Our Blog

Regular readers of this blog will know that I managed to break off a key on my MacBook Pro keyboard. If you can find a replacement keyboard online they tend to run in the £70 – £80 range and of course you have to fit it yourself. I dread to think what Apple might want to do the repair…

Luckily you can sometimes buy individual keys from Ebay or other online sites (expect to pay around £4-£5 inc delivery). If you do so, it’s important to note that an individual key consists of two parts, the key cap itself (the silver bit you see) and a white plastic scissor mechanism that holds the key to the keyboard base. If you have only damaged the silver cap portion, then you can reuse the scissor mechanism, but to be safe make sure any replacement you get includes both parts.

The keycap simply clips to the white scissor mechanism, and that clips to the keyboard base. You want to unhook the scissor mechanism from the keyboard base. To do so use a small screwdriver and slip it under the keycap, about 3/4 of the way from the top. Gently press inwards and you should be able to push the small tab out of its hole, once one side is unhooked, do the same on the opposite side. Once both sides are unhooked, simply slide the key downwards (towards the track pad), this will unhook the bottom.

Your replacement key will most likely come with the scissor mechanism attached. You need to separate them as you need to fit the scissor first so you can see what you’re doing… To separate the two parts, just squeeze the white scissor mechanism carefully to unhook it from the key cap.
 

To fit it to the keyboard base hook the middle part under the metal tab at the bottom, then squeeze the top half of it so that the little tabs engage into the holes. It’s important to fit the mechanism the right way around, it should be able to “scissor” up.

 
Once the mechanism is fitted to the keyboard base, just place the key cap over the top of it and press down until it clicks into place.

Job done!

Filed under: Computing
No Comments »