Hi, I recently bought an Apple iie and it had a couple keys that weren't working. I verifies the switches were dead by testing with a multimeter. I ordered new ones and now i have even more keys that aren't woring after replacing the two bad ones. Is there a chance I messed up the board or something?
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It's possible. Take it back apart and carefully inspect. Perhaps you bridged a solder joint somewhere.
This usually happens when the keys are not working, because they are simply dirty. By having the keyboard upside down, more of them had their dirt inside shifted and now blocking the contacts. This is why you should always clean them with contact spray before replacing them.
Good Point. I'm pretty new to all this.
Would I have to remove the switches to clean them, or can I somehow do it while they are soldered in?
You can try something like Deoxit spray contact cleaner but my experience has been if key switches aren't working I usually am better off just replacing them. Taking the keyswitches apart to clean them is usually far more successful than trying to clean them when they are soldered in.
Thankfully I have a couple donor keyboards so I have plenty of extra keyswitches. I also have had some replacement stems 3D printed so I can re-use a lot of keyswitches with broken stems.
Not if they are simply dirty, because they are more or less equally dirty and replacing the currently not working ones will cause more of them to stop working. This will continue until you replace almost all of them, which is very expensive both in terms of time and money. I personally have been faced with not working keys many times in my two Apples II's and one Apple IIgs and I have yet to replace a single key.
When I replace a keyswitch it is with one that has been tested and rebuilt if necessary. When I have the keyboard out of the machine to replace the keyswitch it is thoroughly cleaned. I've never had a case where more keys quit working after replacing a keyswitch. I've got a few dozen Apple ][+, //e and clones, mostly //e, and I've sold several //e. Most of the //e were bought untested or with known broken or non-working keys off eBay, so I've done literally several dozen switch replacements. Most of the switches that have been replaced were because the stem is broken. I also have a couple donor keyboards so I have numerous extra keyswitches ready to go and I have 3D printed replacement stems so even switches that are broken can usually be rebuilt. Most of the cost is if I get a unit with keycaps missing and I have to source one from Dr. Buggie or elsewhere like Apple Rescue of Denver because I don't have an extra of that particular cap.
Maybe you never had that case, but the author of the topic did have it.
Yes, and it may be that there is some other cause other than switches just being dirty. If he damaged some traces or solder bridged something by accident for example. Replacing a keyswitch should not normally cause other working keys to suddenly stop working. If it is just that they are dirty it might just be that moving the keyboard around caused it and that is more or less coincidental. And if it is, then the newly offending keys just need to be addressed the same way.
In any case a thorough inspection and cleaning of the board if necessary is a first place to start.
It’s not coincidental. I already described exactly how it can happen in post #3 above.
The scenario you describe I have generally found that key switches that are dirty like that often just spraying them with contact cleaner without disassembly won't last very long since the dirt is difficult to flush out entirely with just spray. Disassembly of switches on these keyboards is very difficult to do without desoldering and removing them. If the keyboard is that filthy then a thorough cleaning w/o disassembly combined with inversion and maybe some gentle shaking to dislodge any possible debris before re-testing might be warranted. That way at least any possibly offending keys can be addressed all at once.
At any rate it will be interesting to see if the OP posts with the outcome of whatever they end up doing to fully resolve their keyboard issues.
No need to flush it out, just get it away from the contact surfaces. This is why I recommend contact spray and not isopropyl alcohol, which once it evaporates frees the dirt to float around once again. Contact spray keeps it suspended to the rest of the inside and away from the contact surfaces for a very long time.
Hey guys,
Sorry for the late update, I didn't have much time to work on this over the summer.
Thanks for the helpful responses. Unfortunately, it looks like I scratched some of the traces when I was getting the keyswitches out the first time. I wound up ordering a working keyboard off of ebay and just cut my losses. I guess I have a lot of donor keyswitches now lol
Scratched traces are very easy to fix; in fact, this is the easiest type of repair, even for complete beginners.
All you need to do is use an X-Acto knife to scrape off 1–2 mm of soldermask from each side of the cut, then tin with solder. The solder itself will bridge over the scratch; you can also lay fine wire across the cut and the solder will follow it and make a connection between the two sides of the trace.
I agree with this. It's an easy fix. I'm not surprised that the cause was damaged traces though. I've seen that happen with inpexperienced people doing repairs like that before. Next time they usually know what not to do. It's a learning process.