mcld.co.uk

Last weekend I had a mini-calamity when someone poured a bottle of ale all over my tiny little Eee laptop (while it was still plugged in, it was having a bit of a rest from music-making). Dried it off etc but found out the next day that three of the keys were half-stuck down, which made it really difficult to use. They'd presumably got some sticky dried-out beer deposit in the keyboard contacts.

After a bit of prompting I took the plunge and discovered that you can pop the keyboard off by flipping three little tabs (there's a video here). Then, online advice told me to give the keyboard a soak in either: (1) ethanol (70% or more), (2) isopropanol (70% or more), or (3) deionised water. (Never use meths or acetone. If water, it has to be deionised so that it doesn't leave deposits which may harm the electronics.)

I couldn't find any of the chemicals so I had to use de-ionised water in the end, which I got from Robert Dyas. I soaked the affected bit of the keyboard (the top) for about 8 hours, then dried it off thoroughly by pointing a cool hairdryer at it for a couple of hours, then left it out overnight to dry more.

And hey presto it seems to have worked. I'm writing this now from my revived Eee...