HQRP White Keyboard for Asus Eee PC 900 901 series Netbook / Subnotebook plus HQRP Mousepad

One comment

1. 

   S. Schwartz on November 5, 2009 at 11:40 pm

   If you are needing to replace a keyboard, the good news is that this product works.

   I had left my new eee PC 901 outside overnight in a light rain. I knew I was in trouble when I poured about 30cc’s of water out of the keyboard. I couldn’t tell my wife what a nincumpoop I’d been.

   So I took the eeePC inside and let it dry for a day, then turned it on and let it run. Amazingly it booted, but no response from the keyboard. After reading a few eee PC websites that said this keyboard couldn’t be found, I was amazed to find it on Amazon.

   At this point I found that there is a big difference between having a doctoral degree in electrical engineering and being a technician. The technician has the advantage. For one thing, I was unaware that the keyboard ribbon cable contacts are supposed to be covered with plastic. The plastic cover is punctured by metal barbs when the keyboard cable is snapped down in the eee PC. Luckily I did not try to remove the plastic coating. One thing I’ve learned is to make no equipment alterations until there’s no other option.

   I found a website[...] that explains how to remove the keyboard. There are no screws, but you must use the point of an Exacto blade to carefully push three springloaded snaps (over F1, F6 and Pause keys) towards the back of the eee PC (not downward as the website says). Nothing else is tiny enough, except maybe atoms.

   Be sure and unclamp the black bar that snaps down on the old keyboard cable. It should remove with zero effort.

   The new keyboard cable was about 1 mm too wide, so I had to trim excess plastic from the sides of the new keyboard ribbon cable using a sissors. Be careful. Then the ribbon cable slides easily into the motherboard and is clamped back down.

   Use the point of the Exacto blade to clamp the cable, nothing else is small enough to push it. I had to try this a few times until I got a good electrical connection. In fact, after snapping down the cable, I tugged gently to help make the connection. I then downloaded, keyboard test software [...] to test all the keys.

   Don’t re-snap the physical keyboard into the eee PC until you’re sure all the keys are working.

   I’ve skipped a step or two that are covered in the eeepcandme.com website I referenced. All this stuff is fragile and being 55, I had to wear reading glasses and use a magnifying lamp to see everything. It took an hour or two the replace the keyboard, but an experienced technician could do it in about 5 minutes because she or he wouldn’t have to learn everything from scratch.