TIL you can fix a sticky keyboard key with a pencil eraser

My buddy Dave at the electronics shop showed me this trick. He said graphite from a soft pencil eraser rubs into the switch mechanism and lubricates it without gumming things up like WD-40. I tried it on my old mechanical board that had a stuck 'A' key for months, and it started working again in like 20 seconds. Anybody else got weird keyboard hacks that actually do the job?

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2 Comments

the_wyatt2mo ago

Eight out of ten keyboard problems I see people complain about online are fixed by literally just unplugging it and plugging it back in. Not saying the eraser trick doesn't work, but we might be overthinking a piece of plastic with some dust in it. I'd rather spend 30 seconds blasting the key with compressed air than rubbing a pencil on it and hoping the graphite doesn't get into everything else. Then again, I've seen people throw away whole keyboards over a single stuck key, so maybe a little common sense goes a long way. Honestly, if your 'A' key was stuck for months, that's on you for not trying something simpler first. But hey, if it worked, it worked.

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hugo_cooper2mo ago

My buddy @the_wyatt had a space bar that was sticking for like two weeks. He tried the pencil trick, tried blowing on it, nothing worked. Finally he just popped the keycap off with a butter knife and found a dried piece of gummy bear stuck under there. Cleaned it with a toothpick and it was fine. The guy was about to order a whole new keyboard on Amazon before I told him to just look under the key. Sometimes it really is just food or dust and not something that needs a science experiment to fix.

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