I spilled some cider on my K90 :(

Hi all,

 

It happened - after using my K90 only for a month I managed to spill some cider on it.

 

It happened yesterday morning but I couldn't really react upon it until now.

What I have done is I disconnected the keyboard, let it dry.

 

Today I removed all key caps, tried to open it (succeeded only partly, after removing all screw the keyboard won't fully "open", something keeps it closed around media keys and F keys) and blew some hot air. Now I am waiting for it to dry.

 

Now what is wrong: 2 keys feel jammed, and half of the keys react crazy. For instance if I press Shift the computer registers "A8" or another crazy string.

 

Please advice what to do. Such an awesome and expensive keyboard - don't wanna loose it :(

 

P.s. The backlighting works fine on all 3 levels.

 

Thanks in advance for helping me.

Sorry, you shouldn't have let it dry with a sticky sweet liquid...

 

This may still work - it would be better to do this right off the bat - but take it to your tub or shower area and spray with denatured alcohol or better yet, contact cleaner. Let it run freely out into the tub, occasionally pressing your keys to get it into the mechanism, spray again. Turn it upside down every so often to let the excess drip into the tub.

 

Repeat a few times and then lay upside down on an old towel to let it drain.

 

Contact cleaner should be safe, it's designed for use on electrical equipment. If you can only find denatured (rubbing) alcohol, get the highest percentage you can find (better to get 99% alcohol than 91%) - it's available at most grocery stores in the pharmacy/cosmetics area. The alcohol isn't sold in an aerosol form, so if you can - pour it into a simple mister-style plastic pump bottle for best results. Failing that you should be able to actually pour it directly onto the keyboard, swish it around a little, and then turn it upside down. Alcohol is cheap - usually less than a dollar a bottle. Contact cleaner can be found at good electronics retailers, or possibly at a hardware store.

 

It will dissolve the cider, but will possibly take multiple attempts now that it has dried. When the key action seems to be smooth - I'd take it outside and let it dry completely exposed to sunlight.

 

HTH!

 

 

BTW - I've done this on keyboards in the past that others had spilled coffee or coke on, and it worked great.

Sorry, you shouldn't have let it dry with a sticky sweet liquid...

 

This may still work - it would be better to do this right off the bat - but take it to your tub or shower area and spray with denatured alcohol or better yet, contact cleaner. Let it run freely out into the tub, occasionally pressing your keys to get it into the mechanism, spray again. Turn it upside down every so often to let the excess drip into the tub.

 

Repeat a few times and then lay upside down on an old towel to let it drain.

 

Contact cleaner should be safe, it's designed for use on electrical equipment. If you can only find denatured (rubbing) alcohol, get the highest percentage you can find (better to get 99% alcohol than 91%) - it's available at most grocery stores in the pharmacy/cosmetics area. The alcohol isn't sold in an aerosol form, so if you can - pour it into a simple mister-style plastic pump bottle for best results. Failing that you should be able to actually pour it directly onto the keyboard, swish it around a little, and then turn it upside down. Alcohol is cheap - usually less than a dollar a bottle. Contact cleaner can be found at good electronics retailers, or possibly at a hardware store.

 

It will dissolve the cider, but will possibly take multiple attempts now that it has dried. When the key action seems to be smooth - I'd take it outside and let it dry completely exposed to sunlight.

 

HTH!

 

 

BTW - I've done this on keyboards in the past that others had spilled coffee or coke on, and it worked great.

 

Wow, thanks a thousand stratosrally! In one hour I will go for some shopping and try to find contact cleaner. Awesome and detailed guidelines, will follow them step by step.

 

Will keep you updated with the status when trying the above. Logitech G510 feels so awkward after using mechanical keyboard -_-

Done this many times befor:sunglasse

 

 

but start with (rubbing) alcohol like already pasted not your type :-)

 

then you can take the tops off the cherry switches and you a cotten whool bud to clean the insides.

