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DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

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Sesame seed and poppy bagels are the worst

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

It’s funny to hear the crunching sounds coming from the keys when you type.

Laptop….

In reply to Sesame seed and poppy bagels are the worst

What happend if the keyboard is the one of a laptop? How do you clean this???…. Its keys are very thin and has a mechanism very delicate…

Laptop Keyboard Cleaning

In reply to Laptop….

Try this link, it has some very detailed instructions: http://www.computing.net/howto/simple/keyboard/

the worst

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

Guess it’s not food but tomato juice is a consumable…also very ugly spashed across the keyboard.
Unplug quick, invert, let drip and be patient (an hour or two), generally works again.
There is still cleanup to do..but do it dry.
All liquids now are set down away from the peripheral and drunk sitting a bit back and away.
One doesn’t understand how such a stupid thing could happen …but quantum-wise, it does.

Alternative cleaning method…

In reply to the worst

Guess I should’ve mentioned ants too – I have a colony of those really small ones living on my desk – they LOVE tomato juice.

Chips

In reply to the worst

All kinds, potato, rice, corn, sesame, vegie. They all tend to snap
and invariably land between the keys. The perils of eating while
you work!

IV

In reply to Chips

It comes down to this, we all do it. We all try to get work done while we are eating or drinking becuase alot of us get so wrapped up in our work if we dont we wil actually forget to eat or drink.

So I just think we should all get fitted to have IV’s hooked up to us so its one thing we dont have to worry about. Just have somone change the bags every few hours.

*For thouse of you that think I am serious I am not. This post is pruely for the sake of humor. Besides it wouldnt work until they start making coffee IVs.

ten worst foods over keyboard

In reply to the worst

coffee or any other liquid would be a worse hazzard over a keyboard then crumbs. food can easily be either vacumed out or that can of cold air stuff they use to dust out keyboards. i’ve gone thru too many keyboards by spilling liquids of any kind on my keyboard.

ten worst foods over keyboard

In reply to the worst

coffee or any other liquid would be a worse hazzard over a keyboard then crumbs. food can easily be either vacumed out or that can of cold air stuff they use to dust out keyboards. i’ve gone thru too many keyboards by spilling liquids of any kind on my keyboard.

Still hate downloads, but …

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

Tech Republic’s use of downloads is still excessive. But to turn a common complaint around – why don’t you put a link to the download on the discussions page? At least then we could look at some of the comments before deciding if the download is worth the effort – and be able to get to the download easily.

Oh, about the content – it wasn’t worth the effort. Much too trivial.

Much too trivial?

In reply to Still hate downloads, but …

Ummm…so you were surprised by the content after reading the title?
Anyway, a warm, soapy bath (plus rinse and dry time) is what has resurrected keyboards best for me, though I have heard legend of some trying it with a laptop keyboard…while still attached.

Shake, shake, shake

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

Once a week, I recommend turning your keyboard over and giving it a good shake, so those little fragments of trail mix or granola bars get a chance to escape. And I comend you on an article of real use to us terminally tied to the keyboard.

The dangers of being a keyboard

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

It seems to make no difference what I eat, some of it always winds up in or on my keyboard, but it’s either that or not eating at all. Oh well, you’ve got to be tough if your my keyboard. I printed your article for a co-worker and she agreed that you write wonderfully. Thanks for a useful and amusing article.

Thanks….

In reply to The dangers of being a keyboard

Thanks for the kind words – it was a lot of fun to write.

Pringles, the character eraser

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

What about the acid-tipped finger effect? My wife went through a keyboard in short order by eating pringles while typing. Not long after, most of the characters were missing from the tops of the keys.

Of course, this can have its upside: One of my clients refuses to have her erased keyboard replaced, as her boss now avoids using her computer: He can’t touch type and so has no idea where the keys are! 🙂

Mark Raintree
Raintree Solutions, LLC
Santa Cruz, CA

Hmmm..so that explains it then

In reply to Pringles, the character eraser

I was wondering why some of the keys were rubbed off on my wife’s IBM Thinpad when I first bought it for her. It is a used off-lease machine and some of the key characters were rubbed off. Must have been some fat slob who ate salt & vinegar chips who owned this laptop before. The idea of touching a greasy keyboard is just nasty.

clean a keyboard

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

Best way I’ve found — don’t know where or whether someone told me this.

Turn the keyboard upside down. Dip a clean paintbrush is some kind of no-rinse cleaner (409 or something). Brush the keys thoroughly from underneath while it’s upside down, and let it dry in that position.

