Funky behavior from Apple Adjustable Keyboard

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Funky behavior from Apple Adjustable Keyboard

I got a 1992 Apple Adjustable keyboard and a few Apple Desktop Bus cords off eBay and I've been getting some odd behavior from the key board. When typing it will often not respond to certain keys being pressed, or in the middle of typing it will throw repeats of letters typed into the word making the whole experience rather frustrating.

Can anyone shed some light on what might be going wrong?

Thanks Aidyn

Power Macintosh G3 (1997)-OTHER, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Apr 11, 2016 4:56 PM

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Answer 1

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Don Archibald

Level 10

101,623 points

Apr 11, 2016 9:25 PM in response to applefanAidyn

From the symptoms you give, it sounds like there's some dirt in the keyboard's keyswitches. Here are a couple of webpages addressing such issues with that keyboard -

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=70708.0

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc/6XekPss_21U

What some folk have had success doing is to actually wash a keyboard which has sticking keys. To do that, get some distilled water (like that sold for use with steam irons; grocery stores often carry it). Warm some up (body temp or a bit more is OK; not real hot), immerse the keyboard in it. Slosh the keyboard around for a bit. Repeat with a batch of fresh water. Then hang the keyboard up to dry - suspending it from one corner is a good way. Let it thoroughly dry; this might take a few days. You can use a fan to help the drying, but do not use a heat source (such as a hair dryer). Remember that heat weakens and melts plastic.

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