 

And the song in the vid just puts a :biggrin: on your face.

Thank you all for the good advises.

 

So the only thing I could find nearby where I live was denaturated alcohol. I sprayed it all over the keys pushing them down from time to time. Hope it works.

 

Now my K90 dries on a towel on a shelf. Any ideas to how long shall I wait until plugging it in again?

Ok guys, here is an update from me:

 

I have waited 4 days so I think it has got enough time to dry now.

I reconnected the keyboard, and some keys actually got fixed. But not all of them:(

 

I also noticed that few keys (the one affected the most) became extremely sticky and almost impossible to use. But I will take care of that if I will get all the keys to work in the first place.

 

As I mentioned before I didn't succeed with fully opening the keyboard so I wrote a latter to Technical Support. Well in short they told me they don't know how to open it/ they are not allowed.

 

I have nothing to lose so I have bathed my K90 in distilled water and I will wait another couple of days to see if it will help.

 

I will keep you updated, keeping my fingers crossed.

Good news guys!

 

Wow, the keyboard is fully functional now:) I can't believe it but it works!

I am so happy I don't have to buy a new keyboard.

 

Still couple of switches are pretty sticky when I tried them out today. However when I installed key caps all of the "sticky" keys seem to be responsive.

 

Is it something I should worry about? What can I do to make all of the keys smooth again? Surprisingly the keys that are sticky now are not the one affected by the cider...

 

Thanks again for all you tips. I think this thread should be featured, I believe I won't be the only one who will spill something on the keyboard -_-

Hello,

 

I spilled water on my k90 keyboard last night, i cleaned the keyboard immediately but when i tired using it, it wasn't functioning properly. Later i unplugged it, removed the keys and let it dry for entire night. When i plugged it again in the morning, it was behaving the same as night, i put it in sunlight and tried again it din't work properly. I, then used blow dryer and then again plugged it in, it behaving same.. few keys are working and few keys are acting crazy, then are typing random letters, what do i do? please help.. i can't afford to buy another new one :(

There isn't a lot of options. You can try drying it again to see if it helps or reflash the firmware.

hi, i had a similar problem with my k90 keyboard i accidently spill some coke on it and now a few of the keys have become very sticky and kinda annoying to use.

i was just wondering is that any way to clean it or take it apart so i can clean under the actual red stick ?

or any other method would be great

thanks

This post has a disclaimer - it has worked for me multiple times in the past, even on backlit keyboards, but continue at your own risk. I highly doubt a sticky spill is covered by any warranty, so I say go for it.

 

It seems the most highly regarded liquid to use for cleaning after a spill is distilled water. That being said, I've used clear rubbing alcohol of at least 89% purity with great success. I currently always make sure that I'm stocked up on at least two 16oz bottles of 99% that is carried even at my local chain grocery store - it's stupid cheap - less than $1 per bottle. I use it to clean all sorts of stuff - trying to test it first before going nuts on everything.

 

In my opinion the alcohol dissolves more than the water does, but it hasn't been so strong that it ruins anything I have tried it on. I stress that this has only been my experience. The keyboards I used it on in the past were all non-mechanical (although some were backlit) until...

 

:eek::eek::eek:

 

... OK, I myself have the K60 - which is simpler in design because it lacks LEDs, but I finally spilled NOS energy drink (too twitchy from caffeine?) all over it. I quickly rinsed it in 99% rubbing alcohol, blasted it with my Metro Data-Vac and then laid it facedown on a towel for a while. Then I took it out to my patio and propped it up on one end for a few hours - and finally switched which end it was propped up on. BTW - I removed all my keycaps during the process, rinsed it very thoroughly (lots of sloshing side-to-side), and I didn't use it for a couple days total after I was done - it went back face down on a thick towel at the end for another day or so. Also, I firmly slapped it face down on the towel several times holding it from alternating ends to really agitate the key action - and while rinsing I made sure and depressed each key a few times for full penetration of the alcohol.

