Help needed with keyboard repair

Benjamham · 7 May 2019 at 21:11

Okay, so I have bought a second hand razer black-widow chroma keyboard. Only problem is that the backspace key does not work. I have opened the back and found a few points of residue of what looks to be some sort of liquid. I have cleaned all of the liquid visible but the key doesn't work. I have tried bridging the contacts to check if the mechanical switch is the issue (which it is not). What else could be causing this single key to not function? I am considering maybe the diode near the switch. There seems to be no damage/fluid near the neighboring diode so I am unsure where to look.

Any help/advice is appreciated

JamieH · 8 May 2019 at 10:46

Hello, first thing I would do is grab your multi-meter and check the resistance over the diodes neighbouring the switch. Any discrepancies between readings with the others and I would swap out the diode and clean everything up with some IPA.

Like you said, if you get continuity when depressing the switch (continuity test on your multi-meter over the two pins) then its more than likely a problem diode.

Benjamham · 17 May 2019 at 09:44

Okay thanks, I will try and dig out a multi-meter from somewhere. And then try and get my hands on a space capacitor

ricid · 19 May 2019 at 23:04

Aren't diodes in keyboards just there to prevent ghosting when the key matrix is scanned? So could you temporarily short it & see if the key comes back to life?
On second thoughts, you should probably ignore me, my electronics knowledge is more or less non existent.