keyboard stickiness and washing it?

[Bashar]

My child seems to have spilled juice on the keyboard of my old ThinkPad X1 Carbon (I believe it's a first-generation model). I had given it to her to start coding on Ubuntu during the summer, but now some of the keys feel a bit sticky.

I remember seeing old ThinkPad ads showing water being poured over the keyboard, thanks to the drainage system at the bottom. Is it actually safe to wash it like that?

Thanks!

[axur-delmeria]

1. If you look at the bottom of your X1 Carbon, you'll see that there are no drain holes.

2. There's no easy or safe way to wash it, because inside that keyboard unit are 2-3 layers of plastic sheets with conductive traces sandwiched together. If water or any liquid gets into that, it will be very very difficult to dry out.

It's best to replace the entire keyboard, and tell your child not to eat or drink near the laptop.

[dr_st]

With that said, if it is just a few individual keys that feel sticky, then carefully removing the single key, and gently cleaning underneath with small amounts of alcohol, may solve the problem.