Date   : Sun, 07 Aug 2005 09:57:11 +0100
From   : Philip Pemberton <philpem@...>
Subject: Re: Faulty Keys

In message <42F49802.7000609@...>
          Jon Ripley <jon@...> wrote:

> First to see if it's a dirty contact you should try for the world speed
 
> record for key tapping, this often manages to dislodge any debris 
> preventing the key from working properly. A little squirt of WD40 into 
> the keyswitch followed by trying to beat the record you set previously 
> has always worked for me.

You'd be better off with isopropyl alcohol (Servisol IPA-170 is fairly go
od;
£5 a can from Maplin) or contact cleaner. Turn the Beeb off and unplug
it,
then squirt a bit of IPA into the switch and - like you said - try and be
at
the world speed record for key tapping.

The problem with WD40 is that it seems to be quite nasty to some plastics
,
and it leaves an oily coating on everything it touches, which tends to
attract dirt fairly quickly. Not exactly the sort of thing you want in a
keyswitch.

Contact cleaner would be the best thing, but I haven't seen anyone sellin
g
it recently...

Pulling all the keycaps off and cleaning the keyboard thoroughly (use was
hing
up liquid to clean the keycaps, vacuum out the keyboard base) tends to do
a lot of good to Beeb keyboards. This applies especially to ex-school
machines...

Later.
-- 
Phil.                              | Acorn RiscPC600 SA220 64MB+6GB 100ba
seT
philpem@...                        | Athlon64 3200+ A8VDeluxe R2 512MB+10
0GB
http://www.philpem.me.uk/          | Sony MZ-N710 NetMD Minidisc
... We all have failures. The question is, what do we do with them?