My '2' key stopped working. How do get Windows to recognize it again?

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Surprisingly, you can actually wash a keyboard in the dishwasher (or by hand). Avoid doing this with wireless keyboards, or anything fancy or complicated (e.g don't try it with those MS/Logitech models with lots of extra buttons and dials; or buckling-spring keyboards), but for a plain, bog standard PS2 membrane keyboard it should work fine.

Some tips:

- Don't wash it at too hot a temperature; plastic can warp.

- If you have a dishwasher with a 'heated dry' cycle, disable it; same reason as above.

- To dry the keyboard, take all the keys off* and just leave the body vertically or upside down for a good length of time - a few days - in a well-ventilated place, to ensure all the water has evaporated.

Good luck!

P.S. Don't try this with mice, or anything other than keyboards. And once again, don't try this with wireless keyboards.

(*Leo, don't blame me if you get a spate of questions in 3 days asking which keys go where on a keyboard...)

Addendum: If you try this with a laptop, *do* just wash the keycaps and not the rest of the, err, "keyboard"...

Great if that worked for you, but .... wow. No way would I attempt that as anything other than an absolute last resort - just before I'd throw the keyboard away. I'd expect washing to do more damage than good, actually. However if it worked for you, I can't really argue with that. But ... wow.

Addendum 2: for the pedants, when I said "a plain, bog standard membrane keyboard" I of course meant "a plain, bog-standard dome-switch keyboard".

Sorry, Leo, didn't see your comment before posting the addendum. It's actually apparently quite common; Google throws up loads of people who've done it sucessfully. There's not really much it can damage in a normal keyboard -- they're pretty simple mechanically -- except if either the heat makes the plastic warp, or if for some reason you leave it several days without drying it, in which case it's possible for the metal 'tracks' to corrode. If you're really hardcore, if the latter happens, you could try patching them up with a high-graphite ('soft', 'black') pencil...

i did it,works great.also i put a fan on it to speed drying.

I had a experience with juice being spilled on a keyboard. I turned the keyboard over and took out all those little screws on the bottom and then pried the board apart.

What I discovered, there where 3 sheets of plastic, one with printed circuits on, they where all gummed togther. Using alcohol rub I cleaned them all off and put it all together again.

Worked just fine after that.

A less obvious problem may be at fault! Do you live in a 3rd world country? Check the voltage coming from your wall outlet. If it starts rising towards 300 volts your 220-115v transformer will not be able to cope and your computer will start doing crazy things. This is more likely to happen in a high salt environment. The transformers that are bought in 3rd world countries advertise the same benifits as a uninterruptable power source (UPS) however they provide absolutely no protection for your PC! I live in Fortaleza, the Northeastern corner of Brazil.

The Q being swapped for an A might suggest that for some reason a non English keyboard layout has been selected in software somehow (AZERTY rather than QWERTY. I have two servers and they have different keyboards so I am used to the problem.

my first keybard, got the usual newbie thing. coffee on keyboard. I panicked, decided it was dead anyway so took it apart (another smart idea) and husband came home,found me rinsing the 409 I had sprayed on it with the hose at the kitchen sink. Now he knew less than I did about computers but is an electrician and the scream from him rattled my teeth. I just kept spraying (I knew more than he did which was zip) but made sense to me. Spill, wash, rinse, dry. Well, NO it didn't work but iti could have. Made sense to me. Yes, I'm blonde, yes I'm a woman, yes, I was brand new. Still made sense. No, it didn't work, it was sdead from the first splash of coffee. He never discusses the computer with me anymore. Now, as you suggessted, I just go buy another one. They do have a new one out now that is enclosed so nothing gets into it. I like the idea of that one.

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