Spilled some tea on my keyboard today. Didn’t think much of it it’s just tea right? My A key started to get sticky. I tore down the keyboard, and found some water damage on the a and s keys.
The s key is still springy, and responds. But it has a blue green hue on the metal contact in the photo.
The a key still works, but is very soggy, and requires greater depression than before.
This is a kinesis gaming RGB keyboard. All of the switches are attached to a metal plate, so to replace a single switch I think I have to unsolder all of the switches so I can get the metal plate off. It’s an interesting design
For the moment, I cleaned up 6 years of filth and dirt from the keyboard. Looks pretty clean now from my estimation. For the key itself, I got as much stuff out of it as possible. I soaked the a and s keys in 99% alcohol. And then smash the keys over and over and over and over and over again. Trying to wash the keys from the inside. Right now I have a fan pointed directly at the keys, trying to finish the dry out.
Anybody else have success in rescuing a cherry MX key switch? I’m not opposed to soldering on new key switches, but I don’t want to have to solder 28 keys just to reach one
Have you tried pulling out a switch? Can you see if they’re actually soldered? What does the documentation for the keyboard say?
The switches appear to be soldered in, the documentation does not say the keys are hot swappable.
Blue green implies copper corrosion. I’d normally recommend citric acid. (It comes in a tub of crystals so you can make it as strong as you want.)
But because it’s sealed and you can’t separate the part, I’d recommend actual corrosion cleaner which will evaporate fast.
Amazon sells several. I don’t know which to recommend because I haven’t had your exact problem. Something like Deoxit with precision needle to get it into the switch?