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    Anyone ever tried replacing soldered-on mouse button switch?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by HPpavilion, Dec 12, 2008.

  1. HPpavilion

    HPpavilion Notebook Consultant

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    My HP laptop has the mouse buttons soldered onto the main board and the left button is starting to fail. It chatters and causes inadvertent double clicks.

    No way I'm replacing the motherboard. If I can't fix it, I'm just going to get a new laptop, however I want to at least explore the option of trying to fix it.

    Anyone ever tried replacing soldered on mouse buttons? How did it turn out?
     
    HPpavilion, Dec 12, 2008
    #1
  2. Big Mike

    Big Mike Notebook Deity

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    What model do you have? I have never seen a single HP laptop that didn't have a seperate board for the mouse/touchpad assembly?
     
    Big Mike, Dec 12, 2008
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  3. Tippey764

    Tippey764 Notebook Deity

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    I know for a fact the Dv1000 has solderd on buttons
     
    Tippey764, Dec 12, 2008
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  4. miro_gt

    miro_gt Notebook Deity

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    I have done it before, on an external mouse though .. took the middle one out and put it as left :D

    worked great for quite some time after that
     
    miro_gt, Dec 12, 2008
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  5. HPpavilion

    HPpavilion Notebook Consultant

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    ZE2000 Pavilion. The Synaptics touchpad board is on a separate board, integrated permanently into the top half of chassis. The buttons' electrical switches are on the main board and plastic button keys permanently integrated into top chassis.
     
    HPpavilion, Dec 17, 2008
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  6. Big Mike

    Big Mike Notebook Deity

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    Big Mike, Dec 17, 2008
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  7. HPpavilion

    HPpavilion Notebook Consultant

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    But that wouldn't address the issue, because that's the touchpad + button actuators(like the plastic pieces on VCR front panel). The actual electrical switch is soldered on motherboard.
     
    HPpavilion, Dec 18, 2008
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  8. Tippey764

    Tippey764 Notebook Deity

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    the Ze2000 uses the same motherboard as the dv1000. I have a few dv1000 boards lying around i will take a picture and post it later.
     
    Tippey764, Dec 18, 2008
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  9. daniel_leavitt2000

    daniel_leavitt2000 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Can we get a pic of the button in question? If it is a dome shaped switch, I would say there are two possible issues:

    1. There is dust in between the button cap and the metal contact on the PC board.

    2. The metal contact on the PC board has worn through.

    The first one is repairable if you are very good with a soldering iron.

    Fixing number 2 would require more drastic measures like installing a new button/PC board part over the old one and trimming the actuator lenth to match the new button height.
     
    daniel_leavitt2000, Dec 18, 2008
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  10. HPpavilion

    HPpavilion Notebook Consultant

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    Update: Problem got worse and worse. It required more and more force to get the button to work, and it contact would bounce through the stroke causing it to "double click".

    I have to say the problem is definitely the design in specifying a switch of inadequate durability and installation in such a way that it can not be easily repaired.

    You use the left button to do just about ANYTHING, and if anything, it should be the most durable component of all.

    On the board, there are three buttons. One is not actuated by anything accessible to the user, but it's there, so I decided to use that as a donor part.

    Getting the switch off the board is fairly difficult.

    The
    [​IMG]

    SW6 is the left click button. SW3 is there for a reason unknown to me, so I took that and put it in place of SW6. Everything is fixed now. Next time it happens, there is no donor switch, so next time, I would seriously have to get a new laptop.

    The old switch was verified defective with an instrument. It did indeed bounce and didn't turn on/off smoothly
     
    HPpavilion, May 20, 2009
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  11. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    Glad to hear you fixed everything.
    You may want to search Mouser Electronics or Digikey for switches. They have them in stock, and they are quite cheap. Just finding a matching one is the hard part

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, May 20, 2009
    #11