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Keyboard cleaning

alank2

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2016
Messages
2,256
Location
USA
The Toshiba T3100e I have has some keys that work fine and others that are intermittent. You might get 2 or 3 letters from pressing it once. The contacts are dirty, but the question is how to clean them? Most of them with repeated pressing get better so maybe I should just press the key hundreds of times to get it working, but is there a better way? I've got some spray contact cleaner - but could it be sprayed into the switch. These are some sort of contained switch like a cherry mx, but I'm not sure if it is that. I haven't tried to pull a key to see if some spray could get in or not, or even if that is a good idea or not.
 
Nearly all the keys are now working just from exercising them. The W seems resistant however! Any thoughts? Do you guys clean switches that look like cherry mx ones?
 
Spraying contact cleaner into a closed switch won't really do much good, because if there is junk inside the switch, it can't escape. I'd recommend pulling the switch and disassembling it to clean it properly.

You have to be careful disassembling a switch, if it uses the melted stakes method of holding the switch together, you'll have to use epoxy or superglue to put it back together. If it has clips and latches, be careful not to break them.
 
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