DIY Laptop Keyboard Repair

CJ · May 28, 2018

this keyboard sure was a pain, ink wore off the keys, probably would not bother somebody who does data entry for blue shield,

also had to press hard on some keys to get them to work, "can i buy a vowel please?"

buy a new computer? maybe, but what about replacing the keyboard? get on youtube, simple enuff, three screws and a ribbon cable, shove a guitar pick under there and pop it off,

but $15.95 for a keyboard on a computer worth five bucks? no way. so pop off the keyboard, peel off the black plastic backing, every pore plugged with dirt! go out to the garage and vacuum the sucker out while pressing keys, works like a charm!

what about the paint? no problem, (see pic)

any side effects? yes! the computer runs faster!

why?

the fan sucks air through the keyboard, now that it is unplugged, the fan no longer comes on when surfing!

but the poor geeks at magor geeks, sifting thru my MGtool logs looking for clues to a slow comp, what do i tell them?

saved enuff money to get 2 GB of Kingston ram off evilbay so we can get even faster,

bottom of your laptop getting hot? clean your keyboard!

Tubetec · May 28, 2018

Ahahah ,
Go dumpster diving and pick yourself up a brand new second hand ,might be better than what you have .
Alternatively in cases where computers slow down to a crawl ,for me a totally clean install of the operating system works great ,
of course if its a vista machine going to win 7 would be a good plan . Windows 7 also allows you to specially format a usb stick to install the os ,which is much better and faster than using a cd , 'win 7 usb tool' is what you need (original installation media and a windows 25 letter/number code is also needed).Of course though you will need to back up everything on there and re-install any apps after the clean os is installed ,might take a couple of hours work but in the end its much better than looking for a needle in a haystack. As far as disonnecting the fan ,maybe not such a good idea ,but usually if theres a potential for the processor to go into meltdown 'sys' will take control and shut her down before that happens. I once had a bright idea to make an old pentium desktop fanless, I bodged in a whacking great heatsink , lasted a little while alright ,but died a death soon after . Getting inside and cleaning the fan/heatsink of fuzz and fluff is also a good thing to do ,the fan will come on less if theres better airflow . Cash is in too short supply for me ever spend serious money on computers ,and the skips and bins are full of useable hardware nowadays.

Downloading the drivers for your particular make and model of machine would also be a plan before doing the clean install ,as you may not be able to hook into the internet with that pc until its properly set up .Aside from all this it sometimes takes a working computer to fix a broken one ,so carefull not to leave yourself up the creek without a paddle .

cyrano · May 28, 2018

Keyboards that can't be easily opened up for cleaning go in the dishwasher here. Takes some time to dry out, though.

For laptop keyboards, I use an industrial ultrasonic cleaning bath. 1% alcohol, 99% demineralised water and a drop of soap.

pucho812 · May 28, 2018

this might be a PIA but why not just use an external keyboard. My mac laptop keyboard is having issues. It's old enough where it is not worth replacing the keyboard as I will be replacing it sometime fairly soon. So it's much more cost effective to use a USB keyboard I have at the moment.

JohnRoberts · May 28, 2018

I've had to fix a few mouse wires that broke (from fatigue) and try not to spill beer into my keyboard.

JR

mjrippe · May 29, 2018

pucho812 said:
this might be a PIA but why not just use an external keyboard. My mac laptop keyboard is having issues. It's old enough where it is not worth replacing the keyboard as I will be replacing it sometime fairly soon. So it's much more cost effective to use a USB keyboard I have at the moment.

Typing this on a bluetooth keyboard perched atop my 2010 Macbook Pro. One day I had a bowl of ramen in my hand and suddenly it wasn't. Shut down the laptop, opened it, cleaned with Isopropyl, but only 1/3 or so of the keys worked. For $19.99 delivered I got a bt keyboard and have used it since.