Repairing a key on a Powerbook G4
The ‘C’ key started to miss and got progressivly worse on my Powerbook G4 Aluminum 1.25GHz. First, go read about putting keycaps back on… http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88106 … then it is time to take the bad keycap off.
- Depress the key in front of the bad key.
- Lift the bad key gently.
- Peek in.
- Get a knife point in between the white scissor piece and the keycap.
- Twist gently to pop the front of the keycap off.
- Repeat for the back of the keycap.
- Notice the size of the plunger top.
- Cut a dot of tape big enough to cover the plunger top, but small enough not to interfere with the scissors.
- Stick it to the back of the key.
- Reassemble.
With any kind of luck you have just repaired your keyboard and saved \$160. I think the plungers wear out a bit and no longer reach the key contacts. That extra bit of tape lets you push it down just a bit further.
Good luck. (I had to try twice. My dot was too big the first time and kept getting caught on the scissors and holding the key down.)