Technical Help - Long and (slightly) Complex story inside

[Delta 088]

Small bit of advice regarding a broken keyboard - I know fully well it is *mostly* stuffed, however it'd be good to get a second opinion. The keyboard in question is an old, mechanical Acer 6511-UH with lots of (unwittingly) programmable buttons and is, imo, the best periphiral I've ever had

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Story:
1. Managed to spill a small glass of water on it (which was mostly empty), didn't think any more of it than to mop up what I could

2. About twenty minutes later, the 'Alt' key stops working. All else works fine. I take all of the keys off (the joys of a mechanical ) and mop up anything left, and leave it to dry

3. About an hour later I come back to see how it is doing, and now all of the bottom row keys (and some others, i.e. shift) no longer work

4. I come back two hours later, and nothing works anymore (although two of the lights still shine). I don't have a screwdriver (and nobody in my dorm does) so until tomorrow morning I can't get it opened up.

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Question:

Is the keyboard beyond repair. My current plan is to take it apart, see what I can do to make it work, do my best; does anyone have any advice or tips on how to hep resurrect it :S ?

 

[ms_sunlight]

As soon as you get liquid in a keyboard, you should turn off the PC, unplug the keyboard and turn it upside down to dry for a day or so. That will usually save the keyboard.

They are powered (5V) when in use, and if water is rolling around inside, it will often short out the printed circuit board. By continuing to use it, you made almost certain that something would short. Once something on the PCB's gone, there's no going back, at least for someone who knows little enough about the electronics in a keyboard to even be asking this question.

You've almost certainly bricked it. However, I suggest unplugging it, letting it dry for a day and seeing if it works then. If not. buy a new one. They're cheap. Treat it as a learning experience!

 

[Delta 088]

Thanks heaps - ah well, it's a shame, but I've already found somewhere on the net to buy another one. Just to clarify, I did unplug it and leave it to dry (around 9AM) and then about twelve hours later plugged it in, hit a key to test if it was working again, then rinsed and repeated (pun not intended.) Still going to let it sit for a day or so though

Out of interest, what do you mean about being able ot fix shoerted out PCBs? I was under the impression that was impossible, unless you were rebuilding them from scratch?

 

[ms_sunlight]

Thanks heaps - ah well, it's a shame, but I've already found somewhere on the net to buy another one. Just to clarify, I did unplug it and leave it to dry (around 9AM) and then about twelve hours later plugged it in, hit a key to test if it was working again, then rinsed and repeated (pun not intended.) Still going to let it sit for a day or so though

Out of interest, what do you mean about being able ot fix shoerted out PCBs? I was under the impression that was impossible, unless you were rebuilding them from scratch?

Not impossible, not always, but I wouldn't be able to do it. It depends what's shorted. Most keyboards are quite modular and simple inside though - if you can get another one of the same model you can scavenge for parts - keys from this one, matrix from another one, LEDs and controller from a third... I've heard of that happening in office environments where they'd have loads of the same model, especially back in the day when these things were more expensive.