deskthority

Hi

Today I cleaned one of my Model F XT boards, reassembled it and found that three keys were not working.
This board's foam was in good condition and I hoped it would function normally.

To my disappointment, several keys did not work properly. Pressing them revealed an abnormal "click" sound, and nothing appeared on screen.

I was able to get all 4 misbehaving keys working by blasting compressed air into the barrel. I assume that the air released a stuck flipper. Unfortunately, later when I tried the board tonight, two other keys are displaying the same problem.

Is the culprit degraded foam that's causing the keys to stick and not release? Has anyone had luck with this compressed air method? I'm wondering if I blast some contact cleaner in there if it might clean off dirt or corrosion on the flipper. Any suggestions or advice?

I think you have some dirt between the flipper and the board. I had the same problem with my Model F AT.
You need to open the metal back panel and clean the flippers and the board.

When you are blasting air into the barrels it may not be removing the offending material from the barrel. It may just be moving it out of the way temporarily and then it can drift back into the line of fire. So even if you put cleaner in there, the stuff will still slosh around inside, or move around etc.

You will need to take it apart again remove any debris, and reassemble it. After that check if each key works properly.

The compressed air has worked as a temporary solution.
The keyboard is now functioning perfectly.

The problem with compressed air is that the air blown out is very cold and this caused water condensation inside the board. Condensation, visible on the spring, must have seeped onto the capacitive board and caused it to malfunction until everything dried out. Once it was dry, everything worked perfectly.

In the coming days, I`ll begin taking these XT boards apart to repair the foam.
I`m planning to order 2mm neoprene foam (closed cell) this week.

Compressed "air" duster cans usually say to use short bursts to avoid condensation.

Yes, good point. I was overzealous with my use of the can