[Ti] 500Mhz spacebar failing?

[Deborah Shadovitz]

On 6/11/03 10:59am, "Steve Martin" <martin at metronet.com> wrote:
> Actually, the "button" is only under the center of the keyboard. It is
> one of those little rubber "bubble" type things. I guess the spacebar
> may have bowed down on the edges so that pressing on the sides no
> longer presses the middle down far enough. But it failed rather
> suddenly so that doesn't exactly make sense.
> 
> On Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at 12:03  PM, John Griffin wrote:
>> Steve, you might want to get some contact cleaner, remove the keyboard and
>> give a few squirts in the contact area on each end of the space bar. It could
>> be that the contacts are oxidizing and need a good cleaning. One that leaves
>> a slight silicone residue would be a good choice.
>> 
>> I once had to clean the contacts of all the keys in my Powerbook keyboard
>> after accidentally emptying a glass of Merlot on the keyboard. A combination
>> of compressed air and contact cleaner completely restored it. I swear by the
>> stuff!

A few thoughts.

I have also had great success with cleaner/degreaser, a spray found in
electronics stores and radio shack. (The same thing John is calling contact
cleaner, I believe.) Air first is a good idea. I've been using
cleaner/degreaser on electronics of all types since 1980 when I was an A/V
person in NYC and was called upon to fix all types of equipment.

I don't recall perfectly and don't want to take my keyboard apart, but since
your space bar is dead you might as well look into yours. It may be that
there is a small, thin, metal piece under the space key. That might simply
be displaced. This is often the case with other types of keyboards for the
wider keys such as Return, Delete, Caps Lock, etc.

I wonder if Keyboard Maestro or QuicKeys would let you map the space
function to another key.

I also wonder if the keyboard is covered under AppleCare. If so, the
replacement keyboard won't cost you.

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Deborah Shadovitz, Author, Instructor & Speaker
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