Prythee, yesterday I got a new laptop from a customer who didn't want to pay me, so he gave me a Dell Latitude CPi instead. The thing was made in 1999 and has a 366mhz PII CPU. Initially it seemed to be working fine, but when I booted it up today I was greeted with a hail of beeps and a non-responding keyboard. So, after some fiddling around I decided to check the data cable underneath the keyboard. However, in removing the keyboard (big thanks to Dell for releasing the Service Manual) the -> key came off! If if was a PC keyboard I'd gleefully chuck if on again, but this one looks like this: The picture is a bit unclear, but what it comes down to is that the key has a jack-like mechanism that consists of 4 tiny straps of plastic and some sort of hinge, like this: Side View Bottom View As you can see, the straps have tiny bars attached to them that go under the metal thingies here: Now I have no clue how to put it back on! The straps are as far apart as the metal things, so I cant slide it in in any way. Also, pressing it down makes me fear breaking the small plastic "bars" as shown in the bottom view. Anyone got any experience with these kind of keyboards? I'd hate to break the key, that would require me to order a new keyboard, probably in the United States or for horrible prices at Dell itself...[/img]
I had the same trouble the other week with one of ours. And you know what? LeGIt has got it right, make sure the X bits line up with the clips on the laptop side and press down carefully, it should bend into place. You can piss around with getting one clip in then trying to line up the other with only 1mm space to see it, but the above works fine... well did on mine anyway.
Like all the others... The old Sony VAIO PCG-FX family used the same method, if you're careful not to snap the little plastic springboard you'll be fine getting them back in. =) ~Krelian
hee hee, well thanks for your help, I got it in. I put in the two bottom thingies and then wiggled around until it snapped back on :smt023
