Apple keyboards are no longer the expensive peripherals they used to be, and many would rather buy a new keyboard than bother with an attempt at repair (which is how I received the keyboard in the first place). Using keycaps in OS 9, it looks as though a gentle press of the previously bad control key results in several momentary contacts, but under normal usage works without any ill effect.Īs stated above, conductive paint would be a much more reliable solution, but the instructions above will hopefully help regardless of which method you choose. The three hex screws back in place, I plugged the keyboard back in, and it works fine. I put several middle screws in first, then worked my way from right to left. I pressed the plate down and held it while I screwed in the first few screws. Make sure all the grommets are sitting properly before placing the metal plate over the plastic sheets. Line up the plastic on the keyboard grommets as best you can. There should be little to no resistance measured.Īssembly is the reverse of the steps above. I checked the connection by placing one multi-meter pin on the foil, and the other on the next available pad in the circuit. The clamp was centred over the scraped circuit path, as I want the foil to be glued in contact with it. I placed the foil overtop, and clamped it to my desk. I cut a piece of tinfoil to shape, and with a toothpick, drew lines of superglue on either side but not on the exposed circuit path, as well as over the control key pad.
The orange in the photo below represents where the original circuit path was. Careful, as it doesn't take much to scrape away the conductive path as well. I scraped away some of the green covering on the circuit path near the control key pad. Do not completely separate the three layers. Move the top and middle layers of plastic out of the way. Having a desire to not spend any money on this, I tried something free. The proper fix would be to use a conductive paint, like those used for repairing automotive rear-window defrosters. After continuity testing with a multi-meter, I found the bottom layer had corroded, and the contact pad was no longer connected to the rest of the circuit. I tried cleaning the contacts at left control key position, as they were blackened.and smelled like coffee. It's certainly prone to damage from spills. This is a very clever, or very cheap, design. When a key is pressed, the rubber grommet presses down on the top layer, and it is pushed down to contact the bottom layer, completing the circuit. A top and bottom layer are covered in conductive printed paths to each key, while a middle layer, with holes at each key position, provides an air space between conductive pads.
The plastic sheets are the keyboard switches. If your keyboard has been a spill victim, some may be stuck to the plastic. You don't want to send the little rubber grommets underneath flying. Two of the screws will drop a piece of plastic that sits above the cursor keys. There are three raised screws near the top centre. A Phillips jeweller's screwdriver fits perfectly. Looking at the metal backing of the keyboard, there are several dozen screws. They pull out by holding the clear plastic "wings" on each cable, and go back in the same way. There are two ribbon cables that hold the keyboard to the case at this point: Not having the proper tool on hand, I found a jeweller's screwdriver, sides slightly filed down, was able to remove the screws. The keyboard is held into the transparent case by three very small hex screws.
I decided to see if it could be repaired. What's appealing to me about this keyboard is the small desktop footprint, yet it has full-size keys - unlike the compact keyboard that shipped with the original iMac.Īfter cleaning what looked - and smelled - like a coffee spill, I found the keyboard worked fine with the exception of the left control key. This is the most recent model, with a transparent base. I recently obtained a non-functional but nearly new Apple USB keyboard.
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