Ever loved a keyboard so much that all others that came after it didn’t feel right?
This is my Dell. I have had it for years as you can tell. It is the perfect keyboard to me. It has a click and feedback that you just don’t get with the newer ones and I can’t stand typing on the chiclet type.
I also loved the Dell “quiet key” which was anything BUT quiet. I could wake up the neighbors with that thing banging away in the middle of the night.
Alas, they do not make the quiet key anymore however this is a nice replacement for it in my opinion. I have actually been called out in meetings to go on mute because all they could hear was me typing on my beloved Dell.
I know what you are thinking. “Just buy a new keyboard you cheap bastard!” Well as I explained it is just not that easy. So today I thought it was time for preventative maintenance on it.
This thing was nasty! It was filled with dog hair, cigarette ashes and since I do not smoke in the house it has resided on my laptop in the garage mancave. Even though I thought I was careful I found a finger nail clipping in there! GROSS!
Yes that is a lot of dirt…. In my defense since it is in the garage / mancave and I often times find myself taking a break from yard work etc. to answer emails and such.
Here is the steps I took to bring the greatest keyboard back to life.
First I had to yank out those pesky screws holding it together.
Here is what it looked like after popping a few keys out… NASTY!
I used a small pair of needle nose pliers to get the keys out. As you can see there are 2 little tabs that hold them in. Squeeze them together and the key pops out.
After quite a bit of time yanking out every key it revealed the nasty part. A bunch of it fell out as I was taking the keys off, so this does not really do it justice.
Keys are out and arranged for cleaning and re-installing. It was at this point that I tossed around the idea of putting the letters in different spots so if someone did not know how to type they would keep their mitts off of it, but I refrained from such shenanigans.
After it was all put together, I was staring at a brand new looking (almost) keyboard! Let the clicking commence!
Tell me what you think in the comments. Have you ever had a favorite keyboard? If so what was it?