Keyboard cleaning

For some time now, something has been moving around beneath the keys of my Lenovo 3000 N100. It's not very obvious until you read back what you have typed and discover that all of a certain letter is missing.

I've lived with this, but today whatever it is moved from the space bar to the 'a' key and then to the 's' and it was a real pain.

I've tried shaking and gentle vacuuming, but the problem just moves somewhere else.

Is it simple and foolproof to remove a few keycaps to track down whatever is in there? Is it just a question of a screwdriver under each side of a key and then a simple push back into place or do I need to be more careful?

 

Keycaps may be attached by glue. Try to remove the entire keyboard from the laptop. Find out how by consulting a hardware maintenance manual. I think then you'll be able to remove the particle.

 

Thanks, zhaus.
I've now removed the keyboard, shaken and blown on it and been surprised not by the bits of hair etc. that were in there, but the quantity of hard, brown plastic bits. I just hope nothing beneath the keys has broken up. It all seems fine now, though.

In the process, I found that the pdf manual I'd downloaded back when I bought the machine was for the 3000 C100 which turned out to be different from my N100. How odd that the Lenovo site lists the first manual under "3000" but the second one under "N100". That took a bit of finding....