Swap Fn an Ctrl keys on Gateway P-7811 FX

I'm so pissed from gateway's keyboard!!! I hate what they did with the Ctrl and the Fn keys. Everything else about the laptop is great.... except there is no bluetooth ????????? ???? 21 century laptop with no bluetooth???? another gateway intrigue... but I managed to order internal OEM bluetooth from ebay for 23$ (good bargain I think).

Now go to the point. The keys...
This is not for everybody. You do it on your own risk!!!
First I searched for a software way to remap the two keys.... no success. there is no way on earth you can do that. there is simple proof of that and you can see it yourself once you open the keyboard. I mean open like this:



The tracks on the keyboard does not allow any mapping on the Fn key. not a software, not a firmware.. nothing. The only way to do that is to delete the "wires" and write new ones. For that matter, I've got a conductive pen who writes tracks on circuits. It is called Circuit Writer.
Here is how the keyboard looked before I started:



The keyboard has three nylon layers the top and the bottom layers have the painted tracks who are my target. the middle layer is just a separator and isolates the conductive tracks from the top and the bottom. here how it looks after the surgery:





Notice that on some places the tracks cross. I put clear scotch tape between the original track and my "artistic" painting. Do not put more than one layer scotch and avoid more than one crossing on a place, otherwise the keys may pop up or press abnormal because of the greater thickness. write the tracks on scratch paper and find the best paths before you start. Notice also that you need to cut the old traces. it is good to have an Ohm meter with beeper to measure the resistance of your new "painting" here is what I used:



Here is the final result:



If somebody finds this article interesting I may give further explanations and answer to questions.

DON'T GET USED TO THE PROPRIETARY! AVOID IT OR CHANGE IT!

 

awesome fix! i wonder if this works with samsung laptops!

 

Very impressive!

 

Genius. Brilliant. And I don't use those words often. +rep

 

If you could perfect this, I would be more than willing to send you a keyboard to mod for me.

I would also like the FN key near the arrow keys to be disabled .

 

he did perfect it..he just modded it. ;P Looks fairly straight forward. The keyboard is easy to remove, so with the pen you should be able to handle it no problems.

 

Well done.

 

wow good job and thanks for the write up

 

Amazing work there. Detailed explanation and pictures too.

 

If i still had my 7811, i'd totally freaking do this.

amazing work!

 

that is some awesome work you did there, i am already very used to the placement of the Ctrl key but i wouldnt mind having this done...to bad i cant bring my self to do it ^^ (lack of know-how) =P

 

Me neither. That's what makes this so great. It's an engineer's way of doing things: "What, this thing doesn't work properly – go get me some gaffer tape and WD40 and I'll make this work. Oh, I need to chop something off too, so bring a hammer". I like that – it truly impresses me

 

Friggin sweet.

I don't think i'm brave enough to do it myself, but who knows... great, definitive tutorial too btw. = )

 

awesome
this was really annoying me

 

Very, nice....... Now just go get a few spare ones and then sell them with a core cost............

 

Awesome job. I have a circuit writer around here somewhere (from an old NV 7900GT volt mod), and I think I'll give this a shot as well.

 

I used a program to reprogram the keys.

 

you cannot program the fn key

 

You are right. Sorry for jumping the gun. I thought I can do it to my P-7811 FX as I did it on my Asus EeePC.