OH NO --spilled soda onto my CF-Y2 keybaord

Well ---

First time I've ever done this but a can of sugary soda splilled over onto my Toughbook CF-Y2 keybaard and dripped between about 1/2 my keys.

I cleaned it up as best as possible and let it dry out overnight.

Good news is my laptop still works fine and the keyboard still works BUT..... the keys stick like crazy becuase of the sticky dried cola underneath them. My two scroll pad buttons are also dried solid and won't move.

So I need to figure out how to do a clean up job on this which I guess will entail getting under the keys to clean things up.

Do the keys on the CF-Y2 individualy pop up like a regular desktop keyboard? Or do I have to disassemble botom protion of the Laptop to get under the keyboard to clean the sticky mess up?

What I really need is an exploded parts view of the bottom and keyboard portion of my laptop.

Anyone have one of these or can explain to me how I might do this project myself? I called Panasonic tech support and they told me all they could do is sell me the repair manual for $200!! Forget that.

Also --- what should I use to clean it? I was thinking Q-tips, rubbing alcohol and a blow drier to dry it quickly?

Or am I better off just sending the unit to a service center? I just hate spending what will proably cost $200-$300. If it's not hard or a mjaor nighmare to do I would rather to do it myself as I'm somewhat technically inclined.

Any help, exploded view diagrams or other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

C5G

 

Pull out the battery, and disconnect it from power, then try rubbing alcohol.

91% should dry out in an hour or so, but I'd leave it overnight anyways. I use it to clean PCBs when I'm soldering on them to remove the flux, so I can assure you it won't harm the electronics... though be slightly cautious because it might remove paint on keys.

Edit; And I'll try looking for a manual for that, but no guarantees.

 

I found some very good general Toughbook repair info, it may be old news around here. The Toughbook Wiki has some CF-Y2 disassembly info that might be helpful. It's probably not what you want, but CF-Y2's user manual is here, and here's a place with the service manual for USD$9.95 (PDF download). In looking around, I also stumbled across a Panasonic FTP site that has snippets of things. There is a service manual for a CF-W2 there, and some BIOSs, but not a lot else interesting.

Edit: I found a lot of manuals here for all Toughbooks, but mostly reference, addendum and owner's manuals. Down at the bottom, they do have original manuals for some/all? of the accessories available. If you felt you needed an owner's manual for a Connector Cover, it's there.

 

Thanks - but I'm not sure what you mean by just disconnecting the battery and power and then doing what? Let the rubbing alcohol drip down between the keys like the soda did to loosen the stickyness?

Someone did tell me they that the Toughbook had a "membrane" between the keys and the internal electronic just for this purpose to keep spilled liquid on the keys out of the electronics. Is this true?

C5G

 

Picoshark -- thanks very much. I'll check this stuff out. I called the Panasonic service center is Dallas and it looks like doing a keyboard replacement would cost over $200 with parts, labor and shipping. Not sure if this 3 year old lapptop is worth spending that or not.

 

If you can't figure out how to disassemble the keyboard from the rest of it, just drip/rub alky in the sticky areas. It'll break down the sticky bits, and after a few coats it'll feel like it's gone.

Toughbooks are resistant to shorting from spills, so your keyboard is fine other than being a little sticky.

 

Sorry I can’t be as much help as Modly or Pico but I think I can help prevent this from happening again.
I prefer a nice cold glass of Beer when operating any of my computers and I only drink from the bottle when I’m doing some sort of repair or mod.
Guinness extra stout is always my go to beer when working on computers but a fine amber will work in a pinch.

Now from what I understand Toughbook will enjoy a glass of Jack Daniels when working on his computers and I’m pretty sure o’le Modly might even have an occasional beer now and then when working his. Both of these guys whom I respect for their knowledge and honesty have never mention ruining a keyboard from spilling liquid into it.
So I drink from bottles and glasses and Modly and Toughbook bottles – glasses and cans so we can also rule out the container.

From this I have to assume it’s the soda that’s the problem and you should stop drinking it as soon as possible.

Good luck I hope this helps.

 

Yes, I agree... Move away from soda, and get into the alcoholic beverages.

