How To Repair Sticking Keys On A Laptop
Note: This postal service, originally from October 2018, answers a question that a lot of people have been searching for, on iFixit and on the web. Nosotros're republishing it now, with some timely updates, in the hopes information technology might assist folks looking for assist while working from habitation.
Your laptop is probably dingy. My laptop is probably dirty. At this bespeak in the 21st century, information technology'due south but well-nigh inevitable that we all have a speck of dust or 2 (or three) living where our fingers hang out every day. The good news is keyboards are one of the most modular pieces of modern laptops (with some exceptions, obviously), and are therefore not likewise hard to deep-clean should the need arise.
The kickoff question you should enquire yourself is how thorough you would like to be. This procedure can exist quick if all you demand is a wipe down, or it tin exist incredibly lengthy if you have a trend to consume nachos while yous blazon or similar to nitpick when yous clean. We'll become all the mode to the nitpicky steps in this guide, but feel free to end wherever you experience satisfied.
What You Volition Need
- A laptop
- Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, preferably xc% or college
- A microfiber cloth
- Cotton swabs
- Compressed air (or a cleaner alternative)
What You Might Need
- Opening Picks or something else to pry keyboard keys off your laptop
- Q-tips
Step ane: Close It Down
Yous may think yous tin can get away with keeping your laptop on while you exercise this, and you may be right—but believe united states, this process is much easier with your laptop shut off.
Pace 2: Loose Debris
This is easily-downwards the easiest pace of keyboard cleaning. If yous are a busy person, or just don't have much patience for cleaning, this is still something y'all should do every now then to keep larger pieces of gunk from seeping into places you don't want them.
Take your open laptop and concur it upside-down, so the keyboard is facing the ground. If you have a friend nearby, ask them to hold information technology for you—it's easier to see what y'all're doing when you don't take to agree and clean. Run compressed air or a microfiber cloth dorsum and along beyond the upside-down keyboard to dislodge any loose droppings that may be hanging out around or under your keys. If you discover something is still stuck under a certain key, try tilting the laptop to dissimilar angles to get it out. Nearly laptop keys take tiny edges on them that can trap debris, making it difficult for larger pieces to escape out the cracks yous meet between the keys and the chassis of your laptop. If there's something nether there that you lot can't quite get out with compressed air, it's fourth dimension for brute force tactics—skip to "Icky Stic-keys" below. Otherwise, it's fourth dimension for a wipe down!
Stride 3: Grease & Crud
In our experience, this is the most mutual blazon of laptop filth. It's easy to forget about how grimy your keyboard is until someone else points information technology out, or one of the keys gets stuckkkkkkkkkk. The solution is simple: a piffling isopropyl booze! Wet a microfiber fabric or a cotton swab with the alcohol, and kickoff wiping. Y'all may have to get over trouble spots a few times, but y'all should exist able to get rid of most residue (and bacteria!) this way. After this pace, your keyboard should wait skillful-every bit-new!
Note: Isopropyl alcohol over 90% is generally costless of impurities, so y'all don't need to worry too much nearly getting information technology where it shouldn't be, but it's nonetheless a good thought to exist conscientious! Whatever you employ to wipe the keyboard should be damp, non dripping moisture.
Pace 4: Icky Stic-keys
Update, May 2020: Since first publishing this post, we've learned a lot more than abou t MacBooks sold betwixt 2015 and 2019 with "butterfly" keyboards. These problematic keyboards can malfunction in means that brand them seem "stuck" or to have dust underneath, merely without any real means of fixing them. We recommend checking Apple's list for its Keyboard Service Program to see if your MacBook qualifies for a free keyboard repair—in one case Apple tree's stores and repair centers are open up once again. Prying off butterfly-manner keycaps should be approached as a last resort.
If y'all've got a sticky key or large debris stuck under i of your keys, notice something thin that you tin pry with (we use our Opening Picks, but other soft plastic or woods implements can piece of work—just avoid metal). Techniques for prying vary from keyboard to keyboard, but fifty-fifty thin keys can come off in 1 piece if y'all are careful. The exception here is spacebar keys, which can be extremely difficult to pry off without breaking. Proceed with circumspection! Once you lot have the pasty central removed, use a Q-tip with some booze on it to carefully wipe abroad sticky remainder where the key was, equally well as any residuum on the fundamental itself.
Underneath the primal you'll find the actuation hinge, (also known equally a key retainer, or "that white plastic thing"). This hinge can also be a source of stickiness. If yours looks goopy, wipe it down with alcohol or soak information technology for a minute in some hot, soapy water—just make sure it's dry before you put information technology back on the keyboard! If you do take out the hinge (or if information technology comes out with the key) make sure you lot have notation of the way it is oriented in there—they can be a pain to put back if yous don't know how they are supposed to go in.
If you do happen to lose (or break) a central or a hinge during this process, don't stress! Information technology'south easy and fairly inexpensive to supercede an individual cardinal, or the whole assembly.
Stride 5: Nitpick
When you lot popped your sticky key off, you may accept noticed that it was like, actually gross nether there. Pet pilus and pocket-size crumbs have a trend to find their way under keys and go unnoticed for years. You may not care nigh this (retrieve, we did use compressed air before! No more dust!). Or, if yous're of the nit-picky population, it may slowly begin to eat away at y'all until y'all make up one's mind that something must be done. If you are ready to go all the style, set aside a couple hours and start prying those keys off, one by one. Make sure you go along your hinges and keys organized, and retrieve that compressed air and Q-tips are your friends!
We hope these tips help you lot experience empowered to exterminate the complimentary-loading dust bunnies living in your laptop keyboard. If you lot got hung up somewhere along the fashion, you can try looking for a laptop-specific keyboard disassembly video online, or check out our iFixit guides that come up with stride-past-step photos and more than precise instructions!
What fixes have y'all found for pasty, stuck, or crunchy laptop keys? Let us know in the comments, or tell us on our social channels: Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Got questions for Ask iFixit? Enquire away! Leave them in the comments, or ship them on social media with the hashtag #AskiFixit.
Source: https://www.ifixit.com/News/11585/how-to-clean-your-laptop-keyboard-fix-sticky-keys
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