Help

[wellinghall]

(1) How can I best clean my PC's keyboard?

(2) How can I finally shift my persistent catarrh (sp?) before I go on holiday?

Comments

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

I find that POtters Cattarrh Pastilles help slightly. If you look carefully some places stock the sugar free ones, which I use in order to avoid tooth damage.

To clean the keyboard, I normally just turn it upside down and bang it on the desk a few times, then vaccuum up the pile of crumbs, and also run the vacuum over the keyboard.

If it needs more than that, a light mist of spray on cleaner - glass cleaner or something that is partly alcohol based, then wipe the dirt off with kitchen paper or something.

Isopropanol is good if yo have it to hand - but if you need to use any water, use deionised, because any that may get into the works won't leave a residue.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I second the recommendation for Potter's Catarrh Pastilles (or the 10p cheaper Boots variety, which are identical, whereas the Superdrug variety are an inferior green product). Also cutting back on consumption of white bread and dairy products can help, though I've generally decided the cure was worse than the ailment in that case.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

We have had no problems (ie. haven't killed the keyboard) using household antibacterial kitchen wipes. (Not for their antibacterialness, but the fact that they aren't too wet, but get the stuck on grease off rather well). Cotton wool buds or those little squared-off foam cleaning doodads that Lakeland sells, among other people, could be useful.

I do shake the dirt out gently too. I've read things both ways about vacuum cleaners, never needed to resort to one of those yet. Keyboards seem pretty indestructible though, I only ever killed one by chucking a glass of wine all over/into it, once. Several other 'attempts' at this haven't resulted in keyboard death though. (nb. these attempts are of course accidental).

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

1. If you're extremely careful - especially with the wire supports under the larger keys - like this: http://wry.fotopic.net/p15841505.html (Take the key tops off, soak them in a bowl of warm soapy water; blow out the crud from under them [close eyes!]; when dry, reattach key tops and be sure to get them in the right places! Or - if an experienced touch-typist and feeling evil - reattach in subtly wrong places >:-D )

[miss-t-ide.livejournal.com]

I have fond memories of prising the keys of keyboards to clean them, and then trying to make sure I put them back in the right place!

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

While we are thinkoing of ways to confound people, have you ever encountered rotating the deflection coils on a CRT television, so that the picture is at about 30° to the horizontal, then propping up one end of the tv with a book so that the picture is level...

In a coach on the way to a ski holiday the horizontal deflection coil had been connected in reverse - presumably at a repair, and the ski rep kept trying to fix the roblem of all the writing being backwards by putting the VHS tape into the machine the other way round. I explained that someone was obviously having their little joke, but it took her about half an hour to get around to believing me. Theyy clearly didn't do a good job of teaching basic science even that long ago.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I've seen a keyboard for evil touch typists that has all blank keys.

[malaheed.livejournal.com]

it depends on what sort of crud is needed to be removed.

if it's sticky crud on the key tops, then cotton buds in hot slightly soapy water

most keyboards can actually be washed - but you have to be careful.

you can also hold upside down and shake gently to shift the crumbs out - and a good blow an air bottle helps

[emperor]

you can get keyboard-cleaning sprays

[chainmailmaiden]

I use a cotton bud dipped in tea tree oil to get rid of dirty marks on my computer equipment. It's very good at removing them, is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral and it smells nice :-)

Might help clear your sinuses too, if you inhale it as you clean :-)

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Cost of brand new, good quality keyboard: £7.

Unless you really don't value your own time very highly, or you really love your existing keyboard, just buy a new one.

(I'm assuming it's not a laptop here of course.)

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Or it's not one of those ergonomic split keyboards which don't seem to be available any longer.

From recent searches on the net it isn't possible to get a Microsoft Pro keyboard now; there are cheap imitations like the one I have here at work but that fails every so often (amongst other things the alt key stops working) and it has a combined insert and delete key!

You either seem to be able to get ones where the keyboard is slightly curved but the left and right parts still abut each other, which means they are too close together for me; or they are apart but square on, which means they are at the wrong angle. I want the two parts separated and angled.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

(2). Try going dairy-free for a week.

And/or gargling with salt water and expelling out of your nose. Utterly, utterly, utterly disgusting, and I always tell myself it won't work. But it does. And it beats avoiding cheese.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

It depends on what you want to clean.
* Crumbs from under the keys.
* Crud off the keys.
* Crud off the surfaces between the keys.

A vacuum cleaner does a good job of getting rid of some of the lose crumbs. However, you may well need to take it apart to get rid of all of them. This shouldn't be difficult, there should be screws in the bottom that can be removed. There will also probably be some clips that will need releasing, gentle prising with a knife blade should deal with those.

There are a number of ways of cleaning crud off the keys and surfaces between them. Dust and lose dirt can be removed with a vacuum cleaner. Any sort of lightly moist cleaner should shift most things. If it requires friction to do it you may need to remove the key tops; the easy way to remember which goes where is to take a photograph of the keyboard before you dismantle it.

A quick and easy way to clean the crud is a bit of spit on your thumb and rub. You'd be surprised at how good that is!