DISCLAIMER: I am NOT responsible for any damage you may cause using this method. If you turn your keyboard into a useless pile of poop, it's on you.
[Last updated September 21st 2020]
[edit] This method is fine and all in a pinch and on a keyboard you are pretty sure is done for, but
I suggest you go buy these Polish membranes instead if you need a replacement:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124190728214 . They also have A1200 ones.
I am in no way affiliated with this seller, I just want to support a member of the community making great products.
For those adventurous and in a pinch, here's the original post:
First of all, if this has been posted before, sorry, I didn't find it with the search function. Since it's a very common problem I thought it was worth making a thread about it.
Anyway, my A600 is alive and kicking again!
After taking it to an electronic repair shop (that took a sweet month and a half to replace all but two caps because he was lazy) it's back into action like always!
When plugged in, however, I realized the keyboard doesn't work at all. The bloody ribbon, which was playing hard to use, just stopped working completely. How fucking annoying. I have an extra membrane but for the A1200.
So, my brute force solution: I cut about 7mm (or more) worth of the tip, then gently scratched the conducting traces with a scalpel (or scissors or whatever you want) to expose the metal. To my surprise, it worked perfectly.
Here's a pic of how it looks like:
Of course, you can do this more elegantly, I bet :P
As suggested by Jope, I would start b cutting just 1mm and then try to cut more if the method fails. Try not to cut off completely the original contacts!!
I am very happy to have the A600 running again. It's been with me for 17 years already
This method
will work for an A1200 membrane too.
It has
NOT been tested, though, in a
BLUE MEMBRANE A600. I am not sure it would work the same way. Anybody tried it?
Idea for betterment: add conductive paint to the newly exposed traces, for better contacts. (Suggested by alenppc below)
I hope it helps someone with their keyboard problems.
BIG ADVICE FROM OUR FRIEND JOPE
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jope
Please only use this approach as a last effort fix on a keyboard you are prepared to write off anyway.
If you are not careful, you can end up scraping too much and you end up with the same problem you were trying to fix in the first place.
As the first thing to try, you can cut off 1mm at the end of the flexi connector to make the contacts on the motherboard connector touch higher up in the black stripes.
And always ALWAYS unlatch the motherboard connector's sleeve before you plug in or remove the flexi cable. The sleeve slides up around the connector a few millimeters. Pull it up and only after that should you remove the flexi cable.
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