Just looked into it a bit and although the part is pretty cheap it’s a bit of a tricky repair. If you had 50 dollars lying around and wanted something better than an external keyboard you could just do the whole top case (part that all the internals go into which contains the keyboard and trackpad). Still requires taking apart the computer completely, but if you (or a friend) are feeling adventurous it’s not a bad route.
Quick question: how do I figure out if the malfunction is really caused by the physical keyboard and not some soft/hardware issue that has nothing to do with the keys themselves?
Unless there’s liquid damage and it’s certain rows of keys not working at all it’s unlikely that you’d have that sort of partial failure of your keyboard. Even in that case it’s still usually the keyboard. If certain keys only work with excess pressure that’s pretty much 100% a hardware failure of the keyboard itself.
Just looked into it a bit and although the part is pretty cheap it’s a bit of a tricky repair. If you had 50 dollars lying around and wanted something better than an external keyboard you could just do the whole top case (part that all the internals go into which contains the keyboard and trackpad). Still requires taking apart the computer completely, but if you (or a friend) are feeling adventurous it’s not a bad route.
Can you send me a link to what I would need to buy? Maybe I’ll find someone in a repair cafe who is willing to do that. Thanks!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/163904761816. They also have it on Amazon and probably a few other sites.
Quick question: how do I figure out if the malfunction is really caused by the physical keyboard and not some soft/hardware issue that has nothing to do with the keys themselves?
Unless there’s liquid damage and it’s certain rows of keys not working at all it’s unlikely that you’d have that sort of partial failure of your keyboard. Even in that case it’s still usually the keyboard. If certain keys only work with excess pressure that’s pretty much 100% a hardware failure of the keyboard itself.
Thanks!