Sticky and non-firing keys on an Apple ][+

[Oldbrass]

Greetings, vintage computer folks.

I just made an account here out of frustration and desperation to get my good. ole Apple][+ to function again. Here's the issue...

It used to be that I had some keys that would "stick" and repeat, even though the physical key popped back up while other keys didn't work at all. I took a job at a technology school and let one of my students try to work this out but it's actually gotten worse. He removed the keys, cleaned everything carefully, replaced the ribbon from the keyboard to the keyboard control board and reassembled it all. Now it's worse.

I was tempted to just replace the keyboard and control board, but on eBay those parts go for a LOT of cash, so now I'm looking at fixing it and need some guidance. Has anyone attempted repair on this and if so, would you share your thoughts?

Thanks!
-Oldbrass

 

[David_M]

Greetings, vintage computer folks.

I just made an account here out of frustration and desperation to get my good. ole Apple][+ to function again. Here's the issue...

It used to be that I had some keys that would "stick" and repeat, even though the physical key popped back up while other keys didn't work at all. I took a job at a technology school and let one of my students try to work this out but it's actually gotten worse. He removed the keys, cleaned everything carefully, replaced the ribbon from the keyboard to the keyboard control board and reassembled it all. Now it's worse.

I was tempted to just replace the keyboard and control board, but on eBay those parts go for a LOT of cash, so now I'm looking at fixing it and need some guidance. Has anyone attempted repair on this and if so, would you share your thoughts?

Thanks!
-Oldbrass

I'm guessing its one of those nasty ones that don't use individual keys. They are really sensitive to the alignment of the pcb and the plastic shield in relation to the keys.

 

[Corey986]

Are you able to post a picture of the keyboard from the back of the machine so that we can see the type of keyboard you have. I haven't seen the RFI keyboards keys stick as badly as individual key keyboards unless you clean them wrong. Since you are started with a sticky keyboard, hopefully it's not one of those, they require lots of beer and patience to fix. The individual key switch keyboards aren't bad to fix the sticky key problem if the actual switches aren't damaged.