- It's gonna get messy.
My wife's keyboard has been acting up lately
and that seems like a simple enough fix.
Huck it and buy a new one, right?
What? No.
This is an almost perfectly good keyboard.
It's got 102 keys on it that all work just fine.
So how hard could it be to replace one of them.
Just, well, it's not that one, it's this one, actually.
This is getting harder than I thought already.
Pop off the key cap, replace the key switch,
solder on a new one and bipity snappity,
it's off to the races, right?
Well, actually, no, it's not quite that simple.
This is a pre-built keyboard
that doesn't have hot-swappable switch sockets.
These key switches are soldered, but don't fret.
While it might sound a little scary,
it's actually pretty easy to replace a dead switch.
Just means we're gonna have to get intimate.
Like I get intimate with our sponsors.
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(upbeat intro music)
This SteelSeries 7G mechanical keyboard
is my wife Yvonne's daily driver at home
where it has faithfully done its duty for many years.
And it is kind of old at this point,
like baby Linus with frosted tips old.
That's right, this bad boy, this exact keyboard
graced ye old NCIX casting couch over 11 years ago.
And look at us, we've both come a long way since then.
Since that initial review, it ended up bouncing around
at the office before eventually ending up back at my house
for Yvonne's work and casual gaming use.
And the reason for it is that it has this outstanding,
super gently sloped and extra long wrist rest
that she finds extra comfortable.
That's actually the only thing that she really likes
about it because she's not a huge fan
of Cherry MX Black mechanical switches.
When it launched, it cost over $150
and had cutting edge features like USB
and audio passthrough, not to mention that it has both a USB
and PS2 interface so that you can plug it into,
that's right, all the most modern motherboards. (chuckles)
The only problem with it is that it's a little tired.
And recently the E key has been acting up,
only registering key presses about half of the time.
Why? Well, that could be any number of things.
Dust in the switch, corrosion, a lifted PCB trace.
We're not actually gonna know until we crack it open.
But before we get to that, we're gonna fire up
QMK's keyboard tester and check to make sure
that all of the other keys actually work.
It's not as bad as one in every two,
but I've missed 2 out of about 20
so I can see why that would be bothering her.
Everything else looks good except she didn't even tell me
that this one was broken.
No, it's not, it's a function key,
that's why I left the SteelSeries logo one on there.
And this legend just doesn't have the functions marked.
- Oh. - So it's just the E key.
That's the only one we have to replace today.
- [Colin] Okay, well then my 102 key count is wrong,
it's 103 keys.
- It's 103 keys that still work.
The best part of that is it takes our entire
keyboard repair cost from $2 for two key switches to $1
plus shipping and the materials that we're gonna need
to perform the repair.
So why don't we walk through what we're going to need?
First things first, you'll need the soldering iron.
We're using our Hakko 888D but you don't need anything
that's expensive and in fact, you probably don't need
to buy one, odds are, if you're a big geek, which you are,
you're watching this video, you've got a friend
or a family member who's got a soldering iron lying around
and the odds of you damaging it, doing something like this
are extremely low, so I would just borrow one.
You'll also need a screwdriver or screwdrivers
that match the board, in this case, Phillips.
Thank you, SteelSeries.
Some flux core solder, leaded or unleaded.
We suggest the latter if you want
to be more environmentally friendly or the former
if you want it to be a little bit easier to work with.
Along with sort of solder wick.
Get the name brand stuff from Gootwick by the way.
Trust me on this one.
And some flux for keeping everything nice
and clean and flowing.
We're using this MG Chemicals no clean flux
because it comes in this convenient syringe,
but you can also go full Rossmann
and liberally dose the board where needed
with any other kinds of flux that you like.
Keep in mind that you want to clean up any excess
after your repair because flux is mildly corrosive.
So we're gonna be using, what did you spray this with?
- Soap. - Soap, okay.
Soap, yeah, there you go.
Also, you might want a key cap puller
and we've also got a solder sucker as well.
