geekhack

geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: ironman31 on Sun, 23 May 2010, 20:16:50

Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 23 May 2010, 20:16:50
I am trying to fix my friends Acer 6011. When i plug it into my ps/2 slot and start up my computer, nothing happens, no lights, can't input anything. I'm assuming it's a power problem, but how can I fix it myself?
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 23 May 2010, 20:18:46
I probably should add that it stopped working after he dropped a stack of cd's on the keyboard. And when i opened it up, there appears to be no physical damage to the circuit board or any of the components.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: bitflipper on Sun, 23 May 2010, 20:37:45
I might be stating the obvious, but make sure that AT/XTold/XTnew switch is in the correct position.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 23 May 2010, 20:48:07
found out what it was, as i was following underneath the circuit board from the power supply, i saw a crack. thus not allowing current to travel properly. i might try and bypass it with some solder. but then again it might not be even worth it.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 23 May 2010, 21:39:05
Lol, o well. Didn't know the back of a circuit board had an insulation film on it (I'm a novice when it comes to this stuff). So the solder wouldn't stick. I'm just going to salvage the switches and keys.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: Nonmouse on Sun, 23 May 2010, 22:00:59
Quote from: ironman31;186216
Lol, o well. Didn't know the back of a circuit board had an insulation film on it (I'm a novice when it comes to this stuff). So the solder wouldn't stick. I'm just going to salvage the switches and keys.

It's easy to scrape off with an exacto or razor blade.  Fixing (http://www.instructables.com/id/Solder-on-PCB-traces/) broken traces is pretty easy...  

A lot easier than removing all the switches.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: EverythingIBM on Sun, 23 May 2010, 22:08:39
Quote from: ironman31;186204
found out what it was, as i was following underneath the circuit board from the power supply, i saw a crack. thus not allowing current to travel properly. i might try and bypass it with some solder. but then again it might not be even worth it.


Wow that's cheap.

On my dad's acer, they put the power plug inside the laptop (opposed to inside the cord like normal manufacturers), and the power prong got broken, so my dad had to glue it and do all of this stupid stuff to get it to work.

I don't know why he just didn't get a good old thinkpad. Or even an asus laptop... but I guess they sell neither of those commercially. Bastards.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 23 May 2010, 22:34:05
Quote from: Nonmouse;186223
It's easy to scrape off with an exacto or razor blade.  Fixing (http://www.instructables.com/id/Solder-on-PCB-traces/) broken traces is pretty easy...  

A lot easier than removing all the switches.


I might try that out sometime this week. After the plastic is off, will the solder easily stick to the board?
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 23 May 2010, 22:42:49
Nevermind, I just noticed that you sent me a link.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: bhtooefr on Mon, 24 May 2010, 07:29:05
Quote from: EverythingIBM;186226
Wow that's cheap.

On my dad's acer, they put the power plug inside the laptop (opposed to inside the cord like normal manufacturers), and the power prong got broken, so my dad had to glue it and do all of this stupid stuff to get it to work.

I don't know why he just didn't get a good old thinkpad. Or even an asus laptop... but I guess they sell neither of those commercially. Bastards.

First off, we're talking about a keyboard (http://kojiroh.a6.idv.tw/html/alps_acer_6011.htm), not a laptop.

Second, quite a few netbooks put the prong side on the laptop, it's not just Acer. The small connectors that they use on those don't have room for safely putting the prong on the adapter side, without making things bigger or too fragile. And an Asus machine would've been the same way. (A ThinkPad wouldn't, but then again, the strain relief on ThinkPad power cords is utter crap. And that applies to both the old IBM 16V and the Lenovo 20V adapters. The 20V ones are better, at least, but still utter crap.)
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ch_123 on Mon, 24 May 2010, 07:35:39
Mac chargers are by far the nicest. After nearly having a Thinkpad one catching fire, I never charge my Thinkpad unless I'm in the room.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: bhtooefr on Mon, 24 May 2010, 07:37:17
For power adapters catching on fire, I've had an OEM iBook one start smoking at the connector, and a knockoff ThinkPad one start smoking from the brick.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: hyperlinked on Mon, 24 May 2010, 07:47:06
I think just about every major company has had a power supply or battery burst into flames at some point. Granted, those parts came from elsewhere, but it's happened to just about everyone.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ch_123 on Mon, 24 May 2010, 07:49:49
Quote from: bhtooefr;186304
For power adapters catching on fire, I've had an OEM iBook one start smoking at the connector, and a knockoff ThinkPad one start smoking from the brick.


