hardware keyboard issue photo essay a.k.a. i was bored

[TheDoctor1971]

It may not have been on your end. My webserver farted for a while without me noticing. First time I've had apache die on it for no reason.

Although, that was yesterday, not today, so maybe it was on your end :P

[nubelube]

I joined this forum just to say "Thanks!!!". Your hour of time documenting it gave me the confidence to do this ten minute job and saved me several hours of frustration or, worse, just living without the functionality that I paid a bunch of money for.

[srk468]

Mine just pooped today, didn't want a refurb but that is what I'm getting.

[nubelube]

Originally Posted by nubelube

I joined this forum just to say "Thanks!!!". Your hour of time documenting it gave me the confidence to do this ten minute job and saved me several hours of frustration or, worse, just living without the functionality that I paid a bunch of money for.

f#ck, I spoke too soon. the chip keeps popping off. I've tried taping it ten different ways -- nothing is going to work.

Anyone have suggestions for how to glue it? (ideally, I'd like to use a removable glue so that I can fix it if I screw up) I'm pretty sure that is the only thing that will work.

Also...I managed to lose one of the screws today. Anyone have a parts phone with a spare screw they would be willing to sell me? I can pay $5-10 plus postage.

[TheDoctor1971]

A hot glue gun would probably do the trick. Its non conductive and generally not hot enough to damage electronics. Obviously at your own risk though.

[[sammich]]

Originally Posted by TheDoctor1971

A hot glue gun would probably do the trick. Its non conductive and generally not hot enough to damage electronics. Obviously at your own risk though.

I'm not an electronics major, but that idea makes me cringe a bit... Are you sure it won't damage the surrounding components?

[TheDoctor1971]

Yeah, they use hot glue guns to hold electronic stuff together a lot. Its a quick method since the glue dries rapidly.

Here's a forum where they discuss it: http://www.hardforum.com/archive/ind.../t-713664.html

In fact, here's a relevant quote from it: "I've worked on name-brand computers where a lot of your connections were hot-glued down to keep them from coming loose, people opening the case and messing with them, etc."

[acurattack]

Thanks for this essay! I had the same problem as many others -- light would come on and screen would rotate, but the buttons wouldn't work. Alltel sucks at phone replacement, so I decided to go for broke (literally) and try to fix it myself.

When I first opened it up, everything appeared to be connected. I pressed down on all three connections, and reattached it, but it still didn't work. I then read about bending the two metal contact hooks upward. Tried that and still nothing. The third time was a charm when I took a slightly damp piece of cloth and cleaned the contacts on the metal hooks, cleaned the areas on the metal plate where they make contact, and applied tape (masking tape, I had no electrical tape handy) to hold down the ribbon where it comes out of the keyboard and along the ribbon itself for further insulation. I also applied some to the "penis" ribbon for good measure. It works great now. Thanks for all the tips, people!

[damendaman]

I think I may have a problem here.

My keyboard has been going out starting recently and it seems if I just take the battery out and put it back in it usually does the trick.

However, I was going to look into taping the ribbon down so I take off the back cover and it appears the top left screw is stripped. I don't know if I could get them all out even if I tried.

[heysiggy]

For the life of me I cannot "wiggle" the keyboard out of place to have it pop out. One side bends a lot, and the other sides seem to be stuck in place. I don't want to bend so much the keyboard totally breaks in half. I have tried for 10 minutes to pop the keyboard out, so now I need help with figuring this out.

Thanks in advance to those who help!