# Spilled a little water with honey on keyboard...now have sticky keys!



## LABachlr (Jan 11, 2010)

I spilled a little water and honey on the keyboard of our white Macbook, and now the keys are sticky.  What is the best way to clean them?  Is there a tutorial somewhere?  Link to instructions on how to take apart the Macbook to get to the keyboard?  What should I use to clean it (both the tool and the cleaning agent)?  I heard rubbing alcohol is good.  What kind of cloth?

TIA


----------



## ElDiabloConCaca (Jan 11, 2010)

You may be in for a bit of work, as I believe the keyboard is integrated into the top casing of the computer -- in other words, you cannot separate the keyboard from the grayish top plate of the laptop.

Here's how to remove the top case of the MacBook:
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/v...p-case-and-keyboard-from-a-13-macbook-248940/

...and here's how to remove individual keys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E--mfTViQVM

The combination of those two should get you to where you need to be with a little patience, elbow grease, and a steady hand.


----------



## djackmac (Jan 11, 2010)

Hopefully nothing leaked onto the board. You might want to get some spudgers before taking that thing apart. Also when you do get the top case loose, watch out that you don't bust the ribbon cable connector on the logic board. You really should get a new top case unless the thing is a time bomb about to quit. When I run into these liquid spill situations in the shop (and I do about once a week), I never bother cleaning the top case. Its better just to replace it altogether. If anything hit the logic board, especially a sugar like substance like honey, I tell the customers not to waste their money because its only a matter of time before the corrosion eats away the circuitry on the board, even if I do clean it off.


----------



## icemanjc (Jan 11, 2010)

Well since the option is either to be stuck with sticky keys or buy a new one. Have you confirmed that all the keys still work? Generally a couple of keys stop working once you spill any form of water on a keyboard.

Not exactly sure how good this is for your keyboard, but I spilled milk into a keyboard once, so I took out the keyboard so it was just the keyboard and nothing else. I then put it in water, let it soak for 5 min and then sort of forced water to go through using my hands. It cleaned out a lot of crap that was in the keyboard and also all the milk residue. Once I took it out, I blow dried it (not putting the blow drier to close so that I didn't melt or deform anything on the keyboard. After about 20 min of drying, I let it sit for a day for some additional drying, then put it back in and it worked fine.


----------