In my case it was because the wire started to come lose out of the connector to the laptop. I was sitting in bed one day using it when I noticed that power suddenly went. I checked the wire and noticed it was very hot and immeadiately unplugged it. I wonder if the charger has any built in safety features to deal with this...

Dell ones usually go with a bang, or lots of sparks and smoke.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: kishy on Mon, 24 May 2010, 10:52:30
I've (intentionally) bought counterfeit Dell chargers on eBay. Price was right, and when the first one essentially quit, got a second one free...turned out to just be the detachable cord on the first one, charger's fine.

Same housing as a 90W, computer reads it as 90W, but it weighs the same as a 65W (which is roughly half of what a real 90W weighs). Sticker background colour is slightly off. Did not include rubber cord-wrapping strap despite being brand new. Length of cable to laptop is shorter than genuine Dell chargers.

I really can't describe how hot it gets. Just a hell of a lot hotter than genuine Dell chargers. I won't leave it connected to power overnight and use it as my travel charger so I'm always with the computer when it's on AC power.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ch_123 on Mon, 24 May 2010, 10:56:17
Electrical items are the one thing you really shouldn't cheap out on...
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: kishy on Mon, 24 May 2010, 11:14:44
Quote from: ch_123;186376
Electrical items are the one thing you really shouldn't cheap out on...

My original developed the lovely "I'm not a real Dell product anymore" syndrome, so I needed something quick and cheap.

As we all know, shipping from Hong Kong to Canada is faster than USA to Canada (that is in fact true!) so it made sense. Ultimately I ended up with two functional chargers for $10 each. I do, like I said, refuse to leave them plugged in when I'm not in a position to respond immediately to their explosion/melting/combustion.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ch_123 on Mon, 24 May 2010, 11:15:57
I got the replacement (genuine) charger from HK too. Unfortunately there was some **** up and it took 3 weeks to get out to me. 3 weeks without my laptop... (shudders)
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 20 June 2010, 12:38:09
update: Fixed the broken traces on the board. The tiny ones were hell, but with the help of an xacto knife everything turned out fine. Thanks for the help
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: chimera15 on Sun, 20 June 2010, 15:57:48
Awesome, looks like a nice old board.  I for one love Acer stuff, they have some really unique stuff every once in a while.  Is this a  Chinese board like in the example? Looks nice, glad you salvaged it.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 20 June 2010, 16:04:39
it says made in malaysia, ill take a picture of it when i have a camera at my disposal.

I took off the print screen, scroll lock, and pause switches for a payment for fixing the keyboard. (need them for ripster's lego my balls mod) lol.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: Nonmouse on Thu, 24 June 2010, 18:31:26
Awesome!  Gratz on your first board necromancy!
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Thu, 22 July 2010, 00:40:45
Finally got around to taking pictures of this keyboard.

The last one is the traces I fixed.

The owner of the keyboard just joined geekhack under the name Cranergy

I replaced the 3 switches I stole with a few simplified alps rather than the complicated alps
(those were all I had for spares, the complicated switches I used for my cst tracball mod,
ripster's lego my balls (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:8810) for pictures)


(http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/494/20100722012708.jpg)

(http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4981/20100722012733.jpg)

(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/3517/20100722012744.jpg)

(http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2540/20100722013249.jpg)
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: Nonmouse on Thu, 22 July 2010, 00:53:53
That's some pretty nice trace repair work, there.  

Now you just need some RetroBrite on those keys...
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Thu, 22 July 2010, 00:57:39
Yeah, they need a good cleaning. That might be my next project....
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: Lenny_Nero on Thu, 22 July 2010, 19:52:52
Quote from: Nonmouse;205165
That's some pretty nice trace repair work, there.  

Agreed, well done.

I did not know about this Acer,
I think I might have seen one at a friends place in a pile of old boards I have had my eye on for ages,
there is at least one ALPS switched board there...
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: Voixdelion on Thu, 22 July 2010, 21:31:18
Nice repair indeed.  Tough to do the tiny traces with solder, but at least its possible on PCB.  Someone else was asking about repairing membrane trace, and for that I recommended the "Circuit Writer Pen" available at Radio Shack.  Works fabulous for all kinds of stuff. Link to that and the auto rear-window defroster solution here:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=10723
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: EverythingIBM on Sun, 25 July 2010, 13:33:41
Quote from: kishy;186394
My original developed the lovely "I'm not a real Dell product anymore" syndrome, so I needed something quick and cheap.

