Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

[Eagle2a]

I thought I'd ask the technical experts here for some advice on a keyboard problem with my old Toshiba Satellite 1735 laptop. The keyboard suddenly went beserk recently where pressing a key caused all sorts of fast random bizarre actions to occur on the system. Closer inspection showed that a *SMALL* amount of water had somehow dripped onto the left side of the keyboard. I removed the keyboard and thoroughly dried it out, and subsequently it worked normally with the exception of the "A" key, which did not work at all. I figured it just needed to dry some more, but repeated prolonged drying has not restored function of that key. I even pried the key off and manually tapped the printed circuit contact underneath the plastic film without any success. It's been several days now and I can't imagine there's any residual moisture left so there must be some kind of hardware circuit failure somewhere.

I've searched extensively on eBay and elsewhere for a replacement and found plenty for every model except mine. I did find several new OEM keyboards for the Satellite 1800 series, which looks IDENTICAL to the 1735 keyboard except that it's missing the center "joystick" button mouse cursor control which I never use, since I use an external mouse. My technical question is this - do you think I could use the Satellite 1800 keyboard as a replacement? The key issue is whether the keyboard ribbon cable is identical in size and electrical pin connections, since the mouse "joystick" button uses a separate thinner ribbon cable that goes to a separate connector. My gut feeling is it would, since I don't think Toshiba would completely retool such a basic connector for their next model but it would be nice to receive confirmation before I order it. I asked the vendor but they couldn't help me. Thanks for any information and advice!

[yyonline]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

http://www.impactcomputers.com/k000882020.html

Not the cheapest, but it's the only place I could find it. Impact has some lousy reviews out there, but I've ordered from them countless times with no problems.

From the photos of the 1700 series keyboard, the trackpoint uses a separate ribbon cable. If you used the 1800 keyboard, this second ribbon cable would not get hooked up. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that it would work fine, but there's always the possibility the bios could throw a mouse not detected error or something like that.

Edit: From a closer look at some more photos, the 1700 keyboard has 4 metal tabs at the bottom. The 1800 keyboard has 5 tabs, and in different positions. I do not think the keyboards are physically interchangeable.

[Eagle2a]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

Thanks yyonline! I somehow missed Impact during all of my searches but as you said, they're definitely not the cheapest. I don't think I'm willing to pay that high a price for the part but it was a great reference source.

Good catch. I missed the mounting tabs issue. I think I could still somehow make it work but it now looks like the main ribbon cable is *slightly* different too, with an additional pin (?) fused to the main section. I guess I'll have to think about my options now. The new OEM 1800 keyboard is under $15 shipped so it may still be worth the risk. Thanks again for the great info.

[Eagle2a]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

On a related note, is there any chance of repairing the keyboard? The entire unit looks like a single printed circuit board with mechanical actuator levers for the keys contacting PC switches underneath a plastic film. I'm still baffled how the extremely small amount of water caused this failure and why this key didn't dry out and recover like all the other keys.

[yyonline]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

Water trapped between those plastic layers can take weeks or even months to dry on its own as there is very little air to evaporate the water. It may not even be near the "problem" key due to the way the circuits on the keyboard are organized. If it was indeed water, it's probably salvageable. If it were soda, beer, anything else that might leave a residue, it will probably continue to cause issues even after drying.

[Wizard]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

Main particle that made printed traces conductive is usually silver, sometimes nickel. Water gets in and corrodes the pads that it does not conduct well. Gently spread the layers and rub gently with a eraser. Might work but this is major disassembly of the keyboard. Just get another.

Cheers, Wizard

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

If you contact Toshiba's parts dept., they'll e-mail you the exploded diagram and the parts list on request. For my A205 series, two different keyboards are listed as replacements, one by BTC. Toshiba tech support isn't nearly as good, and one time they asked me to send them a copy of the exploded diagram.

[Eagle2a]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

Thanks for all the feedback and sorry for the slow reply. I finally solved my keyboard problem recently by replacing it with one from a parts laptop I was able to procure. It's amazing how difficult it was to locate replacement keyboards for this particular model at a reasonable price. Further research showed that keyboards for the Satellite 1000/1100/1200/3000 models would also probably work (albeit without the mouse cursor pointer) as they appear to be a direct replacement, unlike the 1800 keyboard I initially inquired about. I no longer think that one would work. My original keyboard never did dry out and recover as I'd hoped, with the A key still not functioning whatsoever. I'll continue to let it dry out and maybe even try repairing it one day if it doesn't recover.

On a related topic, I came across some different language (e.g., Spanish) direct replacement keyboards during my searches which I considered getting, but I wasn't sure if and how they would function when installed in a US system. All of the alpha and numerical keys appear identical, but I'm puzzled how the special character keys would respond. I'm sure there are some system settings in Windows to adjust language compatibility but just wondering if anyone has any experience with this.

[Scenic]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

well.. the keyboard itself is the same for all languages.. just has different layout of symbols and whatever printed or etched onto the keycaps.

when i'm hunting for replacement keyboards for laptops, i specifically search for non-german layout ones, as they're usually cheaper and i can just put the keycaps of the old/dead keyboard on there..

edit: well.. provided i've got a dead or non-working original keyboard.. if not, i kinda have to look for a german one..obviously

[Eagle2a]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

Well, the Spanish keyboards that I was looking at had extra keys for their special characters and I was curious how they would respond. I realize the keyboard sends control codes that the keyboard controller and OS have to interpret in order to display the correct character but I don't have working experience with this topic. For example, I presume that if I switched my language to Spanish in Windows then everything would be fine with the Spanish keyboard, but I don't know what would happen if I retained the US English setting in Windows and used the Spanish keyboard with the extra special character keys.

[Scenic]

Re: Toshiba Satellite keyboards interchangeability?

hmm.. seems like the US enter key is kind of a "problem" here..
plus one relocated key next to the left shift key..

little comparison..

UK keyboard
http://www.gemwon.com/UploadFile/201...1230050544.jpg

Spanish/Latin keyboard
http://img.alibaba.com/wsphoto/v0/37...p-Keyboard.jpg

US keyboard
http://www.keystore.hk/UploadFile/Pi...2242943991.jpg