Fixing my Wife’s $150 Keyboard for $1

Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Fixing my Wife’s $150 Keyboard for $1”.
It’S gon na get messy.. My wife’s keyboard has been acting up lately and that seems like a simple enough: fix. Huck it and buy a new one right. What No. This is an almost perfectly good keyboard..

It’S got 102 keys on it that all work just fine.. So how hard could it be to replace one of them. Just well? It’S not that one! It’S this one actually.! This is getting harder than I thought. Already. Pop off the key cap replace the key switch solder on a new one and bipity snappity. It’S off to the races right.

Well, actually, no, it’s not quite that simple.. This is a pre-built keyboard that doesn’t have hot-swappable switch sockets.. These key switches are soldered, but don’t fret.. While it might sound a little scary, it’s actually pretty easy to replace a dead switch.. Just means we’re gon na have to get intimate. Like I get intimate with our sponsors. Jackery’s Explorer 1500 Power Station provides a huge 1500 watt hour capacity, with up to seven devices able to charge simultaneously and takes just four hours to get from zero to 80 %. Charge. Get 10 % off with code LinusTechTips at the link down below. ( upbeat intro, music ), This SteelSeries 7G mechanical keyboard is my wife Yvonne’s daily driver at home, where it has faithfully done its duty for many years., And it is kind of old.

At this point, like baby Linus with frosted tips, old., That’s right, this bad boy, this exact keyboard, graced ye old, NCIX casting couch over 11 years ago. And look at us. We’Ve both come a long way since then.. Since that initial review, it ended up bouncing around at the office before eventually ending up back at my house for Yvonne’s work and casual gaming.

Use. And the reason for it is that it has this outstanding super gently, sloped and extra long wrist rest that she finds extra comfortable.. That’S actually the only thing that she really likes about it because she’s not a huge fan of Cherry MX, Black mechanical switches. When it launched it cost over $ 150 and had cutting edge features like USB and audio passthrough. Not to mention that it has both a USB and PS2 interface so that you can plug it into that’s right, all the most modern motherboards. ( chuckles ). The only problem with it is that it’s a little tired. And recently the E key has been acting up.

Only registering key presses about half of the time.. Why Well, that could be any number of things. Dust in the switch corrosion. A lifted PCB trace.

We’re not actually gon na know until we crack it open., But before we get to that, we’re gon na fire up QMK’s keyboard tester and check to make sure that all of the other keys actually work.. It’S not as bad as one in every two, but I’ve missed 2 out of about 20. So I can see why that would be bothering her.. Everything else looks good, except she didn’t even tell me that this one was broken.. No, it’s not it’s a function! Key! That’S why I left the SteelSeries logo, one on there. And this legend just doesn’t have the functions. Marked. Oh., So it’s just the E key.. That’S the only one we have to replace today.

[ Colin ], Okay. Well then, my 102 key count is wrong. It’S 103 keys., It’s 103 keys that still work.

The best part of that is. It takes our entire keyboard repair cost from $ 2 for two key switches to $ 1 plus shipping and the materials that we’re gon na need to perform the repair.. So why don’t we walk through what we’re going to need? First things.

First you’ll need the soldering iron. We’re using our Hakko 888D, but you don’t need anything. That’S expensive and in fact you probably don’t need to buy. One odds are if you’re, a big geek, which you are you’re watching this video you’ve got a friend or a family member who’s got a soldering iron lying around and the odds of you damaging it doing something like this are extremely low. So I would just borrow one.: You’ll also need a screwdriver or screwdrivers that match the board in this case Phillips..

Thank you, SteelSeries. Some flux, core solder, leaded or unleaded.. We suggest the latter. If you want to be more environmentally friendly or the former, if you want it to be a little bit easier to work, with.

Along with sort of solder, wick. Get the name brand stuff from Gootwick by the way.. Trust me on this one.

And some flux for keeping everything nice and clean and flowing. We’re using this MG. Chemicals no clean flux because it comes in this convenient syringe, but you can also go full Rossmann and liberally dose the board, where needed, with any other kinds of flux that you like..

