Amiga 500: main return key dead.

Muzer · 10 September 2012, 12:24

Just bought an Amiga 500 at a car boot sale yesterday. It works very well (and comes with Workbench disks, which is always good), all except one thing: the main return key. No matter how hard I squeeze it (and try to squeeze the shield underneath the keyboard) it won't register at all. In addition, right shift appears to be quite hard to press (must be pressed quite hard to register). I've opened it all up and nothing seemed obviously wrong with the matrix or its contacts, or the bottom of the key itself, so I put it back together again hoping that would do it, but nothing. There are no missing screws.

My multimeter is unfortunately out of action at the moment (one of the probes fell off the end of the wire

), so until I fix that I can't really test it properly, but does anyone have any ideas of what it might be?

Jope · 14 September 2012, 13:10

The first thing to do is to roughen the rubber pad under the key stem a bit by giving it a couple of wipes with normal copier paper.. Just enough that it doesn't shine any more.

If that's not enough and the matrix measures out ok, then it's the keyboard controller.

Muzer · 22 September 2012, 01:07

OK, thanks, I'll give it a go when I get the chance

10 September 2012, 12:24	#1
Muzer Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Posts: 146	Amiga 500: main return key dead. Just bought an Amiga 500 at a car boot sale yesterday. It works very well (and comes with Workbench disks, which is always good), all except one thing: the main return key. No matter how hard I squeeze it (and try to squeeze the shield underneath the keyboard) it won't register at all. In addition, right shift appears to be quite hard to press (must be pressed quite hard to register). I've opened it all up and nothing seemed obviously wrong with the matrix or its contacts, or the bottom of the key itself, so I put it back together again hoping that would do it, but nothing. There are no missing screws. My multimeter is unfortunately out of action at the moment (one of the probes fell off the end of the wire ), so until I fix that I can't really test it properly, but does anyone have any ideas of what it might be?

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14 September 2012, 13:10	#2
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	The first thing to do is to roughen the rubber pad under the key stem a bit by giving it a couple of wipes with normal copier paper.. Just enough that it doesn't shine any more. If that's not enough and the matrix measures out ok, then it's the keyboard controller.

22 September 2012, 01:07	#3
Muzer Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Posts: 146	OK, thanks, I'll give it a go when I get the chance

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