Dell AT101W Fried control IC?

[danrulz98]

I have this thing apart trying to figure out what's gone wrong...

I bought a Dell AT101W on ebay recently here, and it came in today. Plugged it in at first and it made my PS/2 to USB adapter freak out.. treid it again and it seemed to work.
Except now, random keys are stuck down, doesn't respond to function keys, etc... it's doing some weird stuff!
If I type on some of the keys, it will randomly turn on scroll lock/caps lock, hold down DELETE..

The control IC is marked "KKMPA40604" which doesn't turn up much on Google. It has that distinct electronics smell and a discolored spot.

Perhaps the stranger part about it, is if I hit the lock keys on my other keyboard, the functions lights on the Dell light up correctly.

Is there replacement ICs available if mine is fried? I can't seem to find them.

I also need to clean the thing out really well.. the feel of the keys is inconsistent across the board, with many of them just feeling downright unpleasant. Several posts on the forums here suggested taking the keyswitches apart and even said there was instructions in the wiki on how to do it (lies!), but what a pain in the rear.

Anyway, any help is much appreciated!

[chyros]

Hmmm, sounds like it's gone wrong big time, yeah. Tbh, these boards tend to be so cheap that you might as well get a new one if you can't fix it somehow.

I also need to clean the thing out really well.. the feel of the keys is inconsistent across the board, with many of them just feeling downright unpleasant. Several posts on the forums here suggested taking the keyswitches apart and even said there was instructions in the wiki on how to do it (lies!), but what a pain in the rear.

I might do an Alps switch clean tutorial video on Youtube if there's demand for it, I have a nice, simple technique for cleaning them .

[danrulz98]

Ugh...
I knocked some junk out of it, and now it's almost working correctly. Most of the keys are working, so the IC might be fine, but the switches definitely need cleaning. Just to make sure it is the switches that aren't working, I touched my pocket knife to the contracts on one of them that wasn't working, and it typed the letter.

So, yeah, a cleaning tutorial would be awesome!

As cheap as these are, they're still 10x the cost of what I would consider to be a sacrificial keybaord. I paid just under $40 for this one and it was the cheapest one listed on Ebay at the time. It was listed as "Untested As Is" hmm...

[chyros]

There you go: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=68378.0

[danrulz98]

Yeah, I've got several dead switches. Even after cleaning, nothing. Bummer.

Oh well, I wasn't terribly fond of the feel anyway... any one need black alps switches?

[jacobolus]

I’ll give you $5 + shipping for 50 (or as many as you want to send) black Alps switches (the ones from the AT101W should be from the “bamboo” era). I otherwise only have some “pine” black Alps switches to include in my super-duper-every-discrete-Alps-mount-switch-ever switch tester.

[danrulz98]

How about $20 for the whole PCB with all of the switches?

[mouse.the.lucky.dog]

The actual IC embedded in the epoxy is about 3mmx3mm in size. So I doubt that discoloration means anything. In particular that a part of the IC is dead. If a part of the IC fails it is not reflected in deformations of the case.

Hasve you tried removing a good key and using it to replace a bad key and seeing if it works? If so you may just need to get a few good switches to replace bad ones.

[danrulz98]

The actual IC embedded in the epoxy is about 3mmx3mm in size. So I doubt that discoloration means anything. In particular that a part of the IC is dead. If a part of the IC fails it is not reflected in deformations of the case.

Hasve you tried removing a good key and using it to replace a bad key and seeing if it works? If so you may just need to get a few good switches to replace bad ones.

Yep yep, figured out the IC seems to be fine. I didn't desolder any switches (yet) but I touched a knife to the back of one of the dead ones and it typed the letter.