So I was sitting down to play some World of Warships with my clanmates and I was setting down a glass of iced tea. I bobbled it, and some (not much) splashed on to my Corsair mechanical switch keyboard. I wiped it up quickly, not thinking too much of it, but then everything went to hell. The lights on the keyboard began flashing and cycling, and some of the control buttons began flashing. Then, the computer monitor began flashing, and the computer was not registering any keystrokes. I shut it down, cleaned up the keyboard a bit more, same deal. Let it dry for several hours, same deal.
So I’m picking up a new keyboard from Best Buy today, though I will disassemble the Corsair and try to see if I can fix it. Never seen anything like it though, it was like it was possessed by something.
My only advice, if you want to recover the old keyboard is to find a small shallow basin to fit the keyboard in, then put in enough alcohol to submerge it. Then take it out of the bath, drain it, and then repeat a few times, enough to wash the insides of the keyboard thoroughly.
Then after you drain it the last time, let it sit somewhere warm to dry for a day or two before you plug it in again.
I used this trick to recover a keyboard someone dumped chocolate milk on. We used a lot of rubbing alcohol on it. It took several baths until the alcohol ran clear.
I have heard a gentle dishwasher cycle can work if you are careful (make sure no batteries, no soaps, long dry time), and maybe pre-flush with some water or even isopropyl to mobilize alcohol soluble gunge.
Edit ObCanonical: Have you tried drilling holes in it?
Indeed. Even though I’m not a hard liquor drinker, generally, it would be disrespectful to the South’s favorite booze to use it as a cleaning product. Well, maybe the really cheap stuff would be ok.
I also have a Corsair mechanical (first-gen, it’s old), and I’ve spilled water on it twice. Not much; maybe a couple tablespoons full each time by bumping my water glass.
Keyboard completely freaked out both times.
Drying it for several hours didn’t work. What did work was 24 hours near a forced-air heat vent (it was winter). It apparently takes a seriously long time to thoroughly dry it well enough. It’s possible that 12 hours might have been enough, but I had to work anyway, so I just let it go a full 24.
After that, it was completely back to normal, and is still just fine several years later.
Granted, my instances were just water. Tea might be a bit different with regard to sticky keys, but if I were you, I’d try just giving it a good long dry before you go and disassemble the thing.
Oh, and I cleaned and dried the old keyboard and yep, it works now. Well, mostly. In one of the odd LED modes some of the keys don’t light up right, but in all other ways it’s back to normal. Ah well, I kind of like the new keyboard (a HyperX Alloy FPS) better, so I’ll keep both of 'em.
Y’all ever seen anything like that before? I noticed this same button the other day. I poked at it a few times and it seemed just like the other one. So I poked it a few more times and then went on with my life. Now, every once in a while, when I’m typing something, I’ll just randomly poke it for old times’ sake. That is, until yesterday, when just after I had gotten done poking it for no reason, I got a message flashed up on my screen saying “Hi. Glad you got a new computer. Hope you like it. Now, PLEASE STOP POKING THE EXTRA BUTTON FOR NO REASON IT CONTROLS MY BIDET”. So I don’t poke the button anymore.
Seriously, why is there the exact same key on this MSI GS66 keyboard? Just had to use up the extra space somehow? (Also, sorry for piggybacking on your keyboard thread).
This is the first laptop keyboard I’ve used in over 20 years so it’s all strange and new to me. I miss having a number pad. That big Enter button on the corner was handy, too.
