How to clean out an Apple keyboard
mck (0 points) | Thu, 2005-03-10 16:50Well, my white Pro keyboard had had its share of cats sleeping on it, food spilled in, and so on...it annyoed me a bit, all the junk in it, but when my shift key stopped working I devised a way to clean it out.
You need to get a flathead (non-phillips) screwdriver, and gently pop the shift key off. It has two hooks on the bottom which snap off. it may sound as though they're breaking, but don't worry, they're not.
When you have the shift key off, you can pop the other ones off rather easily by leaning the screwdriver against the shift key's stump.
Two tips: oversized keys (delete, shift, etc.) have a metal bumper on the bottom which you must attach before reseating. The enter (not return) key is pretty hard to put back on, it has four (two sets of snaps) so it's better to push with two fingers.
Also, keep all little brothers away from your desk during this operation. While I went to blow the keyboard out with compressed air, my brother came by and stole the 3 key. I had to threaten it out of him.
Cats SLEEPING on it????? Our cat (and yorkie puppy) try to sleep on the laptop (when it's closed) because it is warm... but I never would have thought a cat would sleep on the keyboard since it is so unpleasant. The only really weird place our cat sleeps is in the sink in the bathroom.
On topic- Wow... I never thought you could take a keyboard apart like that and get it back together! I tried once and ended up just going and buying a new one. Does the shift key stick on a lot of Mac keyboards? Mine is sticking on my work keyboard, and it's less than a year old (and not too dirty).
Anyone doing this proceedure, watch removing the spacebar. I did this same process a couple years ago with a keyboard and ended up snapping one of the little clips that hold the spacebar. If you do that, your keyboard is screwed. A useless spacebar ruins the whole keyboard. But all the other buttons are pretty simple to remove and clean around.
SlideawayMedia - web design for Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and surrounding areas.
http://www.modsuperstar.ca - now with 23% more iron
Mackie, welcome to the forums and thank you for the tutorial!
I especially liked your last paragraph! "keep all little brothers away from your desk" should be made into a t-shirt! :D
I actually have a photo of our kitten enjoying OSX's Expose, really quite adorable. Milla (the kitten) seems to prefer the ibook over the two other PC laptops I have, Apple must be doing something right.
====================
Jeff Yamada
Web Designer/Developer
www.hyperkulture.com
jeff@hyperkulture.com
aim: hyperkulture
====================
PC laptops generally have a reliefed surface, with bevels and lumps and such, whereas an iBook is nice and smooth. That's why.
Thanks, Mackie! Just a few days ago, the keyboard on one of my Macs encountered my 5 yr old son and a bag of Doritos. It'll be nice to get the keyboard back to all white instead of being yellow speckled.
Just one of the many reasons I don't like Apple's keyboards. With my Logitech, all I have to do is unscrew 8 to 10 screws on the bottom and the whole thing comes apart nice and easy.
The single good feature about Apple's keyboards (in my opinion) is that they have a great "touch" to them that isn't matched by any other keyboard out there. They just feel great to type on.
-----------
Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.
Hi, everyone!
One last note: if you'd like to take the whole thing apart, you need a very small allen wrench. You must pop off the line of keys towards the top, which will reveal some screws. I decided not to go to that extreme, since I needed the keyboard, but there is plenty of cat hair that slid down beneath the cracks to the bottom.
Hmm, and I did
I spilled a beer in my keyboard once and that completely fried it. I had to replace it. Now I keep all food and beverages away.
Any advice for cleaning out aPBook keyboard? I was considering using Dust-Off or similar canned air but worry about blowing dust further in.
Don't try this with PB keyboards, they're impossible to reassamble! :shock: