this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
8 points (100.0% liked)

Do-It-Yourself, Repairs and Fixes

314 readers
8 users here now

Share tips and tricks to keep people from throwing out that broken item. Repair before replace!

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The W and R keys don't work on my ASUS vivobook flip 14 and I would like to fix them so I can give the laptop to a friend. The reason they stopped working is because I spilled water on them a long time ago. Other than that, the laptop works perfectly fine.

I saw some teardown videos for an entire keyboard replacement for it, but it looks wayyyyyy too complicated and easy to mess up. I have expierence replacing stuff like batteries and SSDs in computers.

Is there a way to replace/fix those two keys without taking out the entire motherboard?

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Tehdastehdas 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The keyboard is probably short-lived anyway, so a replacement is a good idea. Just take photos of every phase of disassembly and keep the parts and screws arranged on trays or something.

A repair is theoretically possible with silver paint applied to the damaged conductive paths in the switching film, https://lemmy.world/comment/14076165 , but all the other switches will remain old and unreliable.

You might check what AliExpress has to offer. My Lenovo Ideapad 530S's film-switched keyboard started malfunctioning at three years age. I replaced it even though it was melt-studded (?) in - plastic rods poke through the keyboard, their ends melted flat and wide. Some instruction video told me to cut the stud ends off with a chisel, but I used a mini drill. The most difficult part was to hold the keyboard pressed in its place with weights on sticks while doing a temporary re-melt of the insufficient rod ends with a soldering iron (I could have skipped that). After that, I covered the re-melted ends with epoxy for near-original strength. The repair was successful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Probably not a way to just fix those two keys. I'm a bit surprised by Asus - it's not usual to have to replace the entire top cover just to replace the keyboard. The teardown and reassembly looks a bit time intensive but not difficult by many standards. Did you look at the teardown guide directly from Asus?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, I haven't been able to find the one directly from Asus. The ones I've seen are off of YouTube.

From what I understand you don't have to replace the whole top cover, you just have to get under the motherboard and tear some things up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Google for "[model number] teardown guide" for the official documentation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I had looked that up previously, and now after reading this I realized that the official teardown guide was there but was reposted on unofficial sites so I had overlooked them. Thanks for the recommendation

[–] over_clox 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Unfortunately not. The water messed up the keyboard membrane layer. There's no fixing individual keys on water damaged laptop keyboards.

[–] Tehdastehdas 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I once damaged a Microsoft desktop keyboard with water, and repaired the corroded membrane with silver paint designed to conduct electricity. I'm not sure if laptop membranes can be pulled apart like that.

[–] over_clox 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, not usually. OP was hoping to avoid a full laptop disassembly anyways, so even if somehow that trick could work (very unlikely for a laptop keyboard), at that point they might as well go ahead and replace the keyboard anyways.

Side note, I could use some of that conductive paint to fix a cracked carbon trace on my game controller, but it's no big deal really, it's just for a mode button I never use anyways.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Dang, that's a bummer.