Apple Keyboard broke...

... but I fixed it!!

Here's what happened. I was reaching for my table lamp and accidentally knocked over an open bottle of diet coke (stupid I know) I instantly tipped the keyboard over to help stop the liquid progressing further. After cursing at myself for a while, I tipped it back again and tried typing. The 'a' button kept switching the caps lock on and off, and the '1' button didn't work either, then I noticed that the f8-f11 buttons were acting weird, which is where the spill went in.

I got quite frustrated at the situation, as the keyboard was a present and I like to keep things clean and tidy. Anyway, after inspecting the keyboard, I found it is held together by 3 Allen key screws on the back, only they are smaller than the smallest key you get in a normal set.

So, I used a tiny screw driver from an electrical screw driver set, the flat bladed one, and ever so gently turned the screws out. Yay!

Then the key board part is attached by 2 ribbon cables to the clear casing, so I pulled these out of their black connector housing (the ribbon comes out, the black connectors stay attached to the pcb on the clear acrylic housing.

Now with the keyboard bit free, I could start to clean up. I popped off all they keys on the keyboard where the spill had happened. I did this by using a swiss army knife blade, and just 'popped' the buttons off which is ok as they can do this without causing any damage.

There was coke in and around the holes where they keys sit in. I mopped this up and removed some dirt when i was in there (amazing what stuff can get trapped in there even if you are clean and tidy!).

Then I turned the keyboard bit over and seen 33 screws of the Philips kind. The membrane is attached to a curved thick metal plate. I unscrewed all of them and then lifted off the metal plate. This exposed the clear membrane with the printed metal circuitry on there. I could see more coke on the membrane, so i lifted it out and cleaned it thoroughly. I noticed it is actually two pieces stuck together, so I peeled it back a little and noticed the coke had slipped inbetween them so I got a moist piece of tissue and cleaned and dried it.

I then put everything back together again, and hey presto! it works!!

I was amazed how 'User friendly' it was to work on, and I just thought I would write this message incase any of you ever spill stuff on the keyboard, to let you know it is very very fixable.

Things to point out though

1) you do it at your own risk
2) take your time, it is a dlecate thing, the screws are small, but all the same type and length, so grab a cup to put them in as you screw them out.
3) be gentle when unscrewing and putting screws back in, use a properly sized screw driver
4) The plastic ribbons that connect the key part to the housing with the usb lead are thick, but be careful not to crease or break them. When pulling them out, wiggle them ever so gently, and when putting them back in, grab them with your finger and thumb near the end of the cable and push into the black block connector firmly.
5) Enjoy the satisfaction of having fixed it yourself!!

I also spilled diet coke on my keyboard but I didn't react as quickly as I should have. I clearly immediately took off all the keys to clean them but it didn't occur to me that the liquid could have penetrated into the keyboard, it looked to be a very superficial spill. Well after 15 minuts cleaning all the keys, when I plugged the keyboard back in I realized none of the keys worked. Thats when I saw that there was diet coke pooled on the bottom of the board. At this point I drained out the liquid but I'm afraid all is lost. Most people seem to have problems only with keys near the point of the spill but none of my keys work and the spill only covered the middle of the board. Is it even worth it to take the board apart or should I just accept the loss?

i've heard a couple things.

i've heard of people just putting them in the diswasher and then waiting until they've completely dried, and apparently that has worked.

also, i've heard of the alcohol bath. buy enough rubbing alcohol to submerge the keyboard, wash thoroughly ad let dry. the advantage of this is that the alcohol should dry quickly and cleanly, leaving no deposits of any kind like tap water will.