Old mechanical keyboard

[Christian1306]

I've recently aquired an old mechanical keyboard (Brand : DELL)which mostly works,apart from some keys.
Anyone have some ideas on how to try and fix the keys?

 

[Delt4ninj4]

You should take some pictures to further describe your problem. If you need to replace keys, look on eBay.

-Delt4ninj4

 

[_Glitch]

So some of the keys aren't responsive at all?
It's properly some connections that have gone bad over the years.
You will have to disassemble the keyboard and check the connections on the main board.
Have a soldering iron and some tin wire ready.

 

[Christian1306]

So some of the keys aren't responsive at all?
It's properly some connections that have gone bad over the years.
You will have to disassemble the keyboard and check the connections on the main board.
Have a soldering iron and some tin wire ready.

Yeah,some keys aren't responsive at ALL,no water damage though,the unresponsive keys are distant from eachother.
maybe i'll try to dissasemble it!

 

[_Pete_]

We used to take them apart and give them a good washing, yes in actual water, as long as the keyboard is stripped down completely when it is washed then drying them off is no problem. The key contacts are usually made with conductive paint although the tracks are copper. The conductive paint does wear off and that causes the key to not work. You can buy conductive paint quite easily on Ebay and the like. Quite whether it is worth the effort in this day and age of dirt cheap keyboards is another argument. It was 20 odd years ago when I was employed by the Brit government, who wouldn't spend money even then. You could quite easily find that buying new keys to replace the lost ones could cost more than buying a new keyboard. I appreciate you want the experience but you have to weigh up the cost of doing it.