Does anyone know of a keyboard where I DON'T HAVE to beat the fucking shit out of the shift keys to get them to ACTUALLY work?

[FunkyMonkee]

So far, the only ones I've found where I DON'T have to do that are on my laptops!

Updates

1 y

Computer keyboards.

[sage2021]

Wow FM, I would get in touch with someone in a band that has a great keyboard and ask them. They would probably know best.
You can contact just about anyone on the internet. Do you know of any famous keyboard players you could contact?
That's the way I would go!

[FunkyMonkee]

Computer keyboard. All of my synths work just fine. They also don't have shift keys.

[nolabels]

My laptops tend to warp because they're so f'ing thin these days.

Couple that with batteries that swell and further distort the keyboard, and I have to beat the crap out of many different keys to get them to register properly.

It pisses me right the F off.

I feel your pain, Funk.

[FunkyMonkee]

Mine are 10 to 15 years old.
Can't you just get an external keyboard and plug it into the puter?

[nolabels]

Possibly, I guess, but it's not worth it to me because the rest of the computer is pretty much crap by then anyway.

[FunkyMonkee]

I have computers that are nearly 40 years old and they still work.

[nolabels]

Cool.

I've had numerous older tower units with Windows 95, ME, and XP that still worked fairly well when I eventually chucked them in favor of laptops, with my finding that I liked having the screen in my lap, rather being limited to having a monitor placed on a desk, far from my preferred relaxing position in my reclining chair.
The discontinued support by Microsoft of those older operating systems were my main reasons for finally chucking them.
If I were to use them strictly offline, I may have kept them, but most of my computer use is online.
I no longer trusted their security from malware, so I chucked them.

If it were possible to have a lap-style screen/keyboard only combo unit that was blue toothed to a tower that contains large HDDs and greater processing power, that'd be my choice.
I don't know that anything like that is available to buy.

Laptops with their garbage batteries and lousy construction seem to me to get crappier every year.

I've taken quite a few free-standing keyboards as well as laptop keyboards apart and cleaned them in order to get "dead" keys to once again operate.
It's kind of a pain to do, but it is possible.

That technique doesn't work very well on laptop keyboards that have been warped by swollen batteries, or simply from the laptop's flimsy construction, though.

Good luck to you with your keyboard troubles, Funk.

[FunkyMonkee]

I've been VERY tempted to clean this fucker out and see if that makes a difference. I'm sure there's videos that show you how.

[nolabels]

It's not technically difficult to do, just a bit tedious.

[FunkyMonkee]

I guess all the keys have to come off.

[nolabels]

@FunkyMonkee
They usually, but not always, need to be taken completely apart.
That's the tedious part.

I've never looked to see if there were videos for doing keyboard cleaning, I've just opened them and gone for it.

That being said, my entire career was as a technician repairing all kinds of electro-mechanical and electronic equipment, so I have a feel for doing that kind of work.

It's still not very hard to do, though.

Take a picture of the top of the keyboard before you begin to make sure that you get the keys back in their proper places.

If it's a typical stand-alone keyboard, there will be about a dozen or so screws in the back.
Take them out and carefully separate the top from the bottom, being careful of any wiring or ribbon cables.
Take a close look at the contact points for your dead or funky acting keys to see if they look any worse than the other key contacts.
If those need special attention from your visual inspection, give them a little extra cleaning than the other keys.

I usually wipe all the contact points with rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball, taking care to not leave any cotton fibers behind on the components.
Sometimes I'll use a pencil eraser on points that don't come clean with the alcohol.
Water will sometimes condense on parts if you use an overload of alcohol, due to it evaporating and cooling the components, so another wipe-down with a dry, lint-free cloth might be in order before reassembly.

Clean any other areas that obviously need it.
If the keys themselves don't have a bunch of crud where they protrude through the front casing, you might be able to avoid dumping out the key heads.
If they do look pretty cruddy, dump them, clean everything, then have fun putting them back in properly.

There can be problems other than just needing cleaning, but I've a lot of luck just doing a good internal cleaning of keyboards.

Good luck, man.

You can DO it!

[FunkyMonkee]

Thanks! I'm sure I can it's just, will I eventually get the gumption to actually do it?
I shouldn't need a picture, I have another similar keyboard in the next room.
You can probably be making money making YT videos about how to fix this, that & the other thing.

[LiamJHayden]

I usually just go on Amazon. I get decent ones, multicolor backlit, for like $20 with the matching mouse. These are wired. Wireless are like $5 more. The one I am using right now is about four years old and still works fine. The specific brand is Rii

[NathanDavis]

you can clean up the keyboard... that is one option

but there's also dozens of other keyboards that are like that, they will be more expensive though

or just, get a new one

[exitseven]

I wear out the space bar. I never have that problem a d I just use the cheapie keyboard that Dell gives you.

[FunkyMonkee]

That's what I've got. It used to work fine but, within the past year or two, certain letters either don't type or always double and shift keys are MAJOR pain in the ass!! Especially thje left one!

[exitseven]

just get another cheapie keyboard. You can but a fancy one from Logitech but you will have the same results.

[Fireguy17]

I have had a wireless Logitech for a long time 8ish years or longer, works just fine.

[Jackjjackson]

A new one from a store or online

[Dongie]

Yamaha

[RedInnocent69]

😂😂😂