This is a really, really low quality one
and I wouldn't recommend using this one,
but basically you preload a little thing and go bop
and it theoretically sucks up the solder.
I personally find the wick works a lot better.
- Hm-hm. Now it's time
to snap a quick pick of the keyboard for reference.
This is a slightly different layout than I'm used to
and to pull off all the key caps
so that we can shame my wife for the state of her keyboard.
You know what, the F keys are not as dirty.
I suspect once we make our way toward the middle
of the board, things are gonna get kind of nasty though.
Okay, I would strongly recommend not breathing in,
ladies and gentlemen.
(can spraying) (Linus yells)
Oh.
Oh, it's everywhere. Oh gosh. - Oh, god.
- Oh wow. It's really still not that clean.
You know what, I think this is as clean
as it's getting today, sorry hun.
Got my screwdriver, soon to be lttstore.com
Got my hydration, lttstore.com.
Got my work surface here, okay, it's a mousepad,
but lttstore.com
In addition to the four screws on the bottom,
they've got those little plastic tabs
that you can accidentally break off if you're not careful.
So we're just gonna put our iFixit spudger in here.
Let's give it a little, oh yeah, there we go.
By modern electronic standards,
this is very openable and repairable.
Oh wow, there's a lot of crud inside it too.
Actually, nope. You're off the hook Yvonne.
I think a lot of this is just dried glue
or some kind of like manufacturing schmoo.
You see that Colin?
It looks like it's like some kind of,
maybe it used to be glued together
- Or it could be milk. - Oh, it's not milk.
- [Colin] It was only at the front and it's white.
Did you use that keyboard Linus?
- No, I never used this keyboard.
He knows I'm the cereal eater, but no, this was not me.
Our next step is to pull this baby up so you can see
why old mechanical keyboards had such a good reputation
for being built like tanks
because there's a solid steel plate
down the middle of this thing.
Ah, there we go.
Now that's something we're not gonna want to break here.
Man, January 30th, 2008 is the manufacturing date
for this board in here for the passthrough USB
and passthrough front panel audio.
Freakin' love it.
And this is about as far as we have to go here, that's it.
That's the raw keyboard right there.
It's got keys and it's a board.
One thing we have to be careful of is these pins on the back
if we want our front passthroughs to work.
They're not super fragile though so I'm not too worried
about doing anything to them.
We could just bend them back if we accidentally bend them.
And we could I think, if we really wanted to desolder
every single key switch and then remove the steel plate,
we could separate these two layers,
but they've been twisted into place with little steel tabs,
probably for a reason.
And it doesn't look like we have to pull them apart
in order to replace just one key switch.
So let's go ahead and have a look at
which switch is coming out.
It's gonna be this one, this guy right here.
Okay, let's go ahead. I'm just gonna meh-meh.
(grunts) I hate these things.
Here we go boys. We're gonna wick it up.
Now this is interesting, SteelSeries or whoever
they're OEM is, apparently saw fit
to bend over a the little stems from the key switches.
So I can't just pull it right out
without bending these little tabs back.
You know what, it's also not quite there
in terms of being fully wicked.
I thing we gotta, yeah, we gotta lift that, oh.
There it is.
There's our Cherry MX Black switch.
That's right, you've seen all 50 million of your keystrokes.
Sorry buddy.
The switch is definitely dead if it wasn't,
which it was.
(tester beeping)
- [Colin] Something ain't right in there.
- (chuckles) There, see that's how it's supposed to work.
You've probably seen diagrams of this online.
Basically, you've got your stem at the top.
That's where your key cap mounts to,
so you got little rails on the sides
so that it slides vertically only,
You got your spring, this is what pops up the key switch
when you are done pressing it down.
And this is also what controls how much tension there is,
so like how much force is required to push it down.
Then right here, you've got your contact points.
And you know, it's funny,
I think Cherry told me these are gold-plated,
but that doesn't really look like gold.
