Faulty keyboard? Throw it in the bin? Or can you fix it?
NO WORKING KEYBOARDS WERE HARMED DURING THE CREATION OF THIS VIDEO
Have you ever forgotten you know something?
In this video… I thought I bought a faulty keyboard.
And I explain how you can fix 4 common problems that effect Apple and other brand keyboards!
I recently bought a used Apple A1314 keyboard and an A1296 Magic Mouse for $50 including postage which I thought was a great deal.
Both are well made, they look stylish and they are both bluetooth.
The reason I like bluetooth other than proprietary dongles, is if you lose your dongle you can buy another,
or for many devices including apple they have built in bluetooth.
Yes these do require batteries, and yes I will be getting to that in future videos.
Check out my Trackpad LiPo conversion video if you are interested in that.
Now back to the keyboard.
It was slightly grubby, but not too bad, as with all things I buy from eBay,
when I receive them I give them a wipe down with isopropyl alcohol or other suitable cleaning product.
Then uh oh, I realised some of the keys were not working.
Fault 1 It’s not actually faulty.
You can see how far I got before I realised. The keys I removed were not working at all.
Granted they did have lint under them and needed a thorough clean anyway.
I also soaked the keys and mechanisms in warm water and detergent.
What was the problem? Mouse keys!
If you press alt 5 times it will turn on Mouse Keys.
On a full sized keyboard Mouse Keys uses the number pad to control the mouse pointer.
But on a smaller keyboard like this one,
it uses 789, UIO, JKL, as well as M and greater-than key for right and left click.
So to be sure, press alt 5 times to turn it off or otherwise check if Mouse Keys is enabled,
or try it on a different computer.
Fault 2 Broken Scissor Mechanism or Key Cap
One sure fire way to break your keyboard is letting a young child near your computer unattended,
Another is attempting to clean your keyboard and accidentally breaking something.
You can break them, even if you know what you are doing, so don’t be upset with yourself.
The solution? Buy a replacement key on eBay.
First you need to check the model number on the back as they are different.
Depending on the seller, you choose one in the listing, or you message them stating which key you need, or which mechanism
With Apple keyboards there are a few differences, even on identical looking keyboards.
Perhaps some even between the same model number,
for example some A1314 (also A1243 and others) or similar keyboards had arrow key mechanisms the other way around.
These are the most common ones to break, so if you are removing them, either don’t, or be very very careful.
We’ll go over the basic procedure for removing keys on this kind of keyboard.
You’ll notice on the back of the key at the top is a push down clip, you just need to use a small amount of force to remove it, and also to reinstall it.
At the bottom is a hook, it hooks around 2 fingers on the lower part of the mechanism.
You can simply pull up to remove the key, but I like to lever between the key and the mechanism with something like tweezers.
Keep in mind that certain keys will have the mechanism going in a different direction,
So if something doesn’t seem right, lift and have a look before using any force.
Now removing the mechanism.
I like to put a bit of pressure pushing forwards with my thumb,
Then carefully lift 1 corner. With one corner lifted, the 2nd is usually easier.
If it doesn’t come straight off like this, just repeat the process for the other side.
Here’s the whole process again.
Carefully lever it up, we put the tweezers between the mechanism and the key. And it should just pop up.
And you can lie it out of the way.
Next we push forward and carefully lift.
There it is. It’s off.
You can see how delicate it is, you have to be very careful.
All of these keys have lint around the button.
This part can be really bad if the previous owner had bad personal hygiene or pets.
I’ve dipped the brush in some isopropyl alcohol,
you don’t want to pour it directly on the keyboard.
You may need to use the tweezers if there’s a hair or something in there.
I’ll give the mechanism and the key a quick clean as well.
Now for the reassembly. That middle loop needs to point down.
Put it in place, Push it up and then push it down
Should hear 2 clicks The key’s even easier,
Put it on towards the bottom and push.
Easy.
Fault 3 Damaged or Missing Silicone Button.
If you have a certain key that doesn’t work, or at least doesn’t work properly it could have a damaged button.
These are like a mini suction cup,
it’s simply a cushioned buffer between the mechanical action of the key and the delicate membranes.
