deskthority

Hi,

I'm pretty new to the world of mechanical keyboards. I have a Razer BlackWidow gaming keyboards with a non-functional 'F' key switch. The keyboard uses Cherry MX Blues. I bought it used, and (unfortunately) only tested a random selection of keys. I ran PassMark KeyboardTest, and confirmed that it shows no signal coming from the F key switch. I've also tried various combinations of actuating the key switch, with the cap off, while holding the keyboard upside down, and knocking on the back of the keyboard.

Upon closer inspection, it seems that there's a pretty obvious difference between this switch and the others on the board - there's much less of an audible click, and the tactile feel is "wrong", it feels less crisp and precise.

Does anyone happen to be familiar with this keyboard? From what I can tell, it's a plate-mounted board, with the plate fastened to the PCB by a number of solder tabs. Am I correct in my understanding that to replace the key switch for, say, the F key, I'd need to desolder somewhere from a bunch of the keys (working from the outside in) to all of the keys, replace the switch in question, and then re-solder everything? Does anyone happen to have other suggestions for this problem? If not, any idea on whether a 20-30W soldering iron would damage the PCB?

Thanks for any tips/advice,
Jason

You should only need to desolder the defective switch and simply replace it. Probably something wrong with the contact leaf inside, or some debris got in. I use a 65w iron for my keyboard work, so should be no problem.

Thanks! I'm having a go at it now, but I don't have a desoldering iron, just braid. Also, it seems (I guess I won't know until I get all the solder extracted) like the keys are clipped into the plate somehow, not just held in by the solder...

Thanks again, lysol. It was a bit of an ordeal given my poor tools, but a ribbon of desoldering braid and a new 40W soldering iron later, I managed to swap out the key and have it working again. The pcb holes were large enough that I couldn't really get out all of the solder (maybe I'd have had better luck with a desoldering bulb or a nice vacuum setup, but I don't have either). After getting as much solder up with the braid as I could (about to surface level of the board), I resorted to sliding a 90-degree bent pick under the switch, and alternately heating each of the pins and prying to pull the switch up out of the board. After a few iterations, this did the trick and I got the switch out.

I actually have two of these keyboards; one with a bad USB cable (chewed through by a dog) and one of the backlit Ultimate version that I got off craigslist. This replacement was on the Ultimate. The other problem I ran into was that, during my overzealous use of my soldering iron to try and get the LED out, I actually burnt the solder pads off the back of the board. I also did this with one of the switches I took off the "donor" board. So... advice to anyone else who does this: 1) get the best desoldering setup you can - even one of the manual vacuum units ($20 or so at electronics stores) would probably do a LOT better than my method here, and 2) be very careful of heating, bending, or torquing the solder pads on the board...

The goal is to get in and out quick - get the heat into the joint, get the solder melted, get the solder out, get the heat off. If you didn't get all the solder out, still get the heat off, let it cool a second or two, then try again.

I usually prefer a couple passes of vacuum, then a quick application of braid.