Dirty switches: was Wifi

["Steve Litt of Troubleshooters.Com" <littdom@gmail.com>]

On Sun, 9 Mar 2014 08:13:43 -0700
"LOwens" <owens@netptc.net> wrote:


> Steve et al
> I have a somewhat elderly Sony Vaio lappy with a Wi_Fi switch on the
> side which enables/disables WiFi.  The switch is a bit touchy and
> often must be toggled several times before WiFi is enabled.
> Larry

Hi Larry,

The way I personally handle dirty switches is with electronics
lubricant like Blowoff Electronic Lubricant. However, that's not
without its risks, because you want the lubricant on the switch
contacts and nothing else, so you can't go spraying it willy nilly
around the whole switch. Sometimes it's better to use no-residue
cleaner that, when it evaporates, leaves nothing behind.

Or sometimes, the best course of action is to toggle the switch 100
times, and hopefully that will break off the oxides on the contacts,
and make the switch work for another few months.

By the way, here's an article I wrote on lubricating electronic
contacts:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200310/200310.htm

HTH,

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance