cleaning dirty keyboards

[xbb]

while cleaning this keyboard I received, I have found this green shit on it... What is it? Green mold??? Sorry for the bad picture.

Better and full size picture here: http://i.imgur.com/qwnJR.jpg


This is after vacuuming, this was really dirty, I also found a paper clip inside...

[webwit]

A paper clip is nothing. It starts to get dirty when you find finger nails or contact lenses.

Looks like some glob of radioactive smudge to me.

[xbb]

it's white greenish, and white dots

[xbb]

Better and full size picture here: http://i.imgur.com/qwnJR.jpg

[webwit]

Is it residue, some chemical reaction of the plate, or both?

[webwit]

Better and full size picture here: http://i.imgur.com/qwnJR.jpg

Oooh That keyboard is ALIVE!

[xbb]

I have no idea, that's why I asked Someone suggested ghost buster too

[webwit]

I'm noticeably not in expert of keyboard crud or mold, but looks like someone dropped some bits of food in there and it's growing into a new alien breed. It's good you got there in time, to save the planet.

[Ascaii]

defintely some sort of fungus/mold...if this is one of the German Health-Card reader keyboards I would be careful when removing that culture, since you might have a board from a hospital, and who knows what that gunk is. I recommend wearing rubber gloves + face mask when cleaning it, no joke. (is this the board I played proxy for?)

[xbb]

yes it's that one

[Swede]

To me that looks like some sort of algae, looks organic, maybe it's infested by the zerg? xO
Take a sample of that and then cover mech keyboards in it... all the SC2 players will buy one!

[Findecanor]

If the PCB was made by Cherry then there should be a layer of copper underneath the black paint. Copper oxide is green.
I think that some corrosive chemical could have been spilled into the keyboard which ate through the paint and corroded the exposed copper.
If it is mould, then it should be easy to scrape it off. Oxide could be much harder.
If the keyboard is from a hospital, then I think that you should still take precautions. Btw, copper oxide is toxic.

[xbb]

I scraped it off with a brush, it went away very easy and it was like attached together, vacuumed it out. Now Ascaii is scaring me

[Ascaii]

just to be safe id coat the affected areas with an alcohol based desinfectant to kill off any remaining germs and let it dry for a few days

[Magna224]

I found a sim card in one of mine.

[The Solutor]

It's clearly "something" that corroded the tin coat of the jumper, exposing copper.

"something" reacted with copper which gave the green color to the "anomalous material"

[Gilgam]

Most pathogen germs die outside human fluids or heat/skin.

Gloves are a must have in case you have a wound, but you don't have any risks.
Looks like copper oxyde to me too.

[sixty]

I received two boards from China yesterday. One of them includes the shell of what appears to be a ladybug. I assume thats my record so far. This is also how diseases spread I guess

[mintberryminuscrunch]

its mold

[Half-Saint]

You answered your own question "green shit"

[xbb]

Now I'm cleaning a phoneboard, found hmm maybe 100 stickers around the keyboard under the keycaps... wtf?
The PCB has various sticky/dirty spots... suggestions?
To clean it good I should remove all the switches...

[mintberryminuscrunch]

the best way to remove stickers is heat IMO. It melts the glue and makes it easier to remove them.
Good luck