Keyboard woes

[smmcafee@phy.mtu.edu (Sean M. McAfee)]

Subject: Keyboard woes

To make a long story short:

Back in 1991, my IIGS began to hang (or so I thought) at irregular intervals.
I took it to the lone Apple dealer here in the Kalamazoo, MI area, who charged
me $50 (minimum service charge, don't ya know) to tell me that there was a
glitch in the logic element, and that a new one would run around $300.  This
was far beyond my means at the time, so I reluctantly consigned my beloved
computer to mothballs.

There it stayed until last December, when I decided to make one more attempt
to fix it myself.  An examination of the motherboard didn't tell me anything,
so I tried opening up the keyboard.  The first thing I found was this HUGE
wad of hair in the area up by the reset button (how it got there, I have no
idea).  I removed it, put the keyboard back together, booted up, and voila!
it worked.  I was ecstatic, but before long the thing started to hang again.
Since the computer worked perfectly when it wasn't hanging, I began to have
my doubts that the problem was in the logic element.  Perhaps it was in the
keyboard instead.

Subsequent fiddling showed that the problem was actually that the keyboard
wasn't sending characters to the computer.  I almost exclusively use
programs for which the screen display is driven by the keyboard, so that
nothing happens when keyboard input is suspended; hence, the illusion of
"hanging".  I also discovered through my experimentings that when the
computer had one of its seizures, applying pressure to the connector at
the end of the cord between the keyboard and computer would fix the problem,
eventually.

Another problem that hadn't shown itself in 1991 reared its head around this
time.  Besides hanging, the keyboard would occasionally send a steady stream
of either "5"s or "A"s.  Fiddling with the connector solved this one too
(temporarily).

As the months went by, the keyboard connection grew rather delicate.
Continuous pressure began to be required to keep the keyboard operational;
I had to put a somewhat heavy object--usually a box of 3.5" disks--on the
connector to keep it working.  Also, I had to be careful not to jar the
connector, even lightly.

That was the way things stood last week, when the keyboard suffered its most
massive freeze yet.  Several minutes of working the keyboard connector had
no effect.  Exasperated, I finally grabbed the electrical solder I had bought
months before and opened the keyboard.  (Actually, I called that one Apple
dealer in the area first, but when they told me it would be about $25 to
resolder the connection, AND would take several days to boot, I decided to
try it myself.  I wasn't that eager to give them any more of my business,
anyway, after their earlier costly misdiagnosis.)  I'd read on this newsgroup
that my problem was common, and resoldering the circuit board near the
connector was all that needed to be done.  Well, I tried it, moving the
prongs to various positions, but to no effect.

I did find something else that worked, though.  Afraid that I had fried my
keyboard for good, I desperately tried plugging in the keyboard cable to
the connector on the *right* side of the keyboard.  I was quite surprised
to find that this configuration worked just fine; I've been using the Apple
this way since then.  Only problem is, of course, that I can't use the
keyboard and mouse simultaneously.  Experimenting with the Finder, I found
that I could plug the mouse directly into the back of the computer, and
move the arrow around like that (all the time I've had this computer, and
I never knew you could do that).  However, I have to keep swapping the
keyboard and mouse to use the Finder in any kind of effective way; big-time
pain in the ass.

So, I throw this question to the IIGS community:  Is there some trick to
resoldering the connection?  I'll be moving to Ann Arbor in the fall--
a larger town that will presumably have more than one Apple dealer to
chose from, one of whom will hopefully be willing to resolder my connection
for a reasonable cost and in a reasonable time (like, say, ten minutes).
But, all the same, I'd rather do it myself, if possible.  My biggest
concern is that all the wiggling I've been doing to the connector has
loosened it, possibly damaging it, and that *this* is why my resoldering
job failed.  Anyone out there have any experience that would indicate this
to be the case?  If so, how much would a new connector cost? Is it even
still available?

Much thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

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Sean McAfee                    |         "Name?"    "Shropshire Slasher."
smmcafee@phylab1.phy.mtu.edu   |   "Occupation?"    "Shropshire Slasher."