Easiest/quickest/cheapest way to clean laptop keyboard

[jbischke]

Over the years my laptop (thinkpad T43) has gotten kind gunked up (not to self, try to reduce eating at computer!). I'm wondering what the easiest/cheapest/quickest way is to clean the keyboard. I could do this myself if it's not too hard but if there is a relatively cheap way to "outsource" this I'd love to do that. Any suggestions?

[Zach]

Try getting a can of compressed air at Walmart or something. They are only about $3, and come with a little tube you can insert into the can for spraying crumbs and such from underneath the keyboard. If they keys are sticky and stuff, I'd probably say you'd need to take more drastic measures..

[jbischke]

Fortunately no sticky keys. The compressed air idea is a good one though!

[odietamo]

Is your Thinkpad still under warranty? If so, call in and tell them your keys are sticking.

With Dell, they always send me a new keyboard. Cleaning keyboards aren't worth the time, usually. They can usually be had for free through warranty services or bought on ebay for $20 or less.

[jbischke]

Actually it's a laptop so it's not quite so easy. If it were a desktop I would have junked the keyboard a long time ago.

[Dani]

I think you can get some alcohol based cleaning agents for cleaning laptop keyboards.

I am not sure if they work or not.

Compressed air is goer though. I use it on my home pc all the time.

[Caveman Joe]

Pop all the keys off by poking a butter knife underneath them and twisting slowly. Put all the keys in the sink, run hot water and some washing up liquid. Swish them around until the water's black, then take them out, bundle them all up in a towel and shake until they're reasonably dry. Leave them on a sunny windowsill to dry out thoroughly.
Back to your laptop, go through the keyboard's base with some cotton buds or Q-tips to get rid of all the gunk. Later, do the same again, this time with some cleaning agent (doesn't really matter what kind, Mr Muscle or Windolene will do) sprayed on the cotton bud (not on the keyboard base, it'll get in the holes left behind by the keys and do bad things).
Put all the keys back in, et voila. Good as new.

[da1prophet]

Originally Posted by Caveman Joe

Pop all the keys off by poking a butter knife underneath them and twisting slowly. Put all the keys in the sink, run hot water and some washing up liquid. Swish them around until the water's black, then take them out, bundle them all up in a towel and shake until they're reasonably dry. Leave them on a sunny windowsill to dry out thoroughly.
Back to your laptop, go through the keyboard's base with some cotton buds or Q-tips to get rid of all the gunk. Later, do the same again, this time with some cleaning agent (doesn't really matter what kind, Mr Muscle or Windolene will do) sprayed on the cotton bud (not on the keyboard base, it'll get in the holes left behind by the keys and do bad things).
Put all the keys back in, et voila. Good as new.

Don't pop your laptop keys off so indiscriminately! They're delicate and following this advice may get your keyboard clean, but more likely it'll just force you to buy a replacement keyboard...

I just bought a reconditioned replacement keyboard for my laptop for about $20 on Ebay. If they're really gunked up and compressed air doesn't do the trick it might be worth the cost. Laptop keyboards aren't particularly hard to replace if you're fairly tech savvy--mine required the removal of a few screws and the insertion of a ribbon cable into the back.

And if you're going to do this--or anything else to your laptop for that matter--yourself, this site is a great reference source:

Repair4Laptop: Laptop & Notebook Repairing, Upgrading and Modding Guides: by Manufacturers

[Caveman Joe]

I didn't think it was worth mentioning that you should prise off the keys gently, 'cause... well, I'm the sort of guy who thinks the "For external use only" warning on shampoo bottles is a bit redundant. :P
Of course they're delicate, man! And of course you can break them or damage your keyboard, if you do something really dumb - but "Don't be really dumb" is redundant advice. If it feels like you're putting too much force on them, you probably are, and should approach from a different angle. If you use a caustic cleaner you could remove the lettering from the keys. If they're not completely dry when you put them back in, odd things can happen to your keyboard (and potentially even your laptop, if they're really dripping). But this sort of thing should be pretty obvious.
In all seriousness, I've never damaged a keyboard doing this, and it's my routine method of cleaning (or DVORAK conversion). The whole "don't do it if you're gonna screw it up" thing is kinda redundant.

[Dani]

It's called evolution.

If you are too stupid to do so simple a thing right... Then you shouldn't be so high on the food chain.

I vote that we remove all warning labels and let common sense sort people out!
At least it will help with the global over population problem.

[odietamo]

laptop keyboard is super easy to replace. screws and a ribbon cable. that's all. if your laptop is under warranty, have them send a tech to do it.

people who are scared of their computers are funny. ;-p

[da1prophet]

Originally Posted by Caveman Joe

I didn't think it was worth mentioning that you should prise off the keys gently, 'cause... well, I'm the sort of guy who thinks the "For external use only" warning on shampoo bottles is a bit redundant. :P
Of course they're delicate, man! And of course you can break them or damage your keyboard, if you do something really dumb - but "Don't be really dumb" is redundant advice. If it feels like you're putting too much force on them, you probably are, and should approach from a different angle. If you use a caustic cleaner you could remove the lettering from the keys. If they're not completely dry when you put them back in, odd things can happen to your keyboard (and potentially even your laptop, if they're really dripping). But this sort of thing should be pretty obvious.
In all seriousness, I've never damaged a keyboard doing this, and it's my routine method of cleaning (or DVORAK conversion). The whole "don't do it if you're gonna screw it up" thing is kinda redundant.

You either have the hands of a master surgeon or else my laptop keyboards are different from yours. I don't think I could gently remove the keys on my keyboard without damaging them even if I wanted to.

Like one of the other posters noted, replacing a laptop keyboard is brutally easy. If you've gunked it up beyond what compressed air can fix I'd just replace it, especially if it was still under warranty...

[Radek Pilich]

Yeah guys, better to search internet before trying to do something like removing keys from your laptop keyboard. I have accidentally split some water into my keyboard and the section with arrow keys, shift and enter died. I have tried to remove the keys and some of them cannot be easily placed back. I just cannot do that with my hands, the mechanism there is so tiny and must be mounted in a specific order, what is impossible to do with my hands. A

nyway, because my keys are dead forever, I have recently ordered a new one And yes, as was said before - anyone who can operate with the screw driver is able to replace his keyboard if he can get service manual for his laptop, and this is needed only in the case of the tough ones (Sony Vaio for example). You can figure out what to do on your own on most laptops (at least I hope so I always know how my gadgets look from inside ...ehm that reminds me I have a new Palm TX here... where's the screw driver....

[Mark Lapierre]

Keyboards are disgusting