Friday, November 02, 2007

help-me-please

i-just-spilled-tea-with-sugar--and-milk-on-my-mac-keyboard.
the-spacebar-and-shift-key-don't-work.
google-can't-help-me-because-i-can't-make-a-space-in-my-search.
can-someone-help-me-pleeeeeease....do-a-search-for-me-or-give-some
advice.
quick-before-i-do-something-naughty
like-swap-my-keyboard-with-the-man's-keyboard-when-he's-not-looking-so
his-keyboard-mysteriously-stops-working.

heeeeeeeelp.....heeeeeelp......heeeeelp.....

Addendum:
Unfortunately The Man woke up before I could put my emergency plan into action, but then he was able to help me. What a man! We popped off the keys and cleaned the keyboard underneath, thoroughly. Then we popped the keys back on, and VOILA!

Now the keyboard doesn't work AT ALL. Even the keys that were working fine before.

And not only that, we managed to break the spacebar key when we were trying to put it back. Spacebar keys should not break so easily, even if you are trying to put them back the wrong way. It is now all floppy and clattery, but should still work. If anything will work.

We have performed the final, emergency procedure, which was to give the keyboard a quick shower in warm water. It is now drying out downstairs. I am typing on an old Japanese keyboard which is driving me up the wall by having quite a few important keys in the wrong place and a greatly abbreviated space bar.

If the washing procedure doesn't work, it will be time to go shopping.

How long should we give it to dry, do you think?

10 comments:

torrygirl said...

Ok, this could work out well. If anybody asks, tell them that you gave me your broken keyboard, then they will blame that instead of my dyslexic fingers! Oh wait, that works out well for me but not so well for you... :P
Hope it works again once it's dry!

M. said...

i despise japanese keyboards, i cant make heads or tails of it. i always hit the @ button in the wrong spot.

when my classmates saw my macbook for the first time what was the first thing out of their mouths?

"SUGOI! Keybo-do ga KANTAN YO!!!"

Badaunt said...

Torrygirl: It's the only answer. My keyboard is causing your typing problems. No question.

Maria: The Man prefers an English keyboard, too, even though he almost always writes in Japanese. The Japanese keyboard is far more complicated than it needs to be. Your classmates were probably jealous.

Keera Ann Fox said...

Give it three days to be sure. Though Mac keyboards are in the same category as cats (i.e. you don't need to wash them), on the rare occassions when a bath is necessary, being patient, rinsing with plenty of clean water and letting dry well is a procedure that tends to work. And unlike with cats, you won't have to look for the keyboard under the sofa afterwards.

Bill C said...

Macs use keyboards?

kenju said...

I spilled coffee in the keyboard of my old word processor and I turned it upside down so it could drain. By the next day, it was working perfectly again.

OzBurger said...

I wouldn't even try, I'd just head down to Yodobashi and pick up a new one.

Unknown said...

Wow, I thought, you can pop the keys off the keyboard? I immediately started trying to, surreptitiously, seeing as I'm at work. But my fingers kept popping off with a loud clack, alerting my workmates once again to my strange keyboard manoeuvres (I held it upside down and whacked it repeatedly the other evening - dealt to a lot of crumbs!). Hmmm, I thought, that didn't work so well. So carried on reading. Only to discover that afterward your keyboard didn't work at all!!!

Thank goodness you mentioned this before I got as far as taking it into the shower...

Melanie Gray Augustin said...

Any updates on your keyboard health? I'm eager to know if giving it a shower worked.

Your story reminded me of someone I used to work for. He dropped his electronic diary in a pond and decided to dry it out in the microwave.

Badaunt said...

Here's the update:

I just tried the afflicted keyboard, and to my delight it was working! Unfortunately, it very soon transpired that it was working just as well as it was before it had a shower - i.e. the space bar still doesn't work, and nor does the shift key. The rest of it does, though, so obviously I can't blame the shower.

Looks like it's new keyboard time.

Edittor? Popping off the keys does not cause problems. Breaking the space bar might, though, and spilling sweet tea on the keyboard DEFINITELY does. The shower would probably have been more helpful if it had been done quicker, before the sugar crystallized, which I suspect is what happened. Maybe I should try a REALLY HOT shower. . . but I think a new keyboard will be both easier and less stressful.

So you can go ahead, pop your keys, shower your keyboard, no worries!

Incidentally, popping off the keys is easy if you lever them against each other - e.g. use the pressed down n key to flip out the m, using a level of some sort inserted under the m. I used an orange stick, which was probably unconventional but it was handy, and worked perfectly well.