clip on keyboard connector broken...ideas?

[Lulz]

Somebody decided to play grabass with an open bottle of water in their
hands and dropped it on my laptop. There was no damage, but while
attempting to clean it up ASAP, i broke the clip on the connector for my
keyboard.

If I put the ribbon cable into the connector, put the clip back on, and
apply slight pressure to the middle of the clip, they keyboard works
fine, but the clip won't apply enough pressure on its own to make the
connection. I tried using a piece of paper taped to the top of the clip,
but with the keyboard being flexible, it still doesn't apply enough
pressure.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I tried contacting a couple repair shops
and they told me to buy a broken Acer mobo and take the clip from that,
but I'd rather not take the risk of buying a mobo just to break another
clip. I thought about trying superglue or epoxy, but I figured I'd get
some other opinions before I took it too far.

For now, I'm using a USB keyboard, but I still keep trying to use the
built in one lol.

 

[Adrian C]

On 08/10/2010 22:47, Lulz wrote:
> Somebody decided to play grabass with an open bottle of water in their
> hands and dropped it on my laptop. There was no damage, but while
> attempting to clean it up ASAP, i broke the clip on the connector for my
> keyboard.
>
> If I put the ribbon cable into the connector, put the clip back on, and
> apply slight pressure to the middle of the clip, they keyboard works
> fine, but the clip won't apply enough pressure on its own to make the
> connection. I tried using a piece of paper taped to the top of the clip,
> but with the keyboard being flexible, it still doesn't apply enough
> pressure.
>
> Any ideas on how to fix this? I tried contacting a couple repair shops
> and they told me to buy a broken Acer mobo and take the clip from that,
> but I'd rather not take the risk of buying a mobo just to break another
> clip. I thought about trying superglue or epoxy, but I figured I'd get
> some other opinions before I took it too far.

No, not glue....

> For now, I'm using a USB keyboard, but I still keep trying to use the
> built in one lol.
>

What Acer model & model number.

Take a good sharp high resolution photograph of the socket from a few
angles alongside a metric ruler, and put that on a photosharing site
like photobucket, flickr etc...

Post back a link to that, and also where you are. Someone may have one
from a scrap motherboard they may be able to send to you.

--
Adrian C

 

[bobmct]

On Fri, 8 Oct 2010 16:47:16 -0500, Lulz <Lulz.4ik1af@no.email.invalid>
wrote:

>
>Somebody decided to play grabass with an open bottle of water in their
>hands and dropped it on my laptop. There was no damage, but while
>attempting to clean it up ASAP, i broke the clip on the connector for my
>keyboard.
>
>If I put the ribbon cable into the connector, put the clip back on, and
>apply slight pressure to the middle of the clip, they keyboard works
>fine, but the clip won't apply enough pressure on its own to make the
>connection. I tried using a piece of paper taped to the top of the clip,
>but with the keyboard being flexible, it still doesn't apply enough
>pressure.
>
>Any ideas on how to fix this? I tried contacting a couple repair shops
>and they told me to buy a broken Acer mobo and take the clip from that,
>but I'd rather not take the risk of buying a mobo just to break another
>clip. I thought about trying superglue or epoxy, but I figured I'd get
>some other opinions before I took it too far.
>
>For now, I'm using a USB keyboard, but I still keep trying to use the
>built in one lol.
>
I had a similar problem with an Acer and tried everything including
super glue to keep it attached. I finally gave in and purchased a
single replacement for about a buck and snapped it on and its still
there and works fine. Here's where I got it.

http://www.replacementlaptopkeys.com/

 

[olfart]