Cadillac, I'm a Guinness man myself. The bottles of draught were on sale this week, so I still have 4 left in the fridge, but I usually prefer the cans into a glass

When my brother was living a few blocks away, we stocked his fridge with it.

 

Costco my friend; 18 packs of Guinness draft are always on sale also a very fine beer and always good in stock at my house.

 

I love Jack Daniels but have been known to make my own beer. I like the Sam Adams type. (That is what I used to make) Now I make Champagne! (Screw the French... I call mine Champagne!) It's easy to do with all the same equipment I used to make my beer.

I have been known to have a soda during the day when working on these.... But I place the cup FAR away from my laptops! The Jack on the other hand is always right beside the laptop. I'm not sure why I do that... It's just the way it is.

The Toughbooks are supposed to be water resistant! Hose that sucker off! Then let it dry and get back to work.

 

I'm big on Sam Adams too! I like my beers either hoppy or dark.

My 800 looks like an alcoholic, it's got an Arrogant Bastard (ale) sitting on it.

 

Ok C5GUY I’m sorry to bring your simple request for help to this rant from a bunch of alcoholics but that’s what I do.

Modly why every time someone brings beer to my house they bring Arrogant Bastard you think they are trying to tell me something? Dose this also happen to you?
It’s just weird.
Jim

 

I find that rum and (diet) coke is computer-safe as well. Sometimes systems administration can suffer when it gets late, however.

 

By the way.. C5Guy, They are all on drinking session. I say, change the whole keyboard that is more easy.

 

He's gotta figure out how to remove the keyboard first, plus they are a different design than ours (And probably harder to find/more expensive).

C5Guy, if you were near the SouthEast Michigan area, I'd offer to stop on by and figure out how that keyboard comes out...

 

Ok C5 this is no bull crap good advice.
If you ever see a guy park a hearse in your driveway and get out holding one of these lock your doors and hide. He’s not coming to help you.

 

You guys crack me up. Your right -- I should have been having something a lot stronger over ice!!!

I'm glad the Toughbook is just that pretty Tough. Other laptops with liquid in the keyboard probably would have died.

Here's what I've found out. Ya know there is almost NOTHING that can't be found on the internet. I used to work for an internet search company. No -- not Google but the original search engine company that built the first search engine --- ALTAVISTA. I learned alot about search engines, how to use them and the net while I was there.

Also got some great help and links from folks here on this forum. -- thanks to all.

My CF-Y2 is pretty old 3.5 years. Still in good shape but I am leary about spending any serious bucks on it.

I'm gonna try taking some alcohol (the "rubbing" kind not the "drinking" kind) and find a few really badly stuck keys and see if some small controlled drips will loosen things. My whole keypboard is not stuck just about half the keys and some worse then others. If this fails then onto step #2.

I called several service centers and they want over $200 to install a new keyboard. Finding a keyboard for this machine is pretty hard. In doing my "search engine" research I did find several places to get one for about $100+. Interesting that I also saw that to replace the LCD screen on this laptop costs --- get this --- $1300+ JUST FOR THE LCD. Jeez... who would do that. I can get a machine 3 times as powerfull today for half that cost.

Anyway.... I sure wish I could find someone with an old burned out or brokern screen CF-Y2 that wanted to make a few bucks and I could see how it comes apart while extracting the keyboard. Anyone know of one?

I was able to find pictured instructions on how to take it apart here.

http://www.mfraenz.de/cf_y2/Panasonic_CF_Y2.pdf

And I also bought a downloadable service manual for $10 bucks that has disassembly and assembly instructions for the CF-Y2. I also think the Cf-Y48 might have the same keybaord since it's also a 14.1 inch screen like mine

I know I know... do a full backup first. I will ......and then I'll get that "adult beverage or two" ready to help me attempt surgery on my tough little TOUGHBOOK keeping the glass far away from the open "body" .

C5guy

 

Ouch. $1300 to buy the screen? I saw a whole Y2 on Craigslist for $500.

I'm not sure what it is about alcohol (Makes us more brave to rip apart our expensive hobby projects I guess ), but it works.

