Popping up the keyboard keys

Hello,

I would like to pop up the keys on my mac notebook (MacBook Pro 15'' 2.33 Ghz) But I have absolutely no idea to go about doing that. I haven't got a warranty to work around, and all I really want to do is clean under them to get rid of some of the dust and debris to get better performance. So far I've tried using a hair pit to pop them up but its been very difficult with no success so far, is there a latch? or perhaps a trick to it?

I've searched the internet in general and not found what I'm looking for, if some one could give me a step by step that would be absolutely wonderful!

I haven't pried mine apart, but I haven't seen a laptop keyboard with detachable keys in over a decade

Dysfunction said:

I haven't pried mine apart, but I haven't seen a laptop keyboard with detachable keys in over a decade

Click to expand...

iBook G4 had a removable keyboard by using two latches at the top of the keyboard.

Removable KEYBOARD, not keys though.

I believe the OP is referring to removing the key top covers not the keys themselves.

To the OP:

Read this thread: Pay special attention to the reply by "meneerTan" as he describes the process and includes photos.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=226423

Regards.

Cool! Filing away for the inevitable sticky keyboard!

chscag said:

I believe the OP is referring to removing the key top covers not the keys themselves.

To the OP:

Read this thread: Pay special attention to the reply by "meneerTan" as he describes the process and includes photos.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=226423

Regards.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much! I had heard of that thread but never able to find it, once again thank you!

Just FYI, the process is very similar on the MacBook Pro, but I found that the entire "scissor" assembly, beneath the key cap popped off when I removed my R key to clean under it. Not a big deal for me as I've had to reseat these things many times in my life as an IT guy, but if you have no experience with removing key caps from a laptop keyboard, I would HIGHLY recommend experimenting on another machine whose replacement keyboards aren't so expensive. You can usually pick up a generic Dell or HP keyboard from eBay for less than $15. Well worth the investment IMO, just to have something to experiment with first.

Learn by mistakes

That's excellent advice, when i actually tried this i found the darn plastic things to be very happy to pop out with the key cover, and to pop out of them selves which was a pain to fix, but luckily i didn't break anything . Also, popping from the top for all the letter keys worked pretty well for my computer instead of from the left as the person in the other forum suggests, but it was a different computer so no surprise. I also managed to put a few of the scissor things in back ward, so i would suggest for others attempting this that you pay attention to that, the scissors should lay flat when put in properly Thanks to everyone!

almost every laptop on the face of the earth has removable keys, and keyboards, granted you know how to remove them. to remove the actual key, such as the "H", then you would pull down diagonally from the upper left. thanks.

I just bought my MacBook Pro two months ago and managed to splash a drop of something sticky on the Command key (I bit an orange slice that sprayed). I thought it might be easy to pop the key off and clean it but now I'm scared; this all seems too complicated. I'll just try to clean around the edges.