 

Works fine now. I do have 2 of the K60 - I used the other while waiting for the first to recover! I still can't believe after years of not spilling on a keyboard I finally did it again. There was a lot of cussin' going on...

 

Everything is at you own risk - but as these keyboards were not designed to be disassembled, speed is of the utmost importance. Any drink other than water will leave behind residue that can foul up your key action or cause other problems. You simply must act fast! If you don't have 90%+ alcohol like I did, water is all that you have left as a choice - the more pure the better, although tap water will do in a pinch. Especially if you can then run to the drugstore and grab a cheap bottle of rubbing alcohol and chase the water out with it.

 

 

More keyboard cleaning tips can be found here:

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/491752/mechanical-keyboard-guide#post_6025354

 

I hope this helps.

 

I personally think if the sticky keys are a huge issue for you, I'd find the time to redo the cleaning job with either distilled water or rubbing alcohol. The longer it sits, the harder it is to dissolve the residue from a sticky spill.

Should i just open the keyboard and clean it and let it dry in sunlight? do you guys think this will work? my only concern is that i'll loose my warranty by doing this but do you guys think its worth the shot?

Do you have any compressed air? When you spray it does any moisture still come out of the nooks & crannies of the keyboard? If so, further drying might do the trick. Like I said, I left mine in the various drying positions for a long time - face down on a towel, then out on my patio propped up on one end, then the other end. Sort of like a 3-stage drying process...

 

It's extremely hard to disassemble the Corsair keyboards - there are hidden screws (I think I read that one is under the Corsair logo, for example). They were not designed to be taken apart. I didn't do more than remove the keycaps.

 

Again, because you have the K90 instead of the K60 - because of the LEDs and additional circuitry, I wouldn't have a guarantee that something wasn't ruined initially because of the spill itself.

 

However, if it was mine I'd just try the same method again that I posted - making sure I left it to dry as long as possible. Take off all the keycaps and blast it again with air and then do all the various drying steps.

 

Since your spill was water, you should have less of a chance of sticky keys - water doesn't tend to leave a residue behind. However, since keyboards collect dust & debris because they are face up during use, what may have happened is that the water washed some of that dirt into the mechanical bits.

 

If the 2nd attempt at drying doesn't work, I'd get the alcohol or distilled water and re-do the entire cleaning process, that way you might free up whatever is causing the mechanical issues...

 

 

I really hope this works for you, my friend - it's such a drag when you have the keyboard you really want and then you have an accident.

 

 

Edit: Here's the link where I read about the hidden screws, although there are no pics or further news yet:

 

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=105516

- The best way to clean your keyboard properly is open it up and use isopropyl alcohol on it. It isn't something forbidden because since Corsair doesn't RMA this type of issue, it is completely useless if u leave it there or wait for magical thing happen (which I believe there wont be any).

 

Upside: there are plenty of guides over Youtube or websites that show you exactly where to locate hidden screws.If you cant find your model, find similarity such as K95 = K95 RGB / K95 (RGB) = K70 (RGB).

 

Downside: you lose your warranty forever. But then again, who cares if it is useless.

 

Just few extra notes:

 

- If you cant manage to get Isopropyl Alcohol in your area, soak whole circuit board into hot water then use toothbrush (soft type) to clean dirty places. After that, use dryer SEVERAL TIMES on it to make sure it is dried before plugging it in your computer (water may go underneath those SMDs IC so use drier several times is recommended)

 

- Be careful with ribbon cables and its contact points. You dont wanna mess it up.

Sorry to necro but on the K90 the hidden screws are located under the Corsair logo (careful when prying it up as it could crimp) and under the curved cover piece just to the right of the knurled volume control cylinder. Again, gently pry it up with a small slotted screwdriver. You should be good to go, then. Hope this helps someone in the future! :)