There you have it — even the smunge between the keys is gone.

Toaster Struedel

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

No matter how careful I am, the shrapnel crumbs burrow themselves below my keys! Have to shake them loose. Needless to say, quite a few of my keys are blank.

Clean a Desktop keyboard? Why?

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

Desktop keyboards and mice are so cheap, and get so dirty, I just replace them. That way I don’t have to touch someone’s old chee-tos droppings or leftovers.

I agree, Exactly!

In reply to Clean a Desktop keyboard? Why?

I read the post that took me to the “how to clean” link. You should really discuss this type of thing with your manager, general manager, or what have you before resorting to spend 2 hours cleaning a $15 keyboard. I don’t know about all people, but most techs and computer operators should be making about $15 an hour or better, so you have to ask yourself, is it worth it for you, or the company to be doing such a task? You may be wasting time well spent on another project that should really be done versus a piddly job as cleaning a keyboard!
If you really have soooo many troubles with keyboards you may want to have a policy by memo distributed about food and drink at workstations, or possibly that ruined equipment will eventually fall on the pocketbook of the user versus the company. If you want to make another type of impact ask your boss if you can switch to the sealed keyboards they have out now days, but watch out, some don’t type as easily or have the features and others cost more than they are worth!
On a side note (rant), before I started my position here at this company, they hired an outside vendor to do “preventative maintenance”. What he did for $50 an hour was ask a user to shut down their computer and give him an hour to clean it (Now you are out your employee?s time as well! What a waste). He would then take the computer to another spot, sometimes outside, which I can understand seeing some of the gardens growing in some of these computer towers. Anyway, he would open the tower blow some canned air inside until the dust settled and put the cover back on. This was a 5 minute job for him. Then he would wipe the case down with a cleaner, another 5 minutes. He spent the next 45 minutes cleaning the keyboard! I ask you for what? The keyboard is the least expensive, most easily replaced part of a computer system. For $50 an hour I would have brought replacement keyboards for every one of the computers and made the users happy (You know the look I am talking about when someone gets something new). I would at least then do the same tower cleaning only using a small vacuum as well as air, along with doing a defrag, disk cleanup, antivirus and windows update, if applicable, and antispyware scan.
My two cents.

Replace the keyboard

In reply to Clean a Desktop keyboard? Why?

Hey…. what do you do with the old keyboard???

Hot steamy overfilled/overflowing saucy sloppy joe sandwiches….

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

– just kidding 😉

Don’t you ever eat anything like that over my keyboards, you’ll be picking the letters Q W E R T Y out of your front teeth!

Beat me to it

In reply to Hot steamy overfilled/overflowing saucy sloppy joe sandwiches….

That was going to be my answer on this one.

“Water Damage”

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

The worst foodstuff I ever spilled on my laptop was Lucozade – the nasty orange type folk tend to take to hospitals. I spent ages cleaning it, but it just got into most of the keyboard – thankfully thats all.

If I’ve not used it for a while the space bar and arrow keys stick continuously until about half an hour or hammering.

I know of someone who once had to chisel a hard drive out of a laptop that had an accident with some lucozade.

Dishwasher Safe????

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

Okay, you guys are gonna love this one…
About 3 or 4 years ago when I was teaching a Windows class, one of my students told me that he cleans his keyboard by taking it apart and putting it in the diswasher!! Yes, you heard me correctly…D-I-S-H-W-A-S-H-E-R!

He said that he didn’t use soap; he just ran it through the rinse cycle and used the no heat dry method.

I asked him if his keyboard worked after that and unbelieveably, he said “Yes, perfectly”.

Even after all these years…I’m still too afraid to try that one! I’ll just keep shaking my keyboard and blowing it out with canned air.

Has anyone else tried this method??

As dishwasher safe as tupperware!

In reply to Dishwasher Safe????

I have been using the dishwasher methoed for many years. I recommend to everyone I see who’s keyboard is in severe need of a bath to use the dishwasher. The only thing unsafe, and I cannot stress this this enough for those that don’t think before they act, is take the keyboard apart and REMOVE the inards! The only thing you want in the dishwasher are the top (with all the keys, no leds pcbs or keyboard traces) and the bottom. Also, I use soap. What’s the point if you aren’t going to make it smell lemon fresh?? lol. I also use the heated drying, as getting all the water out otherwise is a pain. If it’s safe enough for your plastic dishes, it’s safe enough for a keyboard.

My preferred method…

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

is to wipe the keyboard down with a rag and rubbing alcohol,then use a spray bottle to LIGHTLY mist the keyboard with alcohol and use a toothbrush to scrub between the keys.When the keyboard is clean to your liking blow out all the particles,and wipe it down one last time.

