Apple Billentyűzet tisztítás

Ha ezt a leírást olvasod, te is eljutottál abba a fázisba, amikor a billentyűzeteden annyira eluralkodott a mocsok, hogy ki szeretnéd takarítani. Azt kell hogy mondjam szerencsésen választottál billentyűzetet tisztítás szempontjából is, ha egy Apple billentyűzetet van a kezedben. A billentyűk könnyedén lepattinthatóak, és visszapattinthatóak. Egyes hosszabb billentyűk fém pántokkal vannak rögzítve, de ezek egyszerű bújtatással visszaállíthatóak eredeti helyzetükbe. Első sorban kiszedjük a billentyűket, majd mosószeres vízbe áztatva jó pár percig mozgatjuk, suvickoljuk azokat. Ezzel elérjük, hogy a rárakódott sárgaság eltűnjön, és újra szép fehér mivoltában tündököljön. Amíg ezt tesszük a billentyű csonkok közötti résznél felhalmozódott hajat, kajamaradványokat is kitörölhetjük. Akinek van igénye, a négy darab torx csavarral rögzített plexi lapot is leveheti, ami alól is eltakaríthatja a koszt. Ezek után a billentyűket visszahelyezzük a helyére és kész.

Két fontosabb dolgot említenék meg. Amikor a billentyűket áztatjuk vigyázzunk ne tegyük azokat ki nagyon magas hőhatásnak, mert a billentyűk deformálódhatnak. Másik fontos dolog, ha csak nincs jó memóriánk, abban az esetben valamilyen megoldást találjunk rá, hogy melyik billentyű hova való.

Most pedig nézzük a részletes angol nyelvű, de képekkel jól illusztrált leírást a műveletről:

There comes a time, when your shiny white Apple keyboard gets so dirty that you can’t bear one second more. For me, that day was today. I love the Apple keyboard, it is nice, ergonomic and looks very sleek. However the only ‘disadvantage’ (if you could call it that) is that it is white. It gets dirty easily and you can see really clearly everything. A simple wipe of the keyboard with a damp cloth was not enough. There was still remains of tons of different things, and I wanted it off. You never really notice how dirty your keyboard is, unless you use a white keyboard, or something of a similar colour. But with the Apple keyboard, the outer shell is clear, so you can see everything there too.
This little how-to guide will show you how I cleaned my keyboard to perfection.

The very first thing you need to do, is grab a camera, anything in which you can later use to read the keys is enough. Take a picture of the keyboard, a few would be helpful, so that you can remember what keys go where. You musn’t miss this step, otherwise you will be spending hours trying to find out what key goes where. It is not a pleasant experience. If you can zoom in on your camera, and see the keys then you are fine. But if you can’t then transfer the photos onto your computer and put them on the screen, or print them out.

Note: Reader Mark kindly pointed out that a view of the keyboard can be seen in the Keyboard viewer, that can be found in the International section of the System Preferences. Thanks Mark, this will save many users some hassle. I completely forgot about this!

A few of the keys (right shift, enter/return (both), backspace, space and the zero (number-side key)) contain these ‘attachment clips’, as can be seen above, that are used to make sure it is evenly pressed down. Please make a note of which one is attached to which key, this will save you a lot of hassle. I forgot, and I can’t put it back into the remainding place, because the key doesn’t operate properly.

The next step is start removing each key one by one. The easiest way, is to tuck your finger under one of the buttons between the small gap that separates the directional keys from the rest of the keyboard. You need to be careful and don’t rush. If you pull too hard it could break the clip that holds it onto the keyboard. That would be really annoying, as well as frustrating.

What you need to do next is gather up all the keys and put it in a re-sealable bag. For this I used a standard zip-lock bag that you can find at any grocery store (used for freezing food). It is perfect and allows plenty of room for all the keys, and the water to come.

Next comes the water. Make sure you use warm water. Fill it up about 3/4 full so that all the keys are engulfed with plenty of room to spare (for the keys I mean).

Once you feel that you have enough water in the bag, add some soap. For this I used a ‘foaming’ soap that comes out as foam out of the bottle. You can use a ‘gel’ type soap as well, however that is probably harder to lather. Give a good few squeezes of the bottle so that there is plenty to go around.

Next you need to seal the bag tightly, making sure that there are no gaps in the bag. After this, shake! Not too vigorously, as you don’t want the bag to pop and the buttons going anywhere. Shaking for about 3-4 minutes, with a short break in between (~ 1 min) will allow the soap to clean the buttons and fill all the nooks and crannies.

Now you need to open the top fully and wrap your fingers around the top portion. Then rotate the bag upside down letting the water trickle out. If you want you can rinse it through with cold water to remove any excess soap, though this is rendered useless by the next step.

Empty the keys into an empty bath or wash basin. I then used the high-power setting of the shower head to remove the remainding soap and dirt from the keys. It will most likely not be fully clean, because of the grease/oil used to lubricate the attatchment clips. Rinse for a minute or two.

Transfer the keys onto a clean towel. Grab the keys in a bunch and shake before you put them onto the towel. This will remove a lot of water, so the drying time is reduced. The way you do this next part is upto you. I mixed the keys in the middle, and with a firm but gently grasping action rubbed the keys against the towel. Do this for a minute or two, until the keys are mostly dry, but not totally. Leave this to dry for around 5-10 mins, during that time you can do the next few steps.

You don’t just want the keys clean, but the surface of the keyboard! Grab a paper towel/kitchen towel and damp it in water. Make sure you use sparing amounts, as not to get any onto the electronics; it can seep through the hole where the keys affix to. If you have a keyboard duster, then you can move onto the next step once most of the dirt is removed. However if you don’t then you will need to spend a while to remove all the dirt and grime, it is quite painstaking!

With the duster go over the key spaces and push quite hard to shift away the dirt. This is really important, as the grease from the attachment clips can cover the surface, causing it to attract dust, which is harder to separate. A good idea is to do this over a sink, or outside so that you don’t make a mess. After all we are removing the dirt, you don’t want to put it onto the floor, do you?

Alass, your keyboard surface is now clean! Go back to your keys now, and place them onto a table close to the keyboard, making sure that each one is free of water. If it isn’t then go back and use a kitchen towel (or something similar) to remove the rest.

We now start the long and arduous process of grabing a random key and placing it back onto the keyboard, using those photos that you took earlier on. Then you are finished.

The photo above is a macro shot of the new clean keys. Don’t they look beautiful. You can now go and type away on your clean and non-repulsive keyboard. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, feel free to ask any questions.

Forrás: the mini Blog