Apart from the key and mechanism and the steel backing plate, there are 4 seperate layers, the button layer,
2 conductive layers sandwiched together with a spacer layer in between them.
The button layer has no tracks and unlike a television remote or game controller it isn’t electrically conductive.
It’s a straight silicone cup that deforms and gently pokes the conductive layers in just the right spot when a key is pressed.
These can get damaged due to manufacturing defect, poor handling such as improperly storing your keyboard
or an accident while cleaning it.
The good news is you can replace the individual cups.
Separating the silicon from its plastic membrane is a no go, its glued on too well,
but you can cut out the membrane from a donor keyboard and glue it in place with something like B7000.
I have fixed several of these keyboards with this method. Let’s go over the process.
You need a new, sharp razor blade. This one is neither, don’t use one like this.
On our donor keyboard you can cut through the all of the membranes, it does not matter.
Try to cut it as large as you can, it will make it easier to glue on later.
That was messy, that’s why you use a sharp razor blade.
Now for the receiving keyboard, we need to cut away the damaged button.
We need to slide something in between the button layer and the conductive membrane layers,
We do not want to cut through those layers like we did on the donor board.
Just checking my work to make sure I haven't cut the wrong layer.
Give it a good clean with isopropyl alcohol.
We need B7000 glue, don’t use Cyanoacrylate Super Glue, that is just asking for trouble.
Just putting it in place, sussing out where I am going to put the glue
3 little blobs
Don’t worry about membrane overlap, If for some reason you are able to notice the difference you can easily remove the glue later,
trim the 3 wings and put it back on.
Make sure to spend the time, just adjusting it, getting it perfectly centred.
With that done, let it cure. When it's fully done you can put the key back on.
Fault 4 A key repeats or other keys are not working because one is stuck down.
This is a similar issue to Fault number 3, but more to do with the membranes than the silicon button itself.
If the button layer membrane or conductive membranes have been stressed or warped enough you may get random intermittent key presses.
First up we need 1 or 2 shims,
I’m harvesting them off this wrecked keyboard membrane. It doesn’t have to be this membrane, it can be any similar thin plastic or paper,
Not too thick otherwise it could make a noticeable difference with the key action.
I'll cut it in half...
It doesn't want to cut...
OK we've got 2 small pieces about that size.
I had to give my tweezer tips a slight bend to be able to grip these.
I’m just going to slide it in behind the membrane,
Adjust it a bit there...
You may not have to, but for this demonstration we’ll do a 2nd one.
It’s really a trial and error thing. You can try a shim, then adjust its position,
under the button membrane or under the conductive one.
Another option could be cutting away the silicone membrane and separating the conductive membrane halves and shimming in between them.
It’s like keyhole surgery!
That’s it we’ve got 2 shims in. That’s under the button layer, I’ll take it out and put it under the conductive membranes.
It's glued down to the backing plate, so I’ll just open it up a bit.
Again it’s a trial an error thing, if it doesn’t fix the problem with that key you can adjust the shim until it works.
If you get it right, a touch of B7000 will permanently hold it in place.
What about other faults?
Liquid spillage is a major issue, I can’t say much about this because I don’t have a lot of experience with water damaged keyboards,
The last one I damaged while cleaning I tried drying but it never came back to life.
If it's particular keys, you may be able to seperate layers and try drying them or cleaning them,
But as I demonstrated before it’s like keyhole surgery.
I think in some cases water spills down into the ribbon connector and circuit board and also corrodes the conductive traces.
While Apple keyboards can be opened up and repaired using an oven to soften the glue,
You will need to drill out all of the tiny rivets, and somehow glue it all back together again.
It just seems like a very big job with little reward.
Another similarly destructive option is using a Dremel to carefully cut through the hump.
In reality as you will see in the next section, I think it’s just not worth doing.
Finally, What to do with a really broken keyboard?
Well you can hang keep it for spare keys, or as I showed before, you’re sitting on potentially more money in keys than it costs to buy a replacement used keyboard.
There’s also 145 grams of high quality aluminium for recycling or for anyone who does any metal casting.
Well that’s it for this video,
Feel free to comment if you have any thoughts or if you’ve done something like this before.
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Also check out the links in the description.
Thanks for watching!