Replacing a Broken iBook Keyboard

My iBook keyboard recently broke. A piece of metal under the space bar broke away. This piece of metal lets two pieces of metal pivot under the space bar, and allows it to remain parallel as it moves downwards, no matter where the key is pressed. This lets the iBook use very thin buttons and hence a very thin keyboard. Unfortunately, because the keyboard is thin, it seems it is less robust than the keyboards you get on the much thicker PC laptops; but that’s engineering and design for you — you trade one thing for another. It perhaps doesn’t help that I hit the space bar harder than I should. Anyway…

I tried to fix the keyboard myself. I considered soldering the piece of metal back in place. However, solder joints are not particularly strong, and you need to be a very good solderer to do such a delicate job (although I haven’t soldered in years, I reckon I could do it). I used a piece of tape to act in place of the broken metal pivot. This worked, but I should have placed something under the tape where the metal was to pivot. Because I didn’t, the metal did not pivot cleanly. I tried to redo the fix, but in doing so broke the clips on the space bar that hold it in place. The damage was beyond repair.

I phoned the Apple Service Centre in Manchester. They told me that I would have to pay around £39+VAT for them to “diagnose” the problem for me, they would then sell me a replacement keyboard for around £65+VAT which is a customer installable part, which I would then have to go and install myself. They said that this would take them 5 working days. I thought this took the piss. If they were adding value in some way, I might be able to understand the high price. Paying over £100 for a replacement keyboard is expensive, but if I were to get the keyboard installed for me with a good warranty, then perhaps I could justify the charge.

I found instructions on Apple’s website showing how to install the keyboard. This suggested that I might be able to buy the keyboard directly from Apple, which I did. The general customer service people were not much help, but passed me to a technical person, who spent 50 minutes finding out which part I needed and how he could order it for me (I spent 20 minutes on the phone, and then they phoned me back when they’d found the part). The cost of the part, including VAT and delivery was £55, less than half the price that I would have paid had I gone to the Apple Service Centre. I ordered the part on Monday, and it arrived by Friday of the same week. Installing the keyboard was easy — just make sure you have the right type of screwdriver, otherwise you’ll damage the screws.