Cleaning Greasy Vaio Z Keys

Do you guys recommend any chemical/liquid solution to clean the keys on the Vaio Z? My finger oil and other grease have pretty much permeated the keys, and simple water just will not remove it. So the keys look "shiny" from grease/oil. The shiny keys are very annoying to look at on my otherwise immaculately kept Vaio Z.

Based on google searches, people have recommend chemicals like alcohol and soap and such, but I am afraid that might strip off the printed letters on the keys.

Feedback appreciated....

 

I wouldn't use alcohol. That solvent will mess things up. It even took some of the "aluminum" off my Macbook Pro. Use baby wipes if you must, but I don't think it'll help. It's not gease making the keys shiny. The keys have been polished by you using them. They weren't shiny before because there was a wee bit of texture. That's been polished smooth by your fingers.

 

Hmm.. I suppose it could be the acid in the oil have started the "polishing" process...

It could also be that, within the grainy surface, the oil/grease is trapped, and cannot be cleaned out adequately using water with its higher viscosity, since the grain is quite fine.

 

Oil is hydrophobic; so using water to clean it is pretty fruitless. Put a drop of water into a pan of water and notice that it beads, rather than disseminating.

If it is grease and not wear, I find that a small amount of mild dishwashing liquid soap in water works decently (dampen some absorbant paper towel in the soap/water mix and use that to wipe the keys - use a slight scrubbing action, wiping across in one direction is inefficient).

 

Only if the water is extremely cold...

 

my dell's keys (and palmrest) became shiny due to wear (the oil stripped the paint off), .. my guess is that the oil also stripped the paint off your laptop, and perhaps the texture came off along with it (i dont think your fingers would physically wear down the texture by itself.. but it's possible)

my advice would be just to not worry about it and next time remember to get a keyboard protector

 

Lol, you tried it? I only mentioned it because a real life example is usually easier to visualise than the concept of hydrophobicity. All kudos to you for actually doing it and at different temperatures, that's way more dedication that I would have had! But in all seriousness, water itself is unlikely to remove the oil from your keyboard, just as water alone is unlikely to remove grease from your frypan when you're doing the dishes.

 

He was just teasing at your typo. You said "Put a drop of water into a pan of water and notice that it beads, rather than disseminating." instead of "Put a drop of oil into a pan of water and notice that it beads, rather than disseminating.". Thus it would have to be really cold so that the drop of water would be ice for it to float.

 

Haha, I totally missed that, -1 for me.

 

Frustrating as I have never (40+ lappys) had a laptop keyboard shine so quickly. Hoping Sony will cover it.

 

Use a clear TPM cover and never experience this again.