Thinkpads Forum

First mistake , I gave my sister my 600 when I got my R31 a few months ago.

She gives me the 600 a few days ago telling me that she can't get the wireless card to work. In messing around with the card (which does work) I discover that there are about 10 keys not working on the keyboard.
Carefully I disassemble the unit and check the connections, clean the keyboard, reseat the cable, etc. but no improvement.
I order a new/used keyboard form a guy on Ebay and install it and the exact same keys are still not working. I double checked to make sure I didn't put the bad one back in.

Next I pulled out the daughter card that the keyboard and LCD plug into and checked it with a magnifier and I can't see any problems. I carefully reseat the daughter card, etc. and still no improvement.
Fortunately nothing has gotten worse either.

The unit works fine with a USB keyboard plugged in (don't have a PS/2 one available to see if it matters).

Any suggestions from here?

--Des

Check the two connectors for the sub board to motherboard, check the connectors on the keyboard cable again, check connector for sub to keyboard again and make sure everything is not only in place but clean as well. Even with a magnifier, it's not always easy to spot flaws.

AlphaKilo470 wrote:Check the two connectors for the sub board to motherboard

Follow the Alphakilo advice the problem has to be there at the subcard, look for rust on the board maybe clean it with alcohol, use a magnifier to check the printed conductors.

Two keyboards with the same keys not working? The problem lies on the subcard.

Thanks for the two fast responses.

I'll check it again tomorrow. This time I will try some alcohol as advised.

Is it the connectors that might rust or some place else on the subcard?

I forgot to note that about 2 months ago the LCD was not lighing and upon inspection the cable for the LCD that plugs into that same card had poped off the connector. The keyboard did work during this time. She swears she has never dropped it and there are no signs of impact.

I think she might have it packed to tightly into her briefcase though.

--Des

Des wrote:Thanks for the two fast responses.

I'll check it again tomorrow. This time I will try some alcohol as advised.

Yeah, I usually do better with computers after a beer or two myself. In all seriousness though, I actually had similar issues on a 600E earlier this year. The problem turned out to be the connectors on the motherboard so I'd definitely check the motherboard a few times over. I'm also wondering if any of the small chips or resistors on the board could have been part of the issue.

AlphaKilo470 wrote:Yeah, I usually do better with computers after a beer or two myself.

You made a funny!

It took me long enough to get back to this problem. Folowed the advice to consume liberal amounts of alchohol and that made me feel good but didn't solve the problem
Then I cleaned the contacts with achohol and no change there either.
Broke the lid switch on the control board so decided to order a new board from someone on EBay. No differnce. Cleaned contacts again, and now have a slight improvement, two keys are working again so now only 8 dead ones.
So should I improve my cleaning method, or should I be looking for the problem elsewhere or just give up and tell her to use an external keyboard?

Thanks.

Des

Just curious... exactly which keys are dead? And what two were revived?