Drinking and typing don’t go together well. However, since we spend most of the day glued to the monitor typing emails away (some may actually do some real work), drinking and eating at our desk are sometimes a necessity.
You know it is just a question of time. It’s going to happen, and there you go: the phone rings, you quickly move your arm to reach towards the phone and hit the glass of wine that starts to oscillate slowly. Paralyzed, you watch the glass moving right and left until it decides to land on your beloved keyboard. Next thing you know the keys are sticky, and the keyboard is unusable.
You basically have three choices: 1) dig out and use the $5 keyboard that was delivered with your PC and endure the discomfort, 2) get a replacement from us at a preferred customer price (http://www.daskeyboard.com/support.php), or 3) try to fix this problem. We always stated that a keyboard with a spill is doomed, but Christian, a happy Das Keyboard user, explained how he fixed his keyboard after a spill.
Christian writes: “… Thank you for the swift response. However, you stand corrected regarding your “no way to fix this” assessment.
After disassembling the keyboard (finally found all 3 screws below the rubbers and a sticker) and carefully lifting the plastic clips (without braking any, by the way), I stripped off all key caps, disconnected the main keyboard from the PCB, and bathed the board in 91% isopropyl alcohol for a few minutes whilst repeatedly pressing the 7 switches that had become stuck by the wine. After 5 minutes of dripping I then used a hair dryer for another 5 minutes to completely evaporate the remaining alcohol. The re-assembly then took another 10 minutes.
In summary, after $3 of alcohol and 30 minutes of my time the keyboard works again perfectly – as if nothing happened (typing on it now right).”
Thank you, Christian, for sharing this.
Daniel