"bobmct" <bobm3@worthless.info> wrote in message
news:1oc1b6pu6ivtmt6qmmcdv1upp656f91mqa@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 8 Oct 2010 16:47:16 -0500, Lulz <Lulz.4ik1af@no.email.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>Somebody decided to play grabass with an open bottle of water in their
>>hands and dropped it on my laptop. There was no damage, but while
>>attempting to clean it up ASAP, i broke the clip on the connector for my
>>keyboard.
>>
>>If I put the ribbon cable into the connector, put the clip back on, and
>>apply slight pressure to the middle of the clip, they keyboard works
>>fine, but the clip won't apply enough pressure on its own to make the
>>connection. I tried using a piece of paper taped to the top of the clip,
>>but with the keyboard being flexible, it still doesn't apply enough
>>pressure.
>>
>>Any ideas on how to fix this? I tried contacting a couple repair shops
>>and they told me to buy a broken Acer mobo and take the clip from that,
>>but I'd rather not take the risk of buying a mobo just to break another
>>clip. I thought about trying superglue or epoxy, but I figured I'd get
>>some other opinions before I took it too far.
>>
>>For now, I'm using a USB keyboard, but I still keep trying to use the
>>built in one lol.
>>
> I had a similar problem with an Acer and tried everything including
> super glue to keep it attached. I finally gave in and purchased a
> single replacement for about a buck and snapped it on and its still
> there and works fine. Here's where I got it.
>
> http://www.replacementlaptopkeys.com/

a key and a cable clip aren't the same thing

 

[mm]

On Fri, 8 Oct 2010 16:47:16 -0500, Lulz <Lulz.4ik1af@no.email.invalid>
wrote:

>
>Somebody decided to play grabass with an open bottle of water in their
>hands and dropped it on my laptop. There was no damage, but while
>attempting to clean it up ASAP, i broke the clip on the connector for my
>keyboard.
>
>If I put the ribbon cable into the connector, put the clip back on, and
>apply slight pressure to the middle of the clip, they keyboard works
>fine, but the clip won't apply enough pressure on its own to make the
>connection. I tried using a piece of paper taped to the top of the clip,
>but with the keyboard being flexible, it still doesn't apply enough
>pressure.
>
>Any ideas on how to fix this? I tried contacting a couple repair shops
>and they told me to buy a broken Acer mobo and take the clip from that,
>but I'd rather not take the risk of buying a mobo just to break another
>clip. I thought about trying superglue or epoxy, but I figured I'd get
>some other opinions before I took it too far.

i'VE NEVER gotten anything to stick with superglue, not even my
fingers together. And I'm careful to use it right, and to try using
less and to try using more.

I usually first use Ambroid Cement (available in orange tubes only at
hobby stores, for assembling models I guess. I first got a tube from a
cartorn of crushed and distorted tubes at a NYC hardware store. It
lasts forever if you close the tube after using. I like Ambroid
because it is pretty strong, sticks to almost everything, and can be
broken off by hand when necessary. If it breaks when I don't want it
to, I go on to epoxy usually.

When I want something stronger, I use 5-minute epoxee in the syringe,
and it sounds like that's what you should use here.

For bulkier jobs than this one, I use PC-7 or PC-11. They can be put
on a leaking dripping pipe, and if when it sags you keep pushing it up
to the pipe again, it will still harden and be waterproof.
Incredible. You can put vaseline on the threads of a wine sack, and
mold a new cap around the mouth of the container. Withstands heat up
to 200F or more.


I use contact cement for gluing fabrics and things that have to bend.
Weldwood used to make two kinds, in red tube and a white tube. The
white tube didn't work so well. Maybe it had gone bad, since it
smelled bad, but I stick to the red tube now.

>For now, I'm using a USB keyboard, but I still keep trying to use the
>built in one lol.
>

 

[Lulz]

Thanks for all of your help! My wife or my kids managed to break my
digital camera while I was deployed so I couldn't post the pics. I found
the solution on another thread.

I ended up cutting a piece of plastic from some electronics packaging
to the the same width as the ribbon cable and about a 1/4 of an inch
long. I wedged that between the pins and the ribbon cable. It was the
PERFECT size to make it work! On my test run I didn't make it wide
enough so only 75% of the keys worked, but when I applied pressure to
the are that wasn't covered by the plastic they worked so I cut a new
one to the right size.

I reassembled my laptop and it works just fine, so I see no reason to
hot glue it like the person whose solution I used did.