Replacing riveted laptop kboards

[Diggs]

BTW - How many here have replaced an Apple keyboard? (I forgot which laptop it was....) 52 screws each the size of a mustard seed just holding the keyboard. Never again........

 

[ThatPlace928]

BTW - How many here have replaced an Apple keyboard? (I forgot which laptop it was....) 52 screws each the size of a mustard seed just holding the keyboard. Never again........

My son did ONE and said never again.

 

[britechguy]

52 screws each the size of a mustard seed just holding the keyboard.

Can we say "overengineered?"

There are times where the diametrical opposite of flimsy is even worse.

 

[sapphirescales]

This is extremely dependent on the laptop itself. Some laptops have a metal backing plate beneath the keyboard which makes the rivets almost redundant. It's not a fun repair but I'll do it on these laptops IF I can't find the entire assembly. If there isn't a metal back plate, doing a keyboard replacement by itself is almost always more expensive than just replacing the whole assembly due to the extra labor involved. I recently did one of these on a Razer gaming laptop because the assembly was impossible to get a hold of. Even Razer themselves admitted that they didn't have the part themselves so even if the client sent it in to them they wouldn't be able to do the repair. The laptop was about 5 years old but still it sucks that part availability isn't more widespread in our industry. I can't wait until Framework releases their 16" gaming laptop so I can actually recommend gaming laptops to clients.

 

[Ken's PC Repair]

Why these ever ceased to be the norm, on all laptops, I will never understand. It is well known that keyboard failure on laptops is just incredibly common, and that they will likely need to be replaced on a great many of them.

It's designed this way on purpose. They don't want you to replace the keyboard, they want you to replace the laptop.

 

[britechguy]

They don't want you to replace the keyboard, they want you to replace the laptop.

I can't go that far. They want you to replace the whole top unit - keyboard, keyboard surround, trackpad, and (where applicable) mouse buttons. They sell these as an assembly.

But there is little doubt that the reason for the "riveted" keyboards is to allow fully robotic assembly.

 

[Markverhyden]

BTW - How many here have replaced an Apple keyboard? (I forgot which laptop it was....) 52 screws each the size of a mustard seed just holding the keyboard. Never again........

Been there, done that several times when I was at CompUSA. They were an AASP. Those things were so short they probably only had 700-800 degrees of thread.

 

[HCHTech]

52 screws each the size of a mustard seed just holding the keyboard. Never again........

We had one last week - sorry I can't recall the model right now - XPS13? HPx360? 19 screws for the keyboard - I hope that doesn't become a trend.