If you can get the keyboard out using those instructions, I'd do so before dripping the alcohol, just because it'll have a shorter drying time. You could probably drown the whole keyboard in it that way, or even rinse it under a sink then alky coat it.

On a side note, I'm not sure that the keyboards are the same as a 48. They could be, but I've got no way of looking it up to be sure.

 

Check the part numbers on it... They may be the same or similar.

 

Altavista was my favorite for years, before that Google kid started up.

 

Ya...AltaVista was a fun and neat company. They started as a skunkworks within DEC but boy... could I tell you stories about how they didn't stick to their knitting of being the best search engine and let Google eat their lunch and pull the market right out from under them.

I was President of their Enterprise search engine divsion and was a part of helping them sell the company to Overature and then 2 months later Overture got bought by Yahoo. The search engine you use today on Yahoo is the old AltaVista search engine.

Here's a little bio I found :

-----------------------
AltaVista - Search engine on the World Wide Web, originally set up by Digital Equipment, and purchased by sponsored search company Overture in the spring of 2003. Overture was in turn acquired by Yahoo! later the same year. AltaVista runs an automated program to index all the pages it can find on the Web, enabling visitors to enter search terms such as a name or subject and quickly retrieve a list of pages to visit to look for specific information. It has a similar indexing program for Usenet.

AltaVista was reported to be the most popular Internet search engine in five of the fastest-growing markets in 2000: Germany, France, the UK, Australia, and Canada. It has since lost popularity in favour of Google.
-----------------------

Now don't get me started or I'll start getting into my Ashton-Tate dBASE stories and really showing my age. I also worked for Ashton-Tate many moons ago and led dBASE from dBASE II thru to dBASE IV.

Any of you guys old enough to remember dBASE?

C5G

 

I remember dBASE, I was a hobbyist CP/M kinduvaguy in those days. I lusted for an Altair.

 

HI,
On the Nikon forums similar questions have been asked. Pro photogs have dropped their fancy cameras into salt water. The accepted procedure is to submerge the camera into clean, preferably distilled, water as soon as possible after the accident. Then the camera, still in water in a sealed container, is shipped to the repair center. The batteries are removed before the bath. The idea is to dissolve the salt residues and reduce the concentrations to an insignificant level before they can eat everything inside. Of course cameras, either digital or analog, have significant mechanical components so a trip to a factory repair station is called for. The results have been good. Remember, we are talking about very expensive cameras; more than a Toughbook.

In your case the problem is simpler because all the mechanical parts and display can be removed (don't forget the battery and drives) if you need to treat the whole computer. If not, you can remove just the keyboard and submerge that. Make sure the soda did not penetrate further. Treat only what you need to treat but be sure you don't miss anything. Let it soak for, what, a day? Then very carefully and throughly blow out the water with an air compressor. Then let it sit for a week to allow any left over water to evaporate. Then reassemble and, with fingers crossed (important!), fire it up.

I have never tried this. It is speculation but it's what I would do. I do know the acids in the soda are death to circuit board traces and switch and connector contacts. It should be done soon after the accident. It may be too late now.

I know this sounds drastic but consider this. I had a friend who used to refurbish old vacuum tube Tektronix oscilloscopes. Often these were obtained from salvage yards and were filthy dirty from being stored outdoors and were generally mishandled. He removed all the tubes and WASHED THEM IN A GUTTED HOME DISHWASHER. Worked like a charm. He never had a failure due to the bath. Do remember, these scopes used very high voltages yet, once properly dried, they survived. Food for thought before you reject the idea out of hand.

Sparky

 

Back to the original problem, replacing the keyboard isn't too difficult. On the bottom of the Y2 are the screws that hold it down. On the back half, take out all of the longer screws in the middle section (not the side covers), something like 4 or 5 and they're about an inch and a half long. Flip the Y2 back over and get a flat-head precision screw driver or a dental pick or something like that. Pop up the keyboard from the little tabs (another 4 or 5) that run along the sides and back then fold the keyboard out towards you from the back. Disconnect the cable and you're done. Just to it all in reverse to put it back after you've done whatever to clean it. Windex works fine without damaging it; you can just give the face a couple of squirts and it'll do wonders.