Thinkpads Forum

Hello there fellow IBM worshippers,

I removed the keyboard buttons and sprayed water on it to get rid of stickyness beneath keys,
which resulted in beeping sounds (after i put the keys back to their respectful positions).
Typing on keyboard was impossible, since I assume some keys were damaged on the very right side of the keyboard (SHIFT, ENTER)..

I noticed water inside the rubber round thingy which is right under the keyboard & have no idea how water got INTO it, it was only in SHIFT key, they other keys
do not appear to have water inside of them.

I shut the laptop down to do a restart but it never powered on. It detects when I remove battery & put it back on, but nothing else.

Any suggestions?

Did I burn the MoBo or something?

Thanks in advance,

Welcome to the forum.
I'll try to be nice here, but what you did is the most stupid thing anybody can do: put water on a laptop!
You can try to completely dry the KB on top of a radiator (leave it for a day or two), but I doubt if it will function properly again.
You need to remove the keyboard anyway, so also check if your motherboard got wet.
Just one drop of water is enough to damage the board beyond repair.
You should try another keyboard to see if the laptop still works.
We have a forum member raceboy who also lives in Tallinn.
Contact him via PM (new messages at the top of this page), he might be able to help you.

Thanks for sweet reply, mayne.

I sprayed water onto it because it was sticky and keyboard was all nasty underneath the buttons.

Would changing the MoBo resurrect it? I know how to build PC-s but never taken any laptop apart, I'm scared

Start with trying another keyboard, you may not need another motherboard.
And contact raceboy, he's very good!

I contacted him right after u told me to :]

Also, the lappy now showed signs of life and started.
Displays a message about key nr.17 being stuck.
Which key is that?

You can try this, but I have no idea if it is correct: http://www.penticoff.com/nb/kbds/ibm104kb.htm

Error 0210. Whole computer works now except for keyboard. Mouse etc works.

#17 is W, but water damage was on the opposite side :S

Will try & get an external keyboard to try with that.

edit: ok the keyboard needs to be replaced, i'll get a new one for 15€ and change it myself.

thx for replies mayne!