What's wrong with my IBM M Mini?

[chongyixiong]

Hi guys, tried to find the info from previous threads, couldn't find one, might be due to mismatch of search terms but here goes:

Why is the area between the blank keycap and the upper key (2-piece keycap) oily? They feel like oil as they don't evaporate and they sorta smell like insect repellants (like those mosquito stuff).

Any ideas?

Just lost my computer over the weekend (believe the PSU is kaput), so I can't boot up with my PS/2 to work with, anyone knows if generic PS/2 to USB adapters work for the Space Saver?
(Again, checked out the Wiki thread but I don't think I can have access to those in 1-2 days here in Malaysia)

Thanks!

[bigpook]

I checked mine and they are not oily. Are you the original owner?

If not, who knows what the previous owner has done to it. Maybe its residue from some cleaning fluid?

[chongyixiong]

Mine came in a pretty bad shape, not the fault of the seller though.

The air-paks were flat, like paper thin while the peanut packings that were thrown in were flat and dead.. keyboard was loose and some keycaps fell out, while one of my shift key stems broke.. sent an e-mail to Unicomp asking for replacement keys.

Sad indeed. But loving the buckling spring, I love the resistance and the CRISPY CLEAR feeling, this feels better than Cherry Blues!

EDIT: Got mine from here, after a 1 month shipping ordeal. USPS = United States Postal Slow.
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=7554

[itlnstln]

Weird.  Mine aren't oily, either.

[exia]

Mine came in a pretty bad shape, not the fault of the seller though.

The air-paks were flat, like paper thin while the peanut packings that were thrown in were flat and dead.. keyboard was loose and some keycaps fell out, while one of my shift key stems broke.. sent an e-mail to Unicomp asking for replacement keys.

Sad indeed. But loving the buckling spring, I love the resistance and the CRISPY CLEAR feeling, this feels better than Cherry Blues!

EDIT: Got mine from here, after a 1 month shipping ordeal. USPS = United States Postal Slow.
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=7554

How is this not the fault of the seller?

[chongyixiong]

How is this not the fault of the seller?

Oh, my shipment actually went through Singapore first, then was re-routed back to Malaysia as the seller did not observe the address properly due to Paypal being registered in Singapore, so any address that you add to it has a xxx..Singapore at the back.

For example:

XXX,
yyy, zzz, Malaysia,
Singapore.

Anyway, when I received the package, the right shift key was broken, keycaps fell off, the peanut packing were FLAT and the air-packs that the seller carefully packed were flatter than pancakes. Oh, I actually received the package after 3 weeks.

All in all, I'm not even sure whether they re-routed through South Africa and had to be sprayed with mosquito repellent first before coming back to Malaysia, or maybe it must be the rebirth of the H1N1 flu.

LOL

[chongyixiong]

Alright, manage to take this beast apart (did I mention how heavy this was? It's almost 1.5times heavier than my Filco Tenkeyless).. and I think this is the cause for the oilyness?



Is it normal that all the springs are not pointing upwards from the barrel? Or does this mean I need to order the hammer/spring assembly from Unicomp?

Upon taking apart, a few ants crawled out like "yay! finally daylight!", lol.

Saw ripster's bolt/nut rivet style mod and was thinking of doing it to reduce the pinginess, so far the most pingy sound comes from the spacebar.

What do you guys think? And also, how do you guys clean the keyboard plate without removing the rivets? Is there anywhere to put the rivets back in anyway?

[msiegel]

i wonder if the discoloration and the broken rivets are related

[ch_123]

My rather uneducated guess is that the keyboard was stored in a damp or humid place for a long time, and the moisture ate into it, or something like that.

If memory serves me correct, the 42H1292 that Sandy did rivet surgery on had a similar problem. He claimed that he had found that particular one outside in a skip somewhere.

[spolia optima]

Ewwww...
Good thing the Model M is incredibly easy to clean. I just hope none of that...stuff... got into the spring housing.
Indeed, consistent key feel is most important. I hate it when one row/column of keys actuates at say, 1mm, while another will actuate at 3mm. It's incredibly irritating. Luckily, all it takes is a bit of patience and some nuts... or epoxy.

[chongyixiong]

Well, they do feel consistent throughout, but here's the weirdest thing.

The only click-clacky sound comes from the directional arrow key area and the printscrn/insert/delete area above it.

After that, the function keys starting from F12 sounds pingy, no click-clacky at all.
And this extends throughout the keyboard, and the moisturised area is near the tab/capslock area but doesnt seem to affect the sound at all.

Why is it that a certain area sounds clickety-clacky?

I wonder if I can get a refund for this, or at least a partial reimbursement, seller said that it was practically brand new, or he was just offloading some lousier units.

[GenEric35]

the stems on my model M where oily as well, I left them like that, but i suspect someone might have sprayed them with jigga-loo so that they slide better

I tend to think that keys that are directly on top of a rivet sound different than the ones that are half way between two rivets, or just far from them

you mentioned you don't hear the click, is it possible it was greased? look inside the stem of the silent keys to see if there isn't a thin coat of grease in there, dosen't take much to dampen it

the springs don't have to be centered in the well for it to click fine

i had about 50 broken rivets so had to mod it with bolts, back then the clicks were not even, some would click early in the keypress, some would click late, that was because there was gaps between the actuator panel and the plate, and the rivet mod fixed that, once you're done with that, you can fine tune the sound(ping) as much as you want with grease(add very little at a time)

here's the link to the thread i wrote back when i did the rivet mod

[exia]

Well, they do feel consistent throughout, but here's the weirdest thing.

The only click-clacky sound comes from the directional arrow key area and the printscrn/insert/delete area above it.

After that, the function keys starting from F12 sounds pingy, no click-clacky at all.
And this extends throughout the keyboard, and the moisturised area is near the tab/capslock area but doesnt seem to affect the sound at all.

Why is it that a certain area sounds clickety-clacky?

I wonder if I can get a refund for this, or at least a partial reimbursement, seller said that it was practically brand new, or he was just offloading some lousier units.

Definitely get a full refund. or do a Paypal chargeback if you have to; looks like you got scammed.

[itlnstln]

Welly said that if you put enough grease on the springs, they no longer click but work fine otherwise, if not feeling mushy.  It could just be that there is enough crap on the springs that it still works OK, but not in the classic Model M sense.

[chongyixiong]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I think ripster's one is correct, the guy seemed to be over enthusiastic with the greasing I guess.

The sound is less deep. rackety click-clack and just higher frequency near the areas where rivets are still existing (sorry for the confusing statement earlier on), but the area where the rivets broke off and seeping occured sounds more deep and fulfilling.

It's almost like the pinging covers up the rackety click-clack of the springs itself. Time to do some nut-bolt mod, thanks for the linky.

[exia]

seriously, if i bought a logitech keyboard and opened the box to find oil all over the keys and the keycaps over the box I would be returning it to the store right away. scammers are not cool.