Urgent: Milk on KeyBoard!!!

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deusex

deusex

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Jun 19, 2006
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Hey Guys, sorry for for posting here, but t's really urgent, and I know you guys the best - I just spilled a little milk on my Dell Inspiron 8600 Latop (Keyboard area), and now, the buttons have gone WACKO - each key stands for something else - absolutely no pattern???

Please Help!

(using my Logitech Wireless MX3200 keyboard (desktop) to type this)
 
Take it apart and clean it carefully with clean water, dry well.

PS. Use a no lint,non static cloth, and deionized water if possible.
 
Only suggested that because of the time of day, I think it will dry on you before you can get it to a professional. If it was water I would suggest just letting it dry, but milk will get sticky.

Personally, I'd open it up and see If I was capable of the job. But I'm in the same boat as you.

PS. If you're in LA maybe you can find someone in the middle of the night? Call Dell and see if they have any advice (doubtful).

PPS. I once successfully cleaned cola out of a desptop keyboard, it wasn't to hard, just had to watch out for little pieces. I assume a laptop will be more complicated.
 
Probably got a short in there somewhere. You are lucky it is running at all. In case you didn't google laptop spills already, here.

I'm worried that milk will be sticky when it dries. You could just dry it out and see. If it is sticky but still working you can either attempt to clean it yourself, or take it to a technician.
 
only thing I could add is blow it out with air. Someone could take it apart, wipe off the copper board below the keys and that would work. Not a job for a beginner.
We have special laptop shops here, but we have almost everything in the land of M$. I take it Dell is out?
 
Same thing happened to me, except it was tea. Download the service manual from Dell. It shows you how to take out the keyboard. Thank god the keyboard has a pan to hold liquid. Don't turn it on while it is still wet or moist. Let it dry with a hair dryer first after removing the keyboard. If it still is flaky, then remove the keyboard and try the de-ionized water on it. Again, all instructions can be found on the Dell website, just look for the service manual.
Worst case, replace the keyboard. Free if it under warranty and you cleaned it up good.

My keyboard works now, it just smells like blueberry tea, which is kind of nice.

As far as "milk" is concerned, next time use tissues! 😳 😳 😳
 
Milk's not too bad, but the fact that you continued running it 'wet' could prove to be an issue.

(I hope that you have a backup keyboard handy.)

On most keyboards there are several screws on the back holding the layers together. There may be also some clips built into the plastic surround that may or may not be easy to access. If you do manage to get it apart with destroying the thing, usually there are two layers inside (sometimes three) consisting of the physical keys, a rubberized sub-layer, and the contact PCB below. The rubberized layer will have carbonised contacts on the PCB side. The physical keys may or may not have mechanical springs as well... Clean the underside of the rubberised surface, and the contact area of the underlying PCB with sterile water, and let dry in a dust-free environment. Re-assemble. Hopefully you haven't blown up the KB's main controller...

Nah. Just get a new keyboard.

And remember that liquids do bad things to input devices.
 
it's a laptop-replacement kyboard?

it seems like the flag,arrow, enter, bckspace keys, space,some letters work - not much letters, though.
 
That is how they will work, one section of the PCB will start shorting, even though the letters are far apart. Same thing happened to my PowerBook 160. I never got permission to kill the kid though
 
Anyway of fixing that?! - This is my only computer right now... :cry:

Also, when I boot Windows, A series of short beeps come up right after BIOS is laucnched, before windows flying logo - is my HD affected? (beeps happening a few times already)
 
Probably thinks a key is stuck. The hard drive should the last thing to go from a small spill. Best bet right now is take apart the laptop and clean the keyboard. If you feel you do not want to risk it, go to bed and wait until morning.
 
The reason that it is a bit 'random' is that every key has an 'x' and a 'y' axis. So lets imagine the wires in your PCB. There are about 5 or six 'x' axis traces, running vertically. Call your ESC key 'X1'. Now you also have a number of 'y' axis traces. These run vertically. So now your ESC key is the intersection of 'x1' and y1'. When this key is pressed, it generates a signal that cooresponds to that key, which is then then processed by your KB controller and converted to the cooresponding keystroke, which is then sent on to your PC.