As we all know, shipping from Hong Kong to Canada is faster than USA to Canada (that is in fact true!) so it made sense. Ultimately I ended up with two functional chargers for $10 each. I do, like I said, refuse to leave them plugged in when I'm not in a position to respond immediately to their explosion/melting/combustion.


Yeah, shipping from the states always takes ages. And usually sellers from the states always misspell my address (but Canadian sellers don't).
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: microsoft windows on Sun, 25 July 2010, 14:21:35
Quote from: ironman31;205161
Finally got around to taking pictures of this keyboard.

The last one is the traces I fixed.

The owner of the keyboard just joined geekhack under the name Cranergy

I replaced the 3 switches I stole with a few simplified alps rather than the complicated alps
(those were all I had for spares, the complicated switches I used for my cst tracball mod,
ripster's lego my balls (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:8810) for pictures)


Show Image
(http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/494/20100722012708.jpg)


Show Image
(http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4981/20100722012733.jpg)


Show Image
(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/3517/20100722012744.jpg)


Show Image
(http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2540/20100722013249.jpg)


What's with the color in that picture? They keyboard almost looks rainbow.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ch_123 on Sun, 25 July 2010, 14:23:08
Quote from: Voixdelion;205503
Nice repair indeed.  Tough to do the tiny traces with solder, but at least its possible on PCB.  Someone else was asking about repairing membrane trace, and for that I recommended the "Circuit Writer Pen" available at Radio Shack.  Works fabulous for all kinds of stuff. Link to that and the auto rear-window defroster solution here:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=10723


I am attempting to do just that as soon as the jar of conductive glue I've got comes in from the US... My plan is just to run it along the damaged traces with a toothpick dipped in the glue.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 25 July 2010, 14:23:15
a ****ty camera/lighting. the keyboard is slightly yellow, but not as much as the picture makes it to be
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: microsoft windows on Sun, 25 July 2010, 14:24:42
Oh. It doesn't really matter if the keyboard's yellow. It's the feel that's important.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: ironman31 on Sun, 25 July 2010, 14:28:07
and o does it feel nice :D
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: bhtooefr on Sat, 31 July 2010, 12:05:56
Retr0bright, or retr0blast?

(Which is media blasting with baking soda. Quite effective, too.)
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: patrickgeekhack on Sat, 31 July 2010, 12:46:48
In 2002, the company I worked for got a rid of a bunch of these keyboards. I just wish I had kept a few of these. They felt nice to type on, but they were disgusting. I did not know anything about keyboard. I did not know I could clean them to the point where they would look great. Stupid me! To this day, I still regret not having saved some for me since they would have cost me $0.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: EverythingIBM on Sat, 31 July 2010, 13:55:45
Quote from: patrickgeekhack;208028
In 2002, the company I worked for got a rid of a bunch of these keyboards. I just wish I had kept a few of these. They felt nice to type on, but they were disgusting. I did not know anything about keyboard. I did not know I could clean them to the point where they would look great. Stupid me! To this day, I still regret not having saved some for me since they would have cost me $0.


Heh I did the same mistake. My school threw out a bunch of keyboards, and I (for some reason) never took the ALPs stuff. I only took the IBM ones.
Oh well, at least I got the best one: a model M is so much more tactile than those silly white ALPs baords.
Title: Broken Acer, Need help repairing.
Post by: patrickgeekhack on Sat, 31 July 2010, 15:32:37
Quote from: EverythingIBM;208032
Heh I did the same mistake. My school threw out a bunch of keyboards, and I (for some reason) never took the ALPs stuff. I only took the IBM ones.
Oh well, at least I got the best one: a model M is so much more tactile than those silly white ALPs baords.


At least you were able to grab some. I did not grab any. I should not say that. I did grab a black keyboard which did not have any brand name on it. It has a similar click like the blue Cherry with an AT connecter and a convertor to PS/2. Unfortunately, after a while, it started to act funny and I had to get rid of it. Once again, I did not know enough about keyboard. I just cannot say which switch it had.