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Author Topic: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working  (Read 3791 times)

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Offline MarkAshleyTopic starter

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2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« on: October 10, 2005, 10:04:59 PM »
I've bought an A1200 from eBay and the Amiga keys are not working. I haven't found any other keys that don't work. It's extremely annoying as I can't reboot the Amiga, I have to power it off and back on again.

I have opened up the case and there are some brown stains on the bottom of the casing. Looks like something may have been spilt. I can't see any stains on the keyboard itself or the motherboard, so I think it's ok.

Has anybody had any luck repairing faults like this?

Thanks
Mark
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Offline Zac67

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2005, 10:13:19 PM »
I've once repaired a MS Natural Keyboard  :-P because it wasn't made any more. Some Coke had been spilled a couple of weeks before, and the acid ate away some of the traces on the foil.

After cleaning the mess I used some conductive silver paint ('Leitsilber') to repaint ~10 cm of the traces with a very fine brush. It's been 2-3 years since and the keyboard still works. :-D
I wouldn't do it again though... :crazy:

PS: Obviously the keyboard needs to be taken apart to get at the traces. Most plastic pieces can be cleaned in warm water, but don't let any of that get to the key springs. Relubricate after cleaning.
 

Offline vic20owner

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2005, 12:56:55 AM »

The easy way is to remove the keyboard, pour rubbing alcohol in it everywhere and shake it out and then let it dry.  The hard way is to remove all the screws and take the entire keyboard apart, and then wipe down the keyboard contacts with alcohol.  I've done my laptop keyboard about 6 times (my cat sleeps on it).

BTW, I did my mouse too...poured it in the microswitches for the mouse buttons. Works great now.
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Offline justthatgood

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2005, 04:10:01 AM »
@Zac67

Why would you want to have a MS Natural keyboard.  Those things are so uncomfortable.  You have at literally bend your wrists to get the feel of the keyboard.
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Offline Brian

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2005, 06:00:43 AM »
Cleaning is one thing... though it can also be damage to the flat green cable going from the keyboard to the motherboard. When the "lock" on the white socket at the motherboard is pressed down and someone tries to just jank out the green cable you'll get scraches on the green cables exposed contact area. This can probably be repaired with cunductive silverpaint but as the exposed contactarea is normaly larger than needed I usually just cut off a few mm and that've worked so far. :-D

Offline mfilos

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2005, 06:16:37 AM »
I found this site by an amazing guy that did a lot of stuff. This link describes how to clean perfectly the board and make the connection to the keys like new.

http://www.qdev.de/?location=electronics/keyboardrepair

I hope I helped!

Marios Filos
Visit my Amiga blog here
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Offline Zac67

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2005, 07:30:41 AM »
Yeah, looks like a pretty good job - I didn't know about graphite spray. There's not a high probability of having worn out Amiga Keys though, maybe there's just sugar/dirt on the contacts.
Pouring alcohol through the keyboard is a not-so-good idea: it'll probably leave the dirt inside (just relocate it), is very hard to dry thoroughly and will remove some of the lubrication, so keys may go very hard afterwards. Some of the dirt that's always inside keyboards might get shifted to somewhere where it does cause bad contacts.

If you're a good type writer, the Natural Keyboards are pretty good as you don't strain your wrists, they're perfectly straight. I don't like them since I don't do 10 finger typing, but a nice colleague of mine does. ;-)
 

Offline orange

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2005, 07:53:04 AM »
I had EXACT same idea of using Graphite 33, and although it did work partially with VCR remote controller, it totaly messed up my A500 ribbon keyboard cable, its practicaly unusable now. I also bought leitsilber from reichelt and hope it will repair it. I would strongly suggest that you try out that graphite spray on something else first. One of the problems when fixing remote controller is that layer of that spray would come off the keys and stick to traces on board so that the key is always 'pushed down' even when its not. I probably used too much of that stuff. Anyway, liquid silver is probably much better than graphite but VERY expensive. (and of course watch out for making Short-circuit). Probably the best thing would be to buy/make PC keyb adapter, especially if you plan putting A1200 in tower.

Better sorry than worry.
 

Offline MarkAshleyTopic starter

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2005, 11:23:00 AM »
I do plan on towerising my Amiga at some point, but £150 for a D-Box is out of my budget at the moment, especially as I have just bought a Blizzard 040. Are there any cheaper tower alternatives?
A1200
Blizzard 040/33/128MB
Mediator PCI
Voodoo 3000
All stuffed in to a D-BOX
 

Offline vic20owner

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Re: 2nd hand A1200, Amiga keys not working
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2005, 02:09:19 PM »
It's just some residue left from whatever was spilled inside or maybe a dust bunny. Rubbing alcohol will work fine, and it evaporates fairly quickly.

I usually take the keyboard apart, wipe it down inside and then put it back together, but you don't have to.  Just don't go crazy with it, and make sure it's completely evaporated before you power up (shake it, blow in it, and then let it sit in the sun for a few minutes).






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