CF28 keyboard connector epic fail...now what?

So I got this nice new non-emissive black keyboard for the '28, and low and behold the failure-prone lower connector with the brown pivot was already on it's last legs. When I looked at it, it broke the rest of the way and that connector is now useless. On top of it, there was some kind of adhesive on both ribbon cables so part of the old keyboard's ribbon cable tore off and stayed inside the same broken connector.

Yes, I had an adult beverage and no, I wasn't too hammered to effect the keyboard swap. Someone had already busted things up prior to my arrival.

So now what? A new motherboard? I'm open to repairs/suggestions as this was a free toughbook that works fine otherwise, so I'm willing to spend some $$ on it's repair.

Where should I go now?

 

Geez, that sucks. Someone did come up with a fix for that. I'll have to rattle my brain and see if I can find the post.

 

Ten... Welcome to the forum... This is really the only "Achilles Heel" of working on the CF-28... The only thing that is realy breakable on an unbreakable laptop!

A picture would be great to show us what you mean. If someone glued the connector in there... Unless you have microsoldering experience and about a 20X lens... You'll need another motherboard.

If you can take the ribbon cable out and you insect the actual contacts on the connector and it's okay... Here's what you do... It sounds like you will need a new keyboard so you'll need one of those first...

If the brown lever can still snap into at least one side it can be reused. The lever forces teh ribbon cable up and into the contacts in the top part of the connector. If the brown lever is broken I have heard of people being able to use a toothpick to accomplish the same task. If it looks like the lever may not stay in place you can use a small piece of clear packing tape to tape over the connector and ribbon cable and then back down onto the motherboard to ensure the ribbon cable stays in the connector. You also make sure that the cable stays pressed up into the connector.

Please let us know what you find...

 

It came to me. Starboard is what was being used.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=241818&highlight=starboard


dBi, I have had some success with this. As TB said, it's not good enough to sell to an unsuspecting buyer. I take a piece of Starboard, a plastic sheet used by boatbuilders, and cut a small wedge out on the band saw. I then hand plane the wedge to be as close to the angle and thickness of the brown plastic piece as possible. Put the cable in place, slip the wedge UNDER the cable, and tape it down really well. I have had 100% success with this with a little fiddling around. If you can't get Starboard, any fairly hard, slightly bendy, but not too slippery plastic should work. Perhaps some block nylon from a hobby shop. I too have wondered why Panasonic, who make just about everything for the Toughbook in house, would put these piece of crap sockets in Toughbooks. Any newbies beware, when you hear that these sockets are FRAGILE we are not kidding. They also function in a non-intuitive fashion.

 

Well correct me if i'm wrong but this looks like it could be "another Teo toothpick repair"

And the real benefit here is that you can use the toothpick first to dig out the broken parts



Alex

 

It sounds like a great way to repair it... I don't why I missed that the first time.

 

Thanks for the insight. I've taken some photos and will edit this post a little later with a couple of them.

I do have the new non-backlit keyboard waiting. The rubber keyboard ribbon cable is the one that tore and left a chunk inside the connector, which I'm trying to fish out...so far with little success, because it has adhesive holding it inside the connector body. Both ribbon cables on the rubber keyboard I removed have this adhesive on them.

 

I could almost guess where you bought the laptop... I have seen a few "Custom Toughbooks" advertised on ebay where the people had no idea what they were doing. One guy even glued all his ribbon cables down. I know this as I saw his pictures of the stuff he was selling... But only AFTER I bought a motherboard from the guy... It had paint all over it, crushed parts, blown fuses... The guy obviously had no idea what he was doing but apparently got a few of his tips here as he uses the EM-408 GPS and saw my posting about hotgluing the leads down to the board to make sure the leads can't be pulled out. He also just advertised a "Custom CF-28" on ebay... Of course it didn't sell... Here's what it looked like... Notice the "Custom automotive paint that was professionally applied".... Looks like pink Krylon metal flake to me!

 

Ten96,
I stand by my fix, graciously quoted by stiffnecked, but please don't be like the jerk who sold you your CF-28 and sell one with a broken mobo on eBay. I think it was ohlip who came up with an even more elegant design to repair the problem. Rick, did you not get your free sample of starboard with your USB cards? I thought I sent everyone a piece.
CAP
EDIT: Jeeezus, Candy Apple Metalflake on a Toughbook?

 

As a matter of fact I did... It is down in my shop....

 

If you can find a connector of a similar design in a bit of junk (ie. same series but different no. of ways), see if you can extract and replace the locking bar intact.

If so, it could be worth buying a 'real' connector or three (digi-key or wherever; Murphy's law guarantees if you only get one it will break) and swapping the bar from that to your Toughbook.

For info, I find scrap CD-Rom drives are excellent sources of flex cables, connectors and miniature screws.. It's a good excuse to update to DVD Writers as well.

Robert.

 

Robert,
Unfortunately, its not the bar that breaks, its the little ears on the body of the connector that break off. When they're gone that little bar is not staying in place, even if you could get it in there. You have to break one to know just how bad it is to break one.
CAP

 

The ears are long gone. I will look into the fix(es) posted above and see what I can do. I am also in search of a known good 800 Mhz+ motherboard with intact keyboard connectors. I have the next couple days off, so I will be tackling this head-on. When I get the photos off the camera, I'll post a couple...you guys can laugh at how FUBAR'd this is.

Dogfish, don't worry about the mobo falling into yet another victim's hands. I'll be keeping it, and if I can't use it I will get rid of it via other more productive means on...likely involving lead and gun powder

 

Ok! here is my solution for the second time around cut a plastic(about an mm thickness) exactly that match to the keyboard connector. As shown on the skectch the folded area will be the one who will push it up the cable ribbon of the keyboard to the connector when you slide it in on place. Hope it help as it help on me long time ago.

ohlip

 

Teo,
I knew you would find this. I remembered your fix, "I think it was ohlip who came up with an even more elegant design to repair the problem." You are indeed the "modder of invention"
CAP

 

Thankfully I've only done this once, Who sold those "custom" toughbooks that were garbage?

 

There are quite a few of them out there.... Every now and then you hear the horror stories of someone that buys from them. I think these are the guys who read all out posts... But never ask questions.... You see where THAT gets you!

 

Thanks to a board member, I got a new mommy board with pristine keyboard connectors, so my 28 is back up and running.

 

I have the same problem, thanks for the tip.