So if you spilt milk in the middle, imagine the 'x' and 'y' traces that might be wet.

Fortunately, it was just a backup KB...
 
The good news...you'd be surprised at how resilient laptops are. I've encountered many laptops that had drinks spilled on them and they still worked fine after getting cleaned and/or replacing the keyboard.

The bad news...as others have said...it's kind of a bad idea to keep running it before it's either cleaned or the liquid has dried. I understand that it's your only computer...so it's a bit of a "sticky" situation. HAHA Oh yes, I went there. :wink:

OK, bad puns aside. Even if the keyboard is damaged beyond repair, it's a simple matter for a tech to pop a new one in. I would call Dell ASAP and make sure A: it's still under warranty and 2: how to go about getting it either fixed or replaced.

Assuming not too much milk was spilled, it's very possible that it didn't go past the keyboard and to any other parts. It would seem that it didn't, since you are still using it. But there's no way to know for sure until someone takes it apart.

Someone else suggested looking at Dell's support site for instructions on taking the laptop apart. If you were able to find some documentation that had clear instructions and diagrams, and if you felt comfortable enough to do it, you could try to take the keyboard out yourself. Although, if you're not experienced with laptop hardware, it might be good to wait.
 
Good news and bad news.
It might just be the keyboard part.
Bad news running it while wet is like driving home once you've blown out your tire. It just makes things worse.
Hopefully you didn't fry the circuitry on the mobo that controls the keyboard where it plugs into it etc. However if you did your mostly screwed and better just external for now/good. Unless you have accidental protection.
 
Hey Guys, sorry for for posting here, but t's really urgent, and I know you guys the best - I just spilled a little milk on my Dell Inspiron 8600 Latop (Keyboard area), and now, the buttons have gone WACKO - each key stands for something else - absolutely no pattern???

Please Help!

(using my Logitech Wireless MX3200 keyboard (desktop) to type this)
Click to expand...

I hope you have Complete Care!

If so, call dell let them know what happened. They will do some low level stuff to see if they can pin down what needs to be replaced. Most likely they will do a "return to depot". In some severe cases they may do a system exchange. At least, that's what the guy told me when I spilt coffee on mine.
 
Good news and bad news.
It might just be the keyboard part.
Bad news running it while wet is like driving home once you've blown out your tire. It just makes things worse.
Hopefully you didn't fry the circuitry on the mobo that controls the keyboard where it plugs into it etc. However if you did your mostly screwed and better just external for now/good. Unless you have accidental protection.
Click to expand...

All you need is to take it apart, clean it very well, make it absolutely dry and try it.

All you need are the right tools (usually small philips bits or torx T4/5/6)

ooo wow be careful there. A hairdryer WILL melt the keys on a keyboard of a laptop. My friend has a picture of someone who tried doing that, melted 5 of the keys beyond use and others were deformed.
 
The good news is laptop keyboards can be pretty cheap to replace if you end up having to buy a new one.
I had one from Alienware go out on my new laptop. I asked if they could cross ship and they said yes but they had to use a credit card to do it. The old "IF we get the old keyboard back before 30 days, we won't charge your account." When I inquired what the cost of the keyboard was, he replied $12.00.
BTW usually they are very easy to remove completely once you know the tricks to get them to lift out. Replacing a keyboard shouldn't take you more than 2 min after you figure out how to get it to lift up and out of the laptop.
 
You can send desktop keyboards through the dishwasher. You have to take it apart first, though. I have never tried it with a notebook keyboard (too many small parts).
 
A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine knocked a full cup of hot black coffee onto his Macbook keyboard. He of course went ape-s*#t. It was still running while the coffee was spilling over it.

So we shut it off and let it dry on the window-sill. In the meantime I called Apple to find out if they would cover any damage. They replied with a resounding "no." So after an hour or two of drying, we turned it on and it worked just fine.

It still works today, but it smells strongly of 7-11 coffee.
 
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