Bad W510 keyboard

I posted about my bad keyboard in another thread, but I thought I would create a new one specifically for this, because the keyboard had a couple of major issues.

First, let me post the info on the back of the keyboard, for both the bad (old) and the good (new) ones:

Old
PARTS NO 45N2036
FRU NO 45N2071
ID NO 9CP4P4
MODEL NO C9-USE

New
PARTS NO 45N2106
FRU NO 45N2141
ID NO 9AY0JN
MODEL NO C9-89US

From the moment I got the original (old) one, the key presses would not necessarily register, even though tactile feedback was given. I tested this for almost every key, and they were all pretty similar in this regard. The new keyboard does not have this problem. Both are ALPS keyboards. Apparently (after having talked to a Lenovo rep on the phone last week) there is no choice of keyboard manufacturers (at least here in Canada) - it's only the ALPS.

About two days ago, the old keyboard failed on the c, d, e, 3, F2, F3, and F4 keys. They would start working again, then fail for a while. It was a hardware issue, because they weren't working in BIOS setup. I upgraded my BIOS, set the BIOS to default state (even though I hadn't changed anything) as suggested by a Lenovo technician, but none of this helped when the keys stopped working for the last time and would not "come back".

Because of the first problem above, Lenovo demonstrated their excellent customer service and sent me a replacement keyboard last week. Unfortunately, I could not remove the bad keyboard, even though I was following the steps in the hardware maintenance manual (I'll abbreviate it to HMM)!

Today I finally got to the point where I called a couple of Lenovo warranty repair partners in my area, and I was going to take it to them to do the replacement. However, I am extremely anal about having anybody handle my machine, as the technicians inevitably cause scratches to some degree.

So, I thought I would give it one final go, and try even harder this time. I started off by pushing the keyboard harder than usual, even removing a key or two. One of them got damaged in the process; "who cares?" I thought, as there was no way I would go back to this keyboard anyway. A word of caution: handle your keyboard with extreme care if you want to keep it intact!

By removing a few of the keys, I was able to push harder down, and at the same time push the keyboard outwards from the underside of the machine, using a smaller screwdriver that reached through the screw hole and went against the bottom of the keyboard.

This didn't work, however. So, I thought I would begin to perform the next removal in the HMM: the keyboard bezel. Removing all the necessary screws in the bottom of the machine, I tried sliding the keyboard out, and voila - it worked! Please note that I believe the HMM is extremely misleading, perhaps even wrong, in how the keyboard should be removed.

Now the new keyboard is in, I think my keyboard woes have finally come to an end! (And my HDD failure on Wednesday got me to buy an Intel 80 GB SSD, so that was another semi-nightmare.)

Hope this helps some of you that may have keyboard issues like me.

 

Disheartening to hear about these odd keyboard issues. Not even complaints about the quality of typing but that keys just stop working. What's going on, hmm?

 

You don't need to remove the bezel to replace the keyboard.

Go to

http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/W510/index.html

click on "FRU removals/replacements", then on "Keyboard", then on "Remove Keyboard". The video will show you how its done.

 

Thanks for that, it looks like a useful site. Unfortunately there was no way in hell my keyboard would come out the way it's supposed to, the way it's shown in the video.

I didn't actually remove the keyboard bezel, just the screws. That loosened the chassis up enough for the keyboard to slide out. I'm sure I will not be the only one with this problem.

 

Adding to your problems, mine started failing aswell.