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IBM model m2 repair

PostPosted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:51 pm
by LilJoe
So I brought a model m2 keyboard off trade me, after reading up on them I found that their capacitors were prone to failure so I didn't expect much. Sure enough when it arrived I plugged it in and it had the classic illuminated Caps and Scroll lock, however none of the keys worked. I found two great guides: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=5065.0 and http://www.instructables.com/id/Clean-your-vintage-IBM-M2-clicky-keyboard with the combination of the two I had a disassembled keyboard and two replacement caps (one pulled from an old circuit board and one from Jay Car) I clean the exterior and soldered in the new capacitors, after reassembling I was shocked that only 70% of the keys worked, I packed it up and left it for another day. That day finally came after about two months of procrastination, I disassembled (again), cleaned the membrane and very carefully reassembled, believe it or not that did the trick, I now had a working keyboard with the following exceptions: The / and * keys on the numpad got stuck really easily, the up arrow key didn't click and I had to push hard to make it detect a keystroke and the left control key always stayed down (I didn't notice until I pushed W). I pulled it out the next day and used the following guide to remove and reseat the buckling springs http://imgur.com/a/6bnzW it fixed all the remaining problems except the control key, after several attempts at it I just removed the spring and replaced the key cap, problem solved (for now). And now I have a clean 99% working IBM model m2 keyboard, I might and some photos at some time.

Joe

Re: IBM model m2 repair

PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:46 am
by tezza
Interesting. I didn't realise those keyboards were prone to those kind of failures.