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X220 - keyboard does not fit well

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 7:13 am
by skrble
Hello ThinkPaders,

I still face unpleasant problem. When I type on my X220, I feel there is actually some space between motherboard bezel and the keyboard itself. Second side of story are plonks, who come from inside. It is just horrible. I often feel like I owned cheap budget Acer...

I spotted two centres where the problem hangs. It is like if you took compasses and made a circle with middle in key ''W'' and radius for three another keys in all directions. Second middle with similiar parametres would be in key ''L''.

I tried to solve this problem with few pieces of electrician tape, but unsuccessfully, respective my solution lifted the whole keyboard up from the rest of the base. Now in closed state keyboard touches LCD bezel, what causes shiny areas on the LCD bezel.

Have anybody else also faced this problem? Have you found some working solution? I am glad for every helpful response. Please, excuse my bad english. :(

Thank You!
skrble

Re: X220 - keyboard does not fit well

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 1:58 pm
by emeraldgirl08
I'm curious. If you have removed your keyboard once before could you do so again and note the FRU of the keyboard? In the past there were 3 different types of keyboards and with each there were reports of discernible (and often substantial) differences in typing experiences. For reference these are the three types of keyboards that are in various X220 *,**

Download the HMM (link on bottom of post) and go to page 123-124. The FRU for the keyboards are there and corresponding to column:

Left column (NMB)
Middle column (ALPS)
Right column (Chicony)

* source. http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ost8184441
** source. http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... a60739.pdf

EDIT:

Just noticed your location! Not sure what language you are fluent in reading so I put the HMM link to the English version.

Re: X220 - keyboard does not fit well

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 7:47 am
by dr_st
It almost sounds like the keyboard is not seated properly. For starts - this:
skrble wrote:I feel there is actually some space between motherboard bezel and the keyboard itself.
shouldn't be (if I understood it correctly).

As for this:
skrble wrote:I tried to solve this problem with few pieces of electrician tape, but unsuccessfully, respective my solution lifted the whole keyboard up from the rest of the base. Now in closed state keyboard touches LCD bezel, what causes shiny areas on the LCD bezel.
This solution has always worked for me to remedy such "plonks" as described, on all Thinkpads I tried it on, and caused no issue with keyboard elevation. Granted, I did not actually tried it on an X220 (mine suffers from no keyboard issues), but did try it on X32, T60 and A31p keyboards.

Re: X220 - keyboard does not fit well

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:05 am
by skrble
emeraldgirl08: There is actually no problem with keyboard itself. It works fine, but doesn't fit / match well to the basis.

dr-st:
It almost sounds like the keyboard is not seated properly. For starts - this:
I have to study a lot more. This is exactly what I wanted to say :) Yes, you have understood it well. When I seat (is that the right word?) the keyboard into the body and snap everything right how it is supposed to, it doesn't match right to the body.

Keyboard elevation problem is connected to this. Remove your keyboard and make a look how the keyboard holds in the body:
At the top: keyboard is retracted under the long, plastic bar.
On sides: nothing
In the middle: two screws
At bottom: keyboard is snapped under the palmrest.
Conclusion: keyboard holds (except two screws) only on plastic parts. And this is the problem. Flexing plastic parts tend to become looser in time.

When I tried to fix 'loose' keyboard at the left top corner, I failed. In this place is only free space between keyboard and fan, so I don't know how to solve it.

I fortunately found temporary solution.
Look at this picture: https://www.replacementlaptopkeys.com/i ... op_key.jpg
When you take closer look on the Escape key, you will see black part, that is slightly above it. As far as we know, this is the place where the keyboard is retracted under the playstic bar of the keyboard bezel (below left hinge). I stuck there few pieces of the electrician tape. Now, when I retract the keyboard under the plastic bar, there is no free space and the keyboard is pressured down - right as it should be! But, tape is still only tape. When laptop heats, this area becomes quite loose again, the glue propably gets too warm.

How would you deal with it? I am desperate. I haven't faced any similar problems on T30 and T41 :(
Thank You!

edit: This video describes well my problem. The difference is location: in my case, problem occurs mainly under Escape and neighboring keys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVEwSm-PknU