How do I clean out my laptop keyboard, under the keys ?
It's not recommended to take the key off because there is always a chance that you can put it back right. You may want to take the battery out before cleaning the keyboard. Use a combination of these : dust blower / vacuum / compressed air / baby wipe (w/ caution) / flipping it upside down.
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Laptop keyboard acting "funny" after cleaning?
Alcohol in the switches, rubber seals or circuit board can do serious damage. Probably better to just buy a new keyboard, they are so cheap now. I just hope none of it ran off the keyboard onto the motherboard which is directly underneath.
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IBM ThinkPad Butterfly keyboard
The TrackWrite, also known as the butterfly keyboard, is a foldout laptop computer keyboard designed by John Karidis for IBM as part of the ThinkPad 701 series, released in 1995. It allowed the 701 series to be both compact (when closed) and comfortable to use (when open), despite being just 24.6 cm (9.7 in) wide with a 26.4 cm (10.4 in) VGA LCD. The 701 was the top selling laptop of 1995; however, as later laptop models featured progressively larger screens, the need for a folding keyboard was eliminated. Consequently, no model but the 701 used the butterfly keyboard. The butterfly keyboard is split into two roughly triangular pieces that slide as the laptop's lid is opened or closed. As the lid is opened both pieces slide out to the sides, followed by one piece sliding downward. The two halves mesh to form a keyboard 29.2 cm (11.5 in) wide which overhangs the sides of the laptop body. Conversely, as the lid is closed one piece slides back, then both slide inward until the keyboard can be covered by the lid. The movement of the keyboard is driven by a cam on the lid's hinge, so the motions of the keyboard parts are always synchronized with the movement of the lid. The unusual design is being displayed in the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, New York and Die Neue Sammlung.
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what are the advanatges/disadvantages of having a wireless keyboard?
Pros: - Convenience of location, you can choose where you would like to put your keyboard without the consideration for wires. - Most of the wireless keyboard have a fair number of media keys and make it nice and easy to control your media player at a distance with the keyboard - The work well when using your computer as a media center since again there are no wires. - You are able to put they keyboard completely away and out of site when it is not in use or you need the space quickly. Cons - Batteries batteries batteries. - If you are a heavy gamer then battery power keyboard are not a good idea. - Range, not all wireless keyboards can go as far as they claim. - Interference, depending where you put the wireless receiver you can discover blind spots where your keyboard wont work in the room/house. - The ugly receiver, usually they are a usb cord that leads to a device like a small hockey puck on the end but some are bluetooth now. These can get in the way and again can have low reception and blind spots. - When the batteries run low your will start to notice keys do not show when you type or letters repeat to many times and this is not good if you are the type of person who looks away while they type. My experience. Logitech - great wireless accessories from them, I have owned them since they came only in PS2 connected receivers and they have all had great range and reasonable batterylife on rechargeable batteries. I was able to go about 80 feet on a fresh set of batteries line of site with one set. Apple - peace of junk mouse and keyboard stay away.
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Can you switch the top case and keyboard to a different language?
It's possible, sure. Having poked around inside of the unibody-MacBooks a bit over the years, I would not say that it falls into the "easy to do" category.I have not done it personally but when I first got my '08 Unibody MacBook Pro, the keyboard keys were crooked. I went to an Apple-certified repair shop and they replaced the keyboard with a brand new one. AFAIK you buy the keyboard as a kit that you can then install instead of the current one