Thinkpads Forum

Hi,


I have just taken of look at my keyboard, and after having removed the keys, I realize that the space bar has one rubber block [how do you designate this thing ?] at the middle of the key and nothing under the two stuf in plastic used as springs, whereas the shift key, which has also a rod, have a rubber block under the plastic spring.

So, the big question is why ?

This lack of blue block is quite lame since sometimes I missed my spaces, precisely because of this [see another thread on this issue]

Do you have the same lack of rubber on your keyboard ? Mine is an NMB [im a little disapointed].....

As far as I know, they've always been that way. Even the old IBM keyboards in the 80s and 90s are like that. New keyboards usually dont have any problems with that, but with age and you messing around with it, the plastic can warp. I used to have that problem, where tapping the edge of the space bar wouldn't register, but I replaced it, and it works fine now. An old Intellistation keyboard I have misses the space bar if you don't put a conscious effort into pushing it.

My 2005 T42's NMB hasn't been registering some space bar hits recently. It definitely seems to be related to the design, which only has a single blue rubber register point, and to the plastic aging and warping. If I tap any part of the bar in the right 1/5th, it will fail to register anything, and that happens to be where I most often tap.

I ended up cutting a tiny square from a bamboo skewer about 2mm in depth and taping it to the contact point on the underside of the plastic bar. It reduces the distance/depth the bar has to travel to trigger the registration. The left side of the bar is faintly over sensitive now, but it fixes the right side which was my main concern.