Hello,
I recently picked up a Compaq Portable I that's fully functional, except for the keyboard being completely non responsive. The screws on the keyboard were pretty rusty (but none on the chassis were), so it looks like the unit was exposed to a bit of moisture while in storage, and the keyboard being at the bottom took the worst of it.
I opened up the keyboard, and this is what I found:
It looks like a lot of the traces are completely corroded away in places, but I can't tell for sure if it's just surface corrosion. The foam holding the foil to the keys is deteriorated too - falls apart if I touch them.
The weird thing is that the keyboard actually works if I touch the pads directly with my finger, but it doesn't work if I stick the foil to paper and then touch it to the pad. Not sure if this is an indication of the traces being ok or not.
...
Do any of you more experienced folks have any recommendations on how to proceed? Should I try to clean off some of the corrosion with a mild abrasive and see if anything is left of the traces?
I recently picked up a Compaq Portable I that's fully functional, except for the keyboard being completely non responsive. The screws on the keyboard were pretty rusty (but none on the chassis were), so it looks like the unit was exposed to a bit of moisture while in storage, and the keyboard being at the bottom took the worst of it.
I opened up the keyboard, and this is what I found:
It looks like a lot of the traces are completely corroded away in places, but I can't tell for sure if it's just surface corrosion. The foam holding the foil to the keys is deteriorated too - falls apart if I touch them.
The weird thing is that the keyboard actually works if I touch the pads directly with my finger, but it doesn't work if I stick the foil to paper and then touch it to the pad. Not sure if this is an indication of the traces being ok or not.
...
Do any of you more experienced folks have any recommendations on how to proceed? Should I try to clean off some of the corrosion with a mild abrasive and see if anything is left of the traces?