Solved! Keyboard Failure on MB reinstall

tduanebarr

Honorable
Feb 27, 2012
2
0
10,510
Hello all,

I have an asus zenbook ux305CA. The motherboard on the machine failed about 2 years into ownership. The symptoms of the failure were fail to attempt to post and failure of any of the LED lights on the external machine to light up when connected to power. It seemed to fail randomly one day, though I did spill a very small amount of water on the keyboard prior to it failing.

I replaced the MB with a replacement from EBAY. However, the replacement board had two missing flaps on ribbon connects. The two connector for the keyboard and mouse. So, I tried my best to transfer the flaps for the ribbon cables over to the new board but broke off the hinges on both of them due to their fragile nature and my lack of knowing how to remove them from the ribbon cable connection on my old board. I stuck the ribbon cables into the connectors and the flaps over them the best I could.

The laptop power button (to my disliking) is a part of the main keyboard on this model and not a separate button.

The laptop booted on it's own after I first plugged it in, and the trackpad worked, but I could not type at all to log into windows. I shut down the machine and opened it back up trying to rig a fix for the connection for the keyboard. I tried to some silicon putty to lodge between the case and the connection which seemed like it should put a good amount of pressure on the cable to hold it in place, but no joy.

Looking closely at the connection, it seems like it is fairly solid in spite of the flap being broken. I tried to think of another way to rig something in there but haven't though of much that could work.

I'm wondering if somehow the laptop's keyboard has also failed or if it is just the connection. Now, of course the laptop won't power on since the power button is on the non-functioning keyboard. I think I could get it to boot again by resetting the cmos and using an external keyboard, but I use this laptop to go to work and that is not a practical solution.

Does anyone know if there is a way to test if the keyboard is bad other than trying to order a new one? I guess I could try to get my money back from the ebay seller since they sent me a faulty MB, but they did sell it for only $70 and it's usually around $200, so I would still have to cough up some cash to find a better board.

Here is a link showing a teardown of the laptop and here are some close up pictures of the suspected bad connection: http://www.myfixguide.com/manual/asus-zenbook-ux305fa-disassembly/

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Any help or ideas appreciate.

Thank you.
 
Solution
You could try some electrical tape folded over so that it isn't sticking to the ribbon. just stick it down at the ends so that it is holding the ribbon down. Also, you might want to make sure the electrical tape can handle laptop temps.

I would also try to get your money back from the seller for the faulty board. Some of those ribbon clamps actually can't be replaced without removing the whole connector.

shmoochie

Prominent
May 10, 2018
157
0
410
You could try some electrical tape folded over so that it isn't sticking to the ribbon. just stick it down at the ends so that it is holding the ribbon down. Also, you might want to make sure the electrical tape can handle laptop temps.

I would also try to get your money back from the seller for the faulty board. Some of those ribbon clamps actually can't be replaced without removing the whole connector.
 
Solution

tduanebarr

Honorable
Feb 27, 2012
2
0
10,510


I was able to slide a thin and narrow piece of plastic into the connector which is actually called a zero insertion force connector. This plastic pushed down on the ribbon cable to make contact with the connector on the MB. This actually worked.
You can see the full write up of the repair here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/498250/Keboard+failure+on+MB+reinstall+Asus+zenbook