Spilled some tea on my keyboard today. Didn’t think much of it it’s just tea right? My A key started to get sticky. I tore down the keyboard, and found some water damage on the a and s keys.

The s key is still springy, and responds. But it has a blue green hue on the metal contact in the photo.

The a key still works, but is very soggy, and requires greater depression than before.

This is a kinesis gaming RGB keyboard. All of the switches are attached to a metal plate, so to replace a single switch I think I have to unsolder all of the switches so I can get the metal plate off. It’s an interesting design

For the moment, I cleaned up 6 years of filth and dirt from the keyboard. Looks pretty clean now from my estimation. For the key itself, I got as much stuff out of it as possible. I soaked the a and s keys in 99% alcohol. And then smash the keys over and over and over and over and over again. Trying to wash the keys from the inside. Right now I have a fan pointed directly at the keys, trying to finish the dry out.

Anybody else have success in rescuing a cherry MX key switch? I’m not opposed to soldering on new key switches, but I don’t want to have to solder 28 keys just to reach one

  • jet@hackertalks.comOP
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    2 days ago

    After drying out the key, it appears to be functionally normally now. Finished out the process with a 8-hour key cap soak in soapy water… And air drying.

    Also ordered mx blue switches to have as a backup if I need to do some soldering

    everything is back together and works! Thanks for the advice and help! This community is great.