Keep in mind that you want to clean up any excess after your repair, because flux is mildly corrosive., So we’re gon na be using. What did you spray this with Soap. Soap? Okay., Soap, yeah there, you go. Also, you might want a key cap puller and we’ve also got a solder sucker as well.. This is a really really low quality one and I wouldn’t recommend using this one, but basically you preload a little thing and go bop and it theoretically sucks up the solder.. I personally find the wick works, a lot better. Hm-hm.. Now it’s time to snap a quick pick of the keyboard for reference..

This is a slightly different layout than I’m used to and to pull off all the key caps so that we can shame my wife for the state of her keyboard.. You know what the F keys are not as dirty., I suspect. Once we make our way toward the middle of the board, things are gon na get kind of nasty though.. Okay, I would strongly recommend not breathing in ladies and gentlemen.

( can spraying ) ( Linus yells ) Oh.. Oh it’s everywhere., Oh gosh., Oh god., Oh wow.! It’S really still not that clean.! You know what I think this is as clean as it’s getting today. Sorry hun.

Got my screwdriver soon to be lttstore.com Got my hydration. Lttstore.Com. Got my work surface here.

Okay, it’s a mousepad but lttstore.com. In addition to the four screws on the bottom, they’ve got those little plastic tabs that you can accidentally break off if you’re, not careful.. So we’re just gon na put our iFixit spudger in here.. Let’S give it a little. Oh yeah there we go. By modern electronic standards.

This is very openable and repairable.. Oh wow, there’s a lot of crud inside it too. Actually nope. You’re off the hook. Yvonne..

I think a lot of this is just dried glue or some kind of like manufacturing schmoo.. You see that Colin. It looks like it’s like some kind of. Maybe it used to be glued together Or it could be milk..

Oh, it’s not milk. [ Colin ]. It was only at the front and it’s white.: Did you use that keyboard Linus? No, I never used this keyboard..

He knows I’m the cereal eater, but no. This was not me.. Our next step is to pull this baby up. So you can see why old mechanical keyboards had such a good reputation for being built like tanks, because there’s a solid steel plate down the middle of this thing..

Ah, there we go. Now that’s something we’re not gon na want to break here. Man January 30th. 2008.

Is the manufacturing date for this board in here for the passthrough USB and passthrough front panel audio. Freakin’ love it., And this is about. As far as we have to go here, that’s it., That’s the raw keyboard right there., It’s got keys and it’s a board.. One thing we have to be careful of is these pins on the back.

If we want our front passthroughs to work. They’re, not super fragile, though so, I’m not too worried about doing anything to them.. We could just bend them back if we accidentally bend them.

And we could. I think, if we really wanted to desolder every single key switch and then remove the steel plate. We could separate these two layers, but they’ve been twisted into place with little steel tabs, probably for a reason., And it doesn’t look like we have to pull them apart in order to replace just one key switch..

So let’s go ahead and have a look at which switch is coming out.! It’S gon na! Be this one, this guy right, here., Okay, let’s go ahead., I’m just gon na meh-meh., (, grunts )! I hate these things.. Here we go boys. We’re gon na wick.

It up. Now this is interesting, SteelSeries or whoever they’re OEM is apparently saw fit to bend over a the little stems from the key switches.. So I can’t just pull it right out without bending these little tabs back..

You know what it’s also not quite there in terms of being fully wicked.. I thing we got ta yeah. We got ta, lift that oh. There, it is. There’s our Cherry MX Black switch.. That’S right! You’Ve seen all 50 million of your keystrokes. Sorry buddy.. The switch is definitely dead if it wasn’t which it was., (, tester, beeping, ), [, Colin ], Something ain’t right in there., ( chuckles ). There see that’s how it’s supposed to work. You’ve, probably seen diagrams of this online..

Basically, you’ve got your stem at the top.. That’S where your key cap mounts to, so you got little rails on the sides so that it slides vertically only You got your spring. This is what pops up the key switch when you are done pressing it down., And this is also what controls, how much tension there is so like how much force is required to push it down. Then, right here, you’ve got your contact points., And you know it’s Funny, I think Cherry told me these are gold-plated, but that doesn’t really look like gold.

[, Colin ], It’s probably worn off by now.. I mean I guess it could be worn off or something. ( Linus beeps ), Sending messages across the Atlantic. Sorry..

