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Apple PowerBook Duo 230

This little beast arrived last week and I've finally cleared the workspace to work on it. I've been on a bit of a buying-frenzy since christmas, so there should be some random things appearing on here in the next few weeks.

Anyway, it was cheap because it's damaged. It's reported to have a non-responsive keyboard, a broken screen latch and a poor install of System 7.6. The poor install is described as "every app, when double-clicking, just throws error -39".

Keyboard

So, turns out people have fixed these before. That's a cute story.. but I have never thought of using an eraser on any of those goddamn-awful rubber buttons. Does it work?

Got the required utensil... next...

Ok, getting the keyboard out was easy enough... just don't follow these instructions. The author says to remove the bottom two screws... this is WRONG!. Remove the top three instead! Actually, I just checked the link... he's responded saying he'll fix it. I left a comment under the image where he points to the screws to remove. Anyway, where were we... Under the keyboard, you'll see how the keys are held in. I initially wanted to remove the backplane, but it's plastic-welded in place via the lugs.

Above, in the dark holes, you can see that the keys are held with two opposing clips. Turns out that, if from the top-side you just apply gentle pressure to the top-half of each key, it'll gently prise out!

Once the keys are off, you have direct access to the rubber sheet. This actually has the graphite contact rings under it, so don't be too rough!

As you can see, each key has a black ring directly under it that is pressed down onto the membranes. There are actually two membranes, but they act different to the regular press-them-together. Usually there's a third sheet in-between the two membranes that keeps them separate... instead we have two membranes that form opposing semi-circles that the rings under the keys connect.

So, from here, GENTLY rub the areas that receive contact from the rubber rings. There's a caps-lock LED to the left that you need to watch out for... what did I say? Watch out!

Too late... my eraser was too large, my force too strong. I recommend using a pencil with an eraser on the end... or just anything with a finer tip! I'll fix that LED at a later date. Let's assemble and see the difference.

Yessss! It works beautifully. Meanwhile, there's weird red dead pixels... but they don't line up with pixels... maybe there's something in the screen layers... fun for when I replace the latch later.

It's alive! Time to network it. And reformat once the MiniDock arrives.