How do you clean your laptop keyboard?

In My Humble Opinion
1

In such a way, of course, as to avoid destroying your investment?

I tried using isopropyl alcohol swabs (of the type used for medical purposes) for my Macbook Pro, as this was how the local Mac Store told me they clean theirs. Trouble is, I seem to have gotten a very different brand than theirs; the ones I got were cottony (as opposed to their more cloth-y type), and my use didn’t seem to dry as quick as theirs. I.E. the moisture seemed to “glisten” for a lot longer on the keys. In fact, when I tried squeezing another out, I wrung out copious amounts of liquid.

If the alcohol (which, BTW, is still 30% water) touched one of those internal moisture sensors, did I just blow my warranty? The Mac Store didn’t seem to think so, as it would evaporate too quickly, but then, as I said, mine seems to be of a different type than theirs…

Could I have done liquid damage to the inside? How long would problems take to manifest?

If I dodged a bullet, I dodged a bullet; my original question still stands, though.

Thanks in advance!

2

Clean? Why would I do that? :stuck_out_tongue:

I just use a vacuum cleaner with a soft brush. For stains I use Q-tips and moonshine, which is about 4% water.

If I had a Macbook Pro, I’d probably just pop off all the keycaps and wash them in the sink with a drop of dishwasher liquid.

Here’s how to remove the keyboard: http://www.takeitapart.net/archives/macbook-pro/
Apparently a non-trivial exercise.

3

Rather than use the cotton swabs, I use a microfiber cloth and a bottle of 91% rubbing alcohol. Get the cloth moist and scrub everything down. Keeps my 2006 MacBook clean and shiny.

If you have one of the newer, unibody MacBooks, I’ve actually had a lot of luck using those disposable household wipes to clean the aluminum parts of my wife’s computer. Not the glass screen or the keyboard, but it scrubs off all the accumulated dirt and grime very easily.