, the ground cable is reattached, the keyboard connector cables are connected correctly, etc.

Appreciate any help.

[daerid]

Damn, that sucks. The only thing I can think of is that you didn't let it sit in the rice long enough.

At least it was sugar-free. Makes a ton of difference. I've found that Diet Coke/Coke Zero dry up relatively stick-free.

[TotalChaos]

What did u do with the cat?

[khaytsus]

Damn, that sucks. The only thing I can think of is that you didn't let it sit in the rice long enough.

At least it was sugar-free. Makes a ton of difference. I've found that Diet Coke/Coke Zero dry up relatively stick-free.

So you think let it dry longer?  I'm so afraid something with the controller has died..

[daerid]

That's about all you can hope for now. I would try to disassemble it as much as possible and stick all the parts in there to dry out for a few more days. Unfortunately you may have fried something by plugging it in before it was completely dry.

[tp4tissue]

What did u do with the cat?

Cat?  Yum...

[Magnusian]

Considering the way it's constructed, it's more than likely some coke/water/iso is still in the membranes. Aside from waiting a likely obnoxious amount of time for it to dry, this might be a good excuse to look into doing a bolt mod. At the very least you'll be able to salvage the board itself and test the controller.

[daerid]

^^^ good idea

[rootwyrm]

Wow, now there's a damn rare board. The M15's the only one I've never had.
Indication though is that you've got a controller problem, though past that I couldn't tell you where. The M15 uses a totally different controller setup to handle the bridge. You're going to need to completely disassemble all the connections and get in there with something. Not sure what to recommend on an M15 though as I don't know the controller setup.

[khaytsus]

Considering the way it's constructed, it's more than likely some coke/water/iso is still in the membranes. Aside from waiting a likely obnoxious amount of time for it to dry, this might be a good excuse to look into doing a bolt mod. At the very least you'll be able to salvage the board itself and test the controller.

If I had a tap kit, I'd consider it..  I suppose they're probably not expensive, although never done anything like that before...  But I've considered a few times taking it apart because I have a few keys that are a little wonky, swapping out the bucklings for other lesser used keys.  Just afraid, lots of moving parts in there.

But yeah, it sounded like a controller issue to me too, just not sure what to do besides wait it out.  The whole keyboard is in the rice container now...   I suppose I'll use this UUGGGH MS 4000 for a while longer, maybe get up the courage to try to disassemble the keyboard half of the casing.

I"m not 100% sure, but it almost looked like the bottom half of the keyboard and the top half of the case were not the melted taps that I recall reading about, but rather there are little clips on 4-5 posts.  Something like a ring clip tool to take them up and off...

But I'm not sure, I assume I'd need to remove the keycaps first...  I've had trouble with that in the past, I have a problem with the \ key because something got underneath the keycap, so I carefully removed the keycap (which exposes the spring portion of the buckling, there's not the blank cap under etc) and when I put it back together, that key has acted weird since..  It doesn't need to "clack" to type, just a fairly slight press on the key will activate it.  So..  Needless to say, the more I fiddle with this keyboard, the more nervous I get.

[Magnusian]

I must admit, I'm not familiar with the M15's internals.

I didn't use a tap kit for either of my bolted Ms, it's not necessary.

As for your \ key, it sounds like the spring isn't seated correctly. Pop off the key, lift the front of the keyboard until the spring rests on the back edge of the post, then reseat the key.

[rootwyrm]

I must admit, I'm not familiar with the M15's internals.

I'm only somewhat familiar with them. They are not uniform, and they are not M, and past that I don't know. The melted rivet doesn't work very well on flat, and the M15 is very flat. But as I said, about all I know there. Photos could help.

I didn't use a tap kit for either of my bolted Ms, it's not necessary.

I generally do not recommend the use of a tap kit, or bolt modding in general, on the rarer model M's. Reason being that it can range from difficult to literally impossible to get replacement parts for. An M5-2 you can just swap the main keyboard assembly on, but the controller is unique and the IBM trackball assembly is vastly superior to the current Unicomp. An M13? Even finding the upper case can be exceedingly painful, forget the controller. M15? I've never even found donor boards for it.

As for your \ key, it sounds like the spring isn't seated correctly. Pop off the key, lift the front of the keyboard until the spring rests on the back edge of the post, then reseat the key.

Yeah, spring's wedged. The problem with the flat design is that you can't get the angle correct for reinstalling the keycaps. What you need to do is have the keyboard at about a 30 degree reverse incline when you reinstall the keycaps. Or far enough that the springs fall toward the top of the keyboard. It makes it much easier to reinstall the keycaps correctly.

[khaytsus]

Okay, I put on the big boy panties today and decided to give the M15 another try after a few more rounds of fresh dry rice and all of the desiccant I could find.

IT WORKS.

Now, since I'm paranoid... I'm putting it back in the rice for another week.  But it's looking good.  I did a very quick key check, everything seems to be working.   

And hey guys, thanks for the advice on the reassembly of keys, I had no idea you had to tilt the keyboard just right.  I'll give the \ key another shot once I have it back in service.