Let’S grab one that is confirmed, actually working and assembled correctly for this next part., Oh wow yeah that one is borked’cause, here’s how it’s supposed to go down.. So it goes down. There’S you’re tactile, bump (, bump sound ) and then there’s your contact point right under it., Let’s put on a new one, shall we I keep trying to open this bag and Colin keeps not letting me do it.? Can I open this bag yet I’ll? Allow it now.

All right did we order these form DigiKey? Yes, we did. All right., So these are brand new Cherry, MX, Black switches. And in theory – and we know this from our tour of Cherry way back ( scoffs ). It was a lot of years ago. Actually that the design of this could actually be subtly different., They have been revising silently their cherry MX lineup constantly over the years., But the goal is that whatever changes they make to them, the reliability, the feel and the sound should all be the same.. Theoretically, if I gave this keyboard to someone not telling them which one has been swapped out with a switch from 10 to 12 years later, they shouldn’t be able to tell. I’m gon na pop this on.. I do not see any obvious difference in any of the molding, even though we know for a fact that they would have had to redo their molds many many times since then molds, don’t last forever.. Oh this little bump here is higher.. You know what I think. The logo is high res., It is ( gasps ). Oh, we need the microscope Colin. There we go. That’S our new key cap.. This is our old one., See that., So they’re, probably just at different stages in their wear.

Yeah. That’S just an interjectory pin mark.. So it doesn’t matter No., but it’s interesting that it’s changed right, But it has changed. They’ve, updated their mold design, clearly. Absolutely. This Cherry logo.

I am fairly certain that that logo is significantly higher res now. [ Colin ]. It’S slightly out of focus but- Yeah.

It’S really hard to tell because of that.. I can’t hold it steady enough for us to be able to tell, and this mount is just not good enough.. We could just trust you..

I can’t tell to the touch. Good., Let’s solder it on then. [, Colin ], Yeah., First things: first, I’m gon na just do what the original assemblers did and I’m going to bend. These little stems over now.. Now, it’s time to flux, it up.. You don’t want to flux up this stage.

Okay, Sorry Colin. I can’t resist. Yeah yeah technically you’re supposed to heat the thing, not the solder, but whatever deal with that..

Okay, we’ve got a ball of solder. On there., ( boop sounds ). Oh, we need more., (, boop, ), Okay and let’s do the same thing.

Again. Whoops. Slipped a little there.. I don’t think I did any worse than the original assembly.. Now it’s time for a quick reassembly. Like not full reassembly we’re just gon na put the oh.

There we go. The IO passthrough board in place. And let’s do a quick test, run here. One two: three, four: five: six, seven, eight nine ten.

Yay. We did it. Freaking awesome.. Now we can put the rest of the board together..

I kind of feel like it should get a bit of a better cleaning before we formally put it together.. Should we just run it through the dishwasher No. Colon, and I did a video about that wow. That was right when you started.

Wasn’T it It was. Uh-huh. Like two years ago.

Damn., Okay, so one of those keyboards did eventually die. Colin daily drove it at his desk., Multiple of them actually., Oh more than one. [, Colin ], Just moisture in keyboard.

Bad.! Do not do. Point is we’re just gon na get some soap and water and clean the deck then assemble it. And after some deck swabbing and key cap cleaning and final reassembly we’re ready to show off an old keyboard., But one that performs as well as it Did when it was new, and that will continue to soldier on for at least a few more years. And at what a great price right? Who wants to spend a hundred dollars on a new mechanical keyboard when you can have a perfectly good one for a dollar plus a little bit solder and some tools.? So all that’s left to do is thank our sponsor NZXT., With NZXT BLD. Getting a custom built PC is easier than ever just set. Your budget see how your PC will perform in your favorite games and BLD takes care of the rest..

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They even offer expert live chat for real-time help and troubleshooting, and free and easy returns for any system that doesn’t meet the build engine. Fps performance guarantee. So check out NZXT BLD today using the link in the video description.. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe go watch our. Should you clean your keyboard in the dishwasher video. Note by the way you probably don’t want to do. It. Turns out. We had corrosion issues., Maybe we could’ve done a better job of like drying them.

I don’t know. .