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geekhack Marketplace => Classifieds => Topic started by: square965 on Tue, 31 January 2012, 21:25:56

Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: square965 on Tue, 31 January 2012, 21:25:56
Hello. A few months ago I bought a Rosewill RK-9000 for $82 shipped from a user on this web site. It worked fine when I first got it, but unfortunately it started acting up a bit after about a month. Some of the keys sporadically type 2 letters when pushed once (mainly WASD keys). The board is otherwise in great condition (read original thread: http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?18934-Rosewill-RK-9000-82-Shipped-CONUS ). Seeing as I only used it for about a month, the condition is pretty much identical to what you see in that thread.

Note: By "Old" I mean before they recently became available again. I bought a new one and I would MUCH prefer the old one. The build quality feels much nicer than the new one.

Would anyone be interested in buying the board?

Alternatively, is there anything I could do to fix the board? I'm not very experienced with keyboards so I'm kind of scared to mess around with the switches.
Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: metafour on Tue, 31 January 2012, 21:28:55
My best guess would be to replace the switches that are behaving oddly. That would require some work and soldering though.
Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: DaemonRaccoon on Tue, 31 January 2012, 21:31:53
Consensus says it was a batch of bad switches; mine does it too, you could always desolder and clean or even replace all the offending switches. It's my 'A' key that has the issue (at least it's the one the that does it the most).
Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: square965 on Tue, 31 January 2012, 21:32:31
Yeah I figured that. I'm probably just better off selling it to someone who knows what they are doing.
Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: metafour on Tue, 31 January 2012, 22:02:24
Quote from: square965;504878
Yeah I figured that. I'm probably just better off selling it to someone who knows what they are doing.

No way! Use this as a learning opportunity and figure out how to solder and replace switches. That's the route I would take at least.
Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: biolaser on Wed, 01 February 2012, 01:37:53
Quote from: metafour;504908
No way! Use this as a learning opportunity and figure out how to solder and replace switches. That's the route I would take at least.

I definitely agree, especially if only a few keys are giving you problems. The wiki articles on gh are an excellent place to start learning. Actually this key repeating problem sounds like what is described in the cherry switch wiki (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Cherry+Corporation+Switch+Wiki#Cherry+MX+Switch+That+Repeats+Characters).
Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: REVENGE on Wed, 01 February 2012, 01:55:33
You know, I would totally low ball just to buy it, repair it, and resell it. If it's only a few keys, it's a no brainer. Does that convince you to try and repair it yourself? :P

The tools you need are a 40W - 50W soldering iron, a desoldering pump (get the cheapest one you can find), and some fine gauge leadless solder (I honor RoHS). For 4 to 5 keys, I imagine it wouldn't take you more than half an hour for a first time attempt. It's honestly a great learning experience, and what you gain are the tools and knowledge needed to fix and / or mod plate mounted keyboards. Not to mention a working keyboard.
Title: Old Rosewill RK-9000
Post by: hazeluff on Wed, 01 February 2012, 04:20:33
I agree with all the people who are telling you to just fix it. Im intersted if you really dont wan to do it yourslef,but im in the UK