A500 keyboard issue

[orjanh]

Hi there,

I recently bought an A500 second hand. When I got it, some of the keys on the keyboard weren't working (maybe half of the keys).
When I opened it up, I saw that the previous owner had probably tried to fix it by appling graphite (or something similar) to the keyboard connector cable:


I reckoned it needed a clean up, as there seemed to be some bridging between the tracks. After a round of nail polish and a q-tip it looked like this:



After that only one key was working (left bracket key).

I ordered a silver pen for circuit boards on eBay, hoping to retrace the tracks - do you guys think that's a feasible fix or a waste of time?

Thanks!

[orjanh]

Thank you, I will take your word for it

I ordered a used keyboard membrane off Ebay now. I guess I'll give the conductive silver pen a go when I get it, just to give it a shot.

[orjanh]

Yup, that looks similar to the one I ordered.

I'll try fixing the old membrane with the conductive silver thingy when I get it. If I'm able to mend it I guess I'll have a spare membrane

[orjanh]

Just a small update.

I got the silver paint today. I covered the tracks on the membrane connector very carefully and let it dry for 2-3 hours. However, when putting the keyboard back on, booting into Workbench and firing up Shell, the keys still weren't working.

I then put in the "new" membrane I got from Ebay, and voila - all keys working!