Thinkpads Forum

The space bar has become very unresponsive and requires pressing particular spots on the bar and requires a more forceful press than normal. This has seemed to happen very suddenly. Restarting didn't resolve the issue.

Any thoughts? Possible solutions?

Do you enjoy breakfast (toast comes to mind) while at the laptop?
Crumbs (and dust or cigarette ash etc.) can accumulate over the years and suddenly start failing any key.
Try blowing under the space bar with compressed air first and/or clean the whole KB.
Carefully removing, cleaning under it and reassembling the spacebar might also help.
If not, get a replacement spacebar with all the parts or a new keyboard.

Sometimes worn contact points can cause this too, so cleaning may not help, but if you want a keyboard, I have some ranging in price from $10-35 depending on condition.

If you do clean yours, only use distilled water or steam, the minerals in tap water will foul up a keyboard.

Also, just to be clear, you don't use water of any kind on the keyboard as a unit, but if you want to disassemble it, you can clean the pieces, just make sure you fully dry them before attempting to use it, and do so at your own risk.

ps. As cheap as these things are it kinda makes the efforts of trying to repair one futile.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I pulled the keyboard out,and blew it out with compressed air. While that helped, it still isn't as responsive as it used to be. It's totally unresponsive on either end of the space bar, and fairly responsive in the middle but requires a firm key press.

Anyone seen any instructions or videos that show how to remove, clean or replace individual keys? Might go that route before I do a full keyboard replacement.

Check out the eBay sellers' auctions that offer individual keys.
Several have good pictures and even supply a video with the how-to.

You asked for it... and here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su1mBU8q2no

I used this guide and spent $10 for used keyboard to replace keys

nycmaster wrote:You asked for it... and here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su1mBU8q2no

I used this guide and spent $10 for used keyboard to replace keys

Awesome, thanks!

How did you know the used keyboard would match your laptop's keyboard? Seems there are different styles even for the same Thinkpad model.

I searched for used and broken keyboard in eBay with same keyboard part number as the one I have. Keyboard part number I had was 42T3143 in my T60

Just following up. I ended up ordering a replacement spacebar from LaptopKey.com and it works fine now. I suspect the piece that needed replacing was the rubber cup, but they don't sell just that piece and you need to purchase all the key components - cap, hinges, cup. Still, buying one new key was a lot cheaper than buying an entire new keyboard.

I have a couple dozen used keyboards I sell for $10 each, so it seems unless you have an unusual keyboard (not standard english layout), it's probably more work then it's worth to repair, but I have successfully repaired many in the past, and it's great that you were able to fix yours, I just question how much time you invested vs money saved, but I guess you gained knowledge, so that is of significant value, so good job, well done

TuuS wrote:I have a couple dozen used keyboards I sell for $10 each, so it seems unless you have an unusual keyboard (not standard english layout), it's probably more work then it's worth to repair, but I have successfully repaired many in the past, and it's great that you were able to fix yours, I just question how much time you invested vs money saved, but I guess you gained knowledge, so that is of significant value, so good job, well done

Well if any more keys give out, you'll be getting a PM from me.