Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Apple Archive

Laptop Keyboards Fragile, Hard to Clean, Prone to Fail

A 'Best of Apple Archive' Article

- 2004.10.01

It could be argued that the keyboard is the most fragile exposed part of a laptop computer after the screen. This would especially be the case when it's the keyboard that starts having problems.

The keyboard on a laptop is composed of smaller and more fragile parts than a desktop computer's keyboard, and on a heavily used laptop, it can be damaged easily. Unlike the keys of a typical keyboard, which can usually be removed and reinserted without a problem, laptop keyboard keys often end up broken if they are removed.

I found this out over four years ago with my tangerine iBook; a key popped off while I was typing, and it never went back on. Apple had to replace the entire keyboard.

Thankfully, what seems to be more common is dust and dirt getting inside the keyboard and causing it to malfunction. In a standard computer keyboard, it's easy to clean, since the keys can be removed. However, on a laptop keyboard, it's almost impossible to clean well. I've had two keyboard problems of this sort in the past, and both were resolved by cleaning.

How do you do it?

The best way, if you can, is to remove the keyboard. Unfortunately, this can't be done easily on the newer PowerBooks, but it's not difficult on the older ones. Compressed air works quite well to get loose dirt and dust out of the keyboard, and, if you need to, a toothpick or other small object can fit in between the keys and help loosen whatever might be there.

I had problems with the keyboard not typing the correct letters on my 15" PowerBook G4. This was fixed by removing the keyboard and cleaning it with compressed air. I recently had the same problems with my 12" PowerBook G4, and while removing the keyboard wasn't an option, I was still able to get some of the dust and dirt out. In both cases, that fixed the keyboards.

But what if your laptop keyboard is really and truly dead?

While this doesn't seem to happen too often, it's not an impossibility.

There are a couple of options to remedy the situation. You can either buy a replacement original keyboard, which can be expensive - especially from a Macintosh dealer - or, you can purchase something like the TouchStream MacNTouch keyboard. This is a replacement for all titanium and aluminium PowerBooks, as well as white 12" iBooks. It features a built in touchpad and the ability to use the smooth surface of the keyboard to resize windows using two hands.

NTouch Keyboard

The best feature that I see in this keyboard, however, is that it is a smooth surface and uses no mechanical parts. It won't collect anything like as much dirt and dust as the stock PowerBook keyboards do. The only disadvantage to this solution is that it uses one USB port.

I prefer some feedback when I'm typing, and I don't think the TouchStream would quite do it for me. However, it does have its advantages, so it may be worth considering if your keyboard should be on its way out.

Otherwise, there's always eBay. LEM

Recent Apple Archive articles

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Apple Archive articles copyright ©2000-07 by Adam Robert Guha. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.