The advantages to using alcohol are it removes any oils very well,dries very quickly,and sanitizes at the same time.
BTW if it looks like it will take longer than 15 minutes to clean the keyboard I generally just replace it.

yogurt and pudding

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

I was at work and right before the students I dropped a yogurt cup on the keyboard! Talk about a red face and the suppervisor was due any minute in the room! I wiped the obvious up, then washed the keyboard in the kitchen later…

Has been doen

In reply to yogurt and pudding

when I was considerably poorer than I am now I have washed a keyboard in the bath and dried it out on a radiator. it was partially sucessful but as new keyboards can now be bought on line for less than ?2 there really isn’t any point.

It is handy to try when all the shops are shut and you need a keyboard in a hurry, when they are faulty why not try cleaning it? you may be sucessful and there isn’t anything to lose.

BEER

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

I HAVE SPLIT BEER GAMING 3 TIMES –2 TIMES IL OST THE KEY BOARD. IF YOU SPILL BEER ON YOUR KEY BOARD IMMEADIATLY TURN UP SIDE DOWN AND SHAKE UNTIL NO DROPS COM OUT. LET DRY UP SIDE DOWN . I SAVED ONE THAT WAY. next TIME I USE THE DISHWASHER IDEA!!!1

Scrub Away the Grime

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

For general periodic cleaning, I use a variety of small brushes and human-compressed air (I blow on it myself). On occasion, I’ll soak a cotton swab in alcohol and get into the crevaces or scrub a stained key or two.
When I REALLY need to clean ’em up (like the time I had to work on the computer of a professor who used to smoke in his office – I was afraid to touch that keyboard!), I dig out the all-purpose cleaner and a fingernail brush.
1) Power off the computer and unplug the keyboard.
2) Spray generously with cleaner (409, Fantastik, etc.) but there is no need to soak it so it’s dripping wet.
3) Scrub away the grime with the nail brush. Try to get into the crevaces and between the keys.
4) Before it dries, wipe down the surfaces with a clean cloth or paper towel. (red shop towels are not recommended as they leave red, stringy lint everywhere).
5) For stubborn crud between keys, you may want to get out the cotton swabs or use the edge of a folded paper towel or other cloth.
6) Let dry for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour or two. Reattach and fire it up.
For a thorough decontamination, pop off every key and clean off the plastic membrane with a damp cloth then scrub each key individually.
I know, it’s easier to replace the keyboard but when you’re in an educational environment or you’re strapped for cash, justifying the purchase of another $40-$50 MicroShaft Natural keyboard is a bit of a hard sell when then keyboard still works but it’s just dirty.

I hadn’t ever thought about scrubbing it upside down and letting it dry that way… I’ll have to try that.

Cheetos

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

Unless you use some sort of utensil, cheetos coat your fingers with that bizarre yellow-orange goo that takes a run through the instrument sterilizer in surgery to remove, or 10 days of handwashing, whichever comes first. When that gunks on the keys, you might as well replace the keyboard. Of course, the cherry koolaid a certain Dr. spilled in his laptop wasn’t exactly cleanable.

CocaCola

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

I’ve had users spill Coke into their keyboards and it literally eats away the foil on the circuit film. There is no way to clean it up.

Off topic hint

In reply to CocaCola

Coca cola makes an excellent flux for soldering aluminium, using just standard solder. Also a good duco stripper.

That’s interesting.

In reply to Off topic hint

Thanks for the tip.

Another hint

In reply to Off topic hint

Manyu mechanics use coca cola to clean battery terminals – it’s so corrisive.

addin sum flavour to this ;)

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

jelly on my keyboard was cleaned after I used a face cleanser 😉

Potato Chips and Pepsi

In reply to DOWNLOAD: The worst foods to eat over a keyboard

All night coding sessions are sometimes filled with Potato Chips and Pepsi or w00t beer (root beer). Toast is also a bad one, esp. buttered toast. Crumbs get into the keyboard and the only way to clean is to disassemble the keyboard and clean it. I disassemble my entire system (except montor, which I wipe down) and clean it every so often, at least once a year. Pop can leave a sticky goo on it. Not to mention those liquid candy stuff during one of those all-nighters where you needed a sugar rush while listening to Ferry Corsten and Ilo and coding an entire web site that is due the next day.

Most of my keyboard has hidden potato chip, tortilla chip, and toast crumbs though.

And let’s not even talk about the mouse, huh? 😉

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