Keyboard Water Damage

Hachface

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop that has worked extremely well for me for three years now. Yesterday, however, I spilled a very small amount of water on the keyboard around the "S" key. This did not damage the computer's harddrive or motherboard or anything like that, but the following malfunctions have occurred:

The W and D keys needs to be pressed extra hard in order to work.

When I press the A key, this happens: daddadadad

When I press the S key, this happens: dsdsdsdsdsdsdsdsdsds

When I press the E key, this happens: eded

My educated guess is that the D key is the root problem.

The strangest part: The touchpad won't work unless I hold down the space bar, which causes all kinds of problems.




Is this a problem I can solve myself?

Cycophant

Buy a replacement keyboard?

Seriously, it's really easy to replace. And the odds of you being able to fix one of those little buggers is pretty slim. I've tried it, with very little success. You can pick up a new keyboard for fairly cheap, and replacing it just involves lifting the hinge panel, removing two screws, and unplugging the cable for the laptop. Do the reverse with the new one, and you're set.

brandotheninjamaster

My fathers GF had something like this happen. She spilled an entire cup of coffee on hers. Tech support told her to hand it upside down for 24 hours. Worked like a champ after that.

Oboro

brandotheninjamaster wrote: »

My fathers GF had something like this happen. She spilled an entire cup of coffee on hers. Tech support told her to hand it upside down for 24 hours. Worked like a champ after that.

Keyboards are really ridiculously simple machines given how the rest of the technology has evolved. When moisture gets beneath the keys, it provides a new conduit for the electrical impulses that tell your computer which key has been pressed. You're pushing a switch, basically, into a puddle-- the puddle splashes the signal all over the place, and things get messy.

With water, there's rarely (if ever) permanent damage-- not to the keyboard, anyway. Do as brando says and air the keyboard out; if you can easily/want to remove it and let it sit that way, it's fine, otherwise just let it chill for 24 hours or so without any use. Try to keep it in a less-than-humid environment, too, for that duration haha.

Coffee and tea are principally water, so again smallish risk of damage there-- anything else, though, will likely fry your board. Soft drinks, particularly, are the worst culprit-- they'll do actual damage to the circuitry if you let it sit. Ironically, a fair solution for pouring soda on your keyboard is to immediately disconnect it and rinse it with water. The more you know!