I'm a thick Geordie (FACT)

[mike11111]

What a pillock I am! Last night, just getting into my stride, what do I do? Only go and spill a whole glass of gin and tonic over my keyboard. By the time I had wiped up the tears for the loss of my spilt drink I found that the sodding keyboard wouldn't work any more. Had to go out and buy a new one. Still,could be worse, I might have buggered up the whole system thus cutting me off from AB for evermore.

[mazie]

what sort of gin was Mike...not Old Raj I hope ?

[mike11111]

Greenhalls. Special offer at the Coop Two for £20. What I didn't realise was that unlike the other stuff it was still 40% ABV. Wondered why I was feeling light-headed, but I suppose that explains me knocking the glass over.

[snags]

Could be worse...

You could be Welsh.

[VHG]

You were lucky it was only on a keyboard and not over a laptop.

A few years ago I was eating a bowl of cornflakes while using my laptop, reached out to hit a key on the keyboard and accidently hit the side of the bowl and spiiled corn flakes and milk all over it.

Removed all the parts (hard disk, cd drive, battey etc) and left it overnight to dry but all the keys had become "stuck" and it never worked properly again.

Luckily it was a work laptop so they gave me another.

But it taught me a lessen so I NEVER eat or drink anything near my computer any more.

[mike11111]

Actually it is a laptop. I suppose I'm lucky in as much as it's only the keyboard which is knackered, leaving the rest intact. I'm sitting here using a plug-in keyboard which is driving me crazy because apart from the letters all the other keys are in the wrong place. It's taken me half an hour to find the sodding delete button.

[ChuckFickens]

It's not generally too tricky to replace keyboards on laptops (once you understand how the connectors work)

whats the make and model?

[mike11111]

Compaq Presario CQ60. The guy in the Mickey Mouse computer shop quoted me £50 plus labour for a replacement, so settled on a USB one for a tenner. (Would probably have got it for a fiver at Morrisons, but hey ho, I couldn't be arsed).

[sir.prize]

Nice to see your question title has been edited mike . ...

[mike11111]

I'm going to have to go into a brown study over that one. Will have to ask Bobbi and see what she thinks.

[Bobbisox]

Mike rest assured, we Geordies are not thick, friendly, honest, but never thick
no matter what they say..LOL

[mike11111]

But am I still a silly Knut?

[Bobbisox]

No never,,
<splutter>

[Hymie]

Not wishing to sound a smug bugger, but I have a spare keyboard & mouse purchased for just such an eventuality. mike11111 paid £10 for his replacement keyboard – whereas my spare keyboard & mouse cost pennies, and are ready/available at a moments notice (if only I could remember where I put them).

[ChuckFickens]

Firstly, keep your hands away from my keyboard, you're not having it :) (I have a CQ60 too)

This is about the cheapest I can find that looks like a reliable source.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk...e&hash=item56425a4b88

And it's really not a hard job to change them, the only part that is slightly fiddly is releasing the refitting the cable, but even that's pretty easy when you know how. I'd put it at about a 15minute job to change it.

If you decide to do it yourself and want any further details post back, I've been meaning to strip mine down to reseat the heatsink so this might be a good time to do it and take a few pictures :)

[joggerjayne]

I spilt fat Coke on one of my lappies.

[ChuckFickens]

This ones had half a can of stella over it before! (no damage though)

[VHG]

>>>>Actually it is a laptop.

The problem with spilling some drinks (Coke etc) on laptops is that the liquid runs through the keyboard to the motherboard and all the electrical components underneath.

The sugar can the start to rot some of the thin metal and stop it working.

So you may stil get problems.

[mike11111]

Fingers crossed but I seem to be OK at the moment. Am using a little keyboard which is piggy-backed into my laptop. It's a bit weird because some of the keys are in different positions and it doesn't have a separate numerical pad so I can't use ALT + numbers to get special characters so I am a bit short on French letters at the moment.

[albaqwerty]

Mike, I always thought you were prepared, how can you possibly be short of french letters?? :)

[mike11111]

I was waiting to see who would be first to pick up on my reference to French letters. Congrats; you win a banana.