Stupid key

[per]

I've recently faced problems with one of the keys on my 83-key keyboard. It is the "6 ^" key. When it is normally depressed, it doesn't respond. When it is hammered, it does respond, but it goes quicly back to not-responding state. When it is hammered for a while, it works for a coupple of seconds before going back to not-working state. In addition, the key makes another kind of noise than the other keys.

Any sugestion in how to fix it?

 

[dongfeng]

Try taking the key cap off, tilting the keyboard backwards (so the spring rests along the top edge of the hole) and put it back on.

 

[per]

Try taking the key cap off, tilting the keyboard backwards (so the spring rests along the top edge of the hole) and put it back on.

That helped a little, but not it is making an even stranger sound. It's first a click, nothing happens, then after about a half second of depressing it, it will make small tick sound and then the number appears on screen. It's only like this about 70% of the times it is depressed. The other 30%, it's acting normal, or not replying at all.

I don't know what causes this.

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I've now tried several times. right after I do it, it works, however, after a coupple of seconds, it goes back to non-working state. Annoying!

 

[strollin]

Is this a vintage IBM keyboard? If so, try holding the keyboard about 6-8 inches above your desk and dropping it from that height. Believe it or not but that was the "official" IBM procedure to fix keyboards of that era. I've used that method successfully numerous times to fix keyboards that were acting up. No guarantee that it will work on non IBM keyboards though.

 

[BG101]

Sounds like the key could do with a touch of lubricant - NOT WD40!! - a tiny drop of light oil or preferably very light grease should do the trick.



BG

 

[per]

Sounds like the key could do with a touch of lubricant - NOT WD40!! - a tiny drop of light oil or preferably very light grease should do the trick.



BG

Yea, that's my guess too since it stops working if I don't frequently depress it after the "6-inch drop" method.

It is a type-1 IBM 83-key keyboard.

 

[per]

Sounds like the key could do with a touch of lubricant - NOT WD40!! - a tiny drop of light oil or preferably very light grease should do the trick.



BG

I've now tried this.

Apparently, I got some problems. One tiny drop can quickly turn into five if you aren't carefull enough. As a ressult; The key still doesn't work, three of the keys next to it stopped working, and now I actually get an "06 301" error on boot.

Is it a good idea to get myself a new keyboard?

 

[barythrin]

I dunno, you could try cleaning some of the excess oil off with a cue-tip or mash the buttons a bit longer and let the oil get out of some spots. Shaking the keyboard upside down to clear out garbage, etc.

That's a tough one though.. at some point you'll likely want to seek a new keyboard opposed to dinking with the broken one. Just depends how much money your time is worth.

 

[nige the hippy]

just a thought, but could it be grease on the contact surfaces actually causing the original problem? Oil is an insulator, and it also creeps, so hammering the key would force a gap in the oil, leaving the key to work for a while, but then after a while, the oil would creep back. I suppose it could also be dust in there too.
Is that type of keyboard with a pair of membranes inside? in which case the keyboard guys where I worked used to pull them apart, wipe the membranes over with some gentle solvent, repair any broken traces/pads with "rear screen heater repair paint" put the keys through the washing machine & rebuild them good as new.
That was when it was worth repairing keyboards!

 

[dongfeng]

You can take the original IBM 5150/5160 keyboards apart and clean them. HOWEVER, it takes forever to put them back together again, the space bar alone took me 3 hours!

Something I never want to do again... :lol:

 

[per]

You can take the original IBM 5150/5160 keyboards apart and clean them. HOWEVER, it takes forever to put them back together again, the space bar alone took me 3 hours!

Something I never want to do again... :lol:

I've modded my spacebar to be easy to replace. I got some problems replacing it after I removed all keycaps because I wanted to clean it some time ago.

I also figured that opening up the metal cover inside the keyboard is not that easy either (I still haven't figured how to do that).

 

[barythrin]

Go for it It kills me any time I don't fix something and have to lower myself to buying another. I can't remember the last project I was working on taking hours and hours to troubleshoot before I finally took my mom's advice and decided ok, this is a case where my time really is worth the money to buy another vs fix this one.

Still.. never makes me happy if I don't try for a while. I have a notebook I need to dissect still and I think the solder joints are bad on the power connector. It sucks, I'm not sure when I'll have time or the work area (lol.. yeah I'm that type of collector) but I don't think I can justify buying another notebook when it's a few hours more but taking everything out of this one to get to the connector that's under the MB.

 

[per]

Go for it It kills me any time I don't fix something and have to lower myself to buying another. I can't remember the last project I was working on taking hours and hours to troubleshoot before I finally took my mom's advice and decided ok, this is a case where my time really is worth the money to buy another vs fix this one.

Still.. never makes me happy if I don't try for a while. I have a notebook I need to dissect still and I think the solder joints are bad on the power connector. It sucks, I'm not sure when I'll have time or the work area (lol.. yeah I'm that type of collector) but I don't think I can justify buying another notebook when it's a few hours more but taking everything out of this one to get to the connector that's under the MB.

Thanks. It worked.

The problem was that the oil I used made a vacuum between the effected key-plates (conductors) and the base. Because of this, the conductor simply wouldn't pop back.

The original problem might just have been that the one key was a little out-of-track.

One way to get the spacebar rigth is to simply not remove the keytop. When replacing the base, use a small flat-bladed screwdrive to hold it in it's track. That worked for me, and surely saved me some time.

On a side note, my keyboard got this stupid coating on the inside (sticky glue on one side, old foam on the other side). If you touch it, you're doomed to get lots of old foam on your fingers, and you have to use tons of soap to wash it of.

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However, I've learned one thing. Don't EVER pour oil (or other fluids) into a "clicky" keyboard. Fluids should't be there in the first place, and it'll just make everything worse.