- [Colin] It's probably worn off by now.
- I mean I guess it could be worn off or something.
(Linus beeps)
Sending messages across the Atlantic. Sorry.
Let's grab one that is confirmed actually working
and assembled correctly for this next part.
Oh wow, yeah, that one is borked
'cause here's how it's supposed to go down.
So it goes down, there's you're tactile bump
(bump sound) and then there's your contact point
right under it.
Let's put on a new one, shall we?
I keep trying to open this bag
and Colin keeps not letting me do it.
Can I open this bag yet? - I'll allow it now.
- All right, did we order these form DigiKey?
- Yes we did. - All right.
So these are brand new Cherry MX Black switches.
And in theory, and we know this from our tour of Cherry
way back, (scoffs) it was a lot of years ago actually,
that the design of this could actually be subtly different.
They have been revising silently their cherry MX lineup
constantly over the years.
But the goal is that whatever changes they make to them,
the reliability, the feel, and the sound
should all be the same.
Theoretically, if I gave this keyboard to someone
not telling them which one has been swapped out
with a switch from 10 to 12 years later,
they shouldn't be able to tell.
I'm gonna pop this on.
I do not see any obvious difference in any of the molding,
even though we know for a fact that they would have had
to redo their molds many, many times since then,
molds don't last forever.
Oh, this little bump here is higher.
You know what, I think the logo is high res.
It is, (gasps) oh, we need the microscope Colin.
There we go, that's our new key cap.
This is our old one. See that.
So they're probably just at different stages
in their wear.
- Yeah, that's just an interjectory pin mark.
So it doesn't matter - No.
but it's interesting that it's changed,
right? - But it has changed.
- They've updated their mold design clearly.
- Absolutely.
This Cherry logo, I am fairly certain
that that logo is significantly higher res now.
- [Colin] It's slightly out of focus but-
- Yeah, it's really hard to tell because of that.
I can't hold it steady enough for us to be able to tell
and this mount is just not good enough.
- We could just trust you.
- I can't tell to the touch.
- Good. - Let's solder it on then.
- [Colin] Yeah.
- First things first, I'm gonna just do
what the original assemblers did and I'm going to bend
these little stems over now.
Now, it's time to flux it up.
You don't want to flux up this stage, okay?
Sorry Colin, I can't resist.
Yeah, yeah, technically you're supposed to heat the thing,
not the solder, but whatever, deal with that.
Okay, we've got a ball of solder on there. (boop sounds)
Oh, we need more. (boop)
Okay, and let's do the same thing again. Whoops.
Slipped a little there.
I don't think I did any worse than the original assembly.
Now it's time for a quick reassembly.
Like not full reassembly, we're just gonna put the,
oh, there we go.
The IO passthrough board in place.
And let's do a quick test run here.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Yay, we did it. Freaking awesome.
Now we can put the rest of the board together.
I kind of feel like it should get a bit of a better cleaning
before we formally put it together.
Should we just run it through the dishwasher?
- No. - Colon and I did a video
about that, wow, that was right when you started, wasn't it?
- It was. Uh-huh. - Like two years ago.
Damn. Okay, so one of those keyboards did eventually die.
Colin daily drove it at his desk.
- Multiple of them actually. - Oh, more than one.
- [Colin] Just moisture in keyboard bad. Do not do.
- Point is we're just gonna get some soap and water
and clean the deck, then assemble it.
And after some deck swabbing and key cap cleaning
and final reassembly, we're ready to show off
an old keyboard.
But one that performs as well as it did
when it was new and that will continue to soldier on
for at least a few more years.
And at what a great price, right?
Who wants to spend a hundred dollars
on a new mechanical keyboard
when you can have a perfectly good one
for a dollar plus a little bit solder and some tools.
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If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe go watch
our should you clean your keyboard in the dishwasher video.
Note, by the way, you probably don't want to do it.
Turns out we had corrosion issues.
Maybe we could've done a better job
of like drying them, I don't know.