Thinkpads Forum

So a combination of both my ineptitude in moving a computer in the proper horizontal direction and my second cousin's ineptitude at optimal drinking vessel placement and retrieval, the left side of my W520's keyboard (and left speaker grille) got an unneeded helping of iced tea.

Is it possible to clean the keyboard and grille out so that the keys don't stick?
There wasn't enough liquid in the machine to shut it down, and the liquid didn't get into the machine proper (nothing on the mainboard, just superficial).

I know that there's a way to remove the keycaps but I don't know how to do it safely.

I'm also not sure that isopropyl alcohol will be good for that plastic's finish, and I don't know if just rinsing that part of the board with water (off of the base, of course) will do the trick.

Any ideas?

The keycaps come off in a different direction for each keyboard manufacturer. You'll just have to experiment. The tighter key spacing means it's harder to get your fingernail in there to pry it off, but I'm sure it's possible.

If you feel like risking it, run it under some water for a few minutes and then dry it rapidly.

I've done as the Colonel suggests before, putting a keyboard under running warm water. It does a good job of dissolving the sticky sugar. I was never brave enough to try "dry it rapidly", though. I would dry it the best I could with a hair dryer, then let it sit for about 48 hours before putting power to it again, just to be sure. You could do the same with the keyboard bezel after removing it from the base, and removing the speaker assembly (don't think you want to soak the speakers). You might be able to wipe the speaker clean with a damp cloth.

Do I need to remove the caps first, or trigger some of the keys, while I give the keyboard a wash?
Or is that inadvisable?

When I did mine, I just left all the keys in place. But, I did operate the ones that were especially sticky, just to give the warm water more opportunity to get in the hinges, etc. It's not likely to harm the keyboard, but if it's ruined already like it is, you don't have anything to loose by trying to wash it. Just make very sure it's completely dry before trying to use it again.

I used to de-cap my T400 keyboard, but I'm too lazy to do it now. Used to soak the keycaps in detergent for half an hour too. Didn't seem to be helpful in any significant way.

I think if you take the keyboard off the machine, access from the bottom and be sure to unplug the rather short cable connecting it to the motherboard, you should be able to clean it quite well.

Be careful taking the key caps off. They are on a sort of stressed plastic pantograph rather than a spring and don't survive many removals before they fail to stay on. Just pry off and push on.

Well... here's the continuing saga.
The first time, just running it under the warm water and actuating the keys, didn't work so well. The keys were still sticky after that.

So the second time I cleaned it, I banded some keys down (different ones at different times) and left the affected side of the board in a bowl of water for about 4 hours. The top "multimedia" part of the keyboard did get a bit wet, however, though only really the left side of it.

I then let it dry for 48 hours. It doesn't stick anymore, but now, the only things on the board that work are the TrackPoint, mouse buttons, Power button/LED, the Mic Mute button/LED, and the Volume Mute's LED.

Anyone else have that happen to them after a good cleaning?


So it looks like (after a couple more days of waiting since I soaked the board pretty good) it might be time for a new keyboard.


And that's the question: are keyboards common across the T400s, T410, T410s, T420, T420s, T510, T520, W510, and W520 lines? Since they all seem to have the same case design it would only make sense...

I had a water spill accident with my T520, and it didn't seem to like it too much: all three keys of trackpoint mouse disabled. I tried to fix it by removing the keyboard and blowing it with a hair dryer, but there was no success.

Keep all the liquids away from these things!

de-cap your keys for better cleaning

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Can individual keys be cleaned? I have a W500 that 'suddenly' the End key doesn't work and I noticed the left arrow key becoming intermittent. This, after a lt of rain and higher than normal humidity.

After purposefully using the left arrow key more (instead of the mouse or backspace to place the cursor) it seems to be much better now. This makes me think the End key itself might just need cleaning.

If I pop the key cap off, will the contacts be accessible for cleaning?

Depending on your water, it might leave a mineral film that could interfere with the circuits making contact. If you've tried cleaning a keyboard in tap water and now have many keys not working -- again on the "nothing to lose" train of thought -- I'd suggest doing another cleaning with about a 50% dilution of distilled white vinegar to dissolve the minerals and then rinse that out with a cleaning with distilled water. If you have a dehumidifier going, you could probably use water from its collection tank (works fine in our clothes iron).

I have not tried this on a Lenovo keyboard, but have had some success doing this to clean the keyswitches on a Yamaha WX11 wind controller. (Denatured alcohol was a bad idea. After I tried that, I had to replace the circuit board.)

The contacts are supposed to be insulated for water resistance on ThinkPad keyboards. I've run rather hard water through an X100e keyboard and it was perfectly fine.

Any idea why just one key might suddenly quit working? I was thinking it might be 'mechanical' since the key works fine in the virtual keyboard.

I would think if it were a 'row/column' scan problem then other keys would be affected as well.

Maybe the dome broke?