Macbook keyboard problems

[CC Ricers]

One day when my keyboard of my white Macbook got a bit dirty with food stains, I decided out of my sheer genius to scrub it with dish soap on a rag. Afterwards some of the keys on the keyboard started acting funky.

The Command and 'v' keys now behave, interestingly, as if they're linked together. Pressing either just Command or 'v' makes the computer go command+v, in other words the paste function. I actually have the letter 'v' in its clipboard most of the time so I can keep on typing. It's a real pain in the ass to keep copy-pasting stuff and going back to typing. Also, the right square bracket key doesn't work.

My Macbook is a late 2008 model, refurbished and no Apple Care bought for it.

I think some of the soap liquid actually got settled in there and made some parts on the inside sticky. Removing just the keys doesn't seem to help me get to the source of the problem. Do I need a total replacement of the keyboard? If so, is it as simple as slipping out the old keyboard/PCB into a connector ribbon slot and putting the new one in?

[phill]

I would start by removing the keys in question, or all the keys and make sure they are clean underneath. There are a few websites and youtube videos show you how to do this. And this time don't use soap on the computer, individual keys are okay as long as you rinse and dry them before putting things back together.

http://nonverbla.de/blog/2006/11/12/how-to-clean-your-macbook-pro-keyboard/

[CC Ricers]

So I took it apart, by following instructions on how to remove the top case part. Some small screws held on real tight but, eventually I got them all out.

While I was at it, I cleaned the insides with compressed air and took out the bad keys, cleaned that and popped them back in. After re-assembling the whole thing I'm still having problems with those keys. The only option would be to buy a replacement keyboard/top case. Since I know how to remove one now, I'll just spare the roughly $100 for the labor at the Apple store and buy one myself on eBay.