How can I replace the keyboard of my Vaio Z11?

Hi everyone,

My Vaio Z11 laptop came with a German keyboard layout (QWERTZ), as I purchased it from Austria. I'm using English as the input language and I sometimes have trouble remembering where some punctuation marks are.

Can I replace the keyboard? If yes, how doable is that by me? If so, how? Where can I buy the replacement English Q keyboard? (Actually, where can I find spare parts for Vaio Z series?)

 

Keyboard replacement alone is easy - however, it is not just that that you have to do...

You will need to "transplant" the fingerprint reader, control PCB and trackpad - because they do not come with the new keyboard - this can be just a bit messy, but it is doable providing that you remember what goes where when disassembling the old keyboard.

Procedure is the following:

1. Remove the screws from the bottom of the Z

2. Gently pull the keyboard upwards from the top side only (near LCD), so it makes an angle of ~45 degrees with the Z

3. Gently unplug the keyboard cable from the motherboard by applying slight pressure from the right side of the connector (not from top/bottom!)

4. Disassemble old keyboard's trackpad and fingerprint module

5. Assemble those parts on the new keyboard

6. Attach the new keyboard to the motherboard

7. Close, return and tighten the screws...

Things to be careful with:

- Keyboard cable: be very careful with disconnection and handling, it can dislocate easily - if you dislocate it make sure you re-connect it firmly. Connector on the keybard has a lock mechanism which is unlocked with applying gentle force and pulling it upwards with your fingernail

- Small components - make sure you remember the order when you disassemble the old keyboard


That should be it.

 

Thank you very much psyq.. That helped a lot..
And where can I buy the keyboard?

 

As someone who just had to replace the optical drive in his brand new Z11, I can tell you that this newest iteration of the Z is MUCH easier to service. The insides come apart in 2 clean halves:

1. Top Half = the Keyboard on the pressed aluminum solid sheet
2. Bottom Half = Everything else (circutry, drives, memory, etc).

As long as the key punch outs are the same size and location, it should be an easy thing to replace the keyboard.

 

There are a lot of screws on the bottom. Must I remove every screw?

 

Youtube is your friend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXvi0V43Rlo

 

Thanks! It looks like that I must remove all of the screw in order to install my new Crucial C300 SSD.

 

thoughts on installing the new Z kb with a backlight on the old Z?

 

Try any authorized Sony service center - but here in Germany they decided to stop selling parts directly to consumers (orders from Sony ). In the U.S. you can buy parts directly from Sony.

I also have a German QWERTZ keyboard and this is also foreign to me, but I got used to it (although I always override it with QWERTY order, I just can't use QWERTZ layout)

@brody_ - unfortunately this won't work, the connectors and layout of components is completely different.

 

No you don't. For example you have 3 small screws under the battery you don't need to remove (only 2 bigger screws close to the main part of the chassy need to be removed). If you remove them plastic defuse cover for indication lights may fall off.

 

Print out a pic, place the screws where they came from.



DO NOT remove the three smaller screws running across the battery bay. You just need to remove the two closest to the main chassis.

 

I've been living with my PC cheek by jowl, since I literally can't remember how old I was. So I don't feel the urge to look at the keyboard while typing. However, I don't type most punctuation marks by intuition. I sometimes have to give it a few tries before finding the correct symbol on the English-Q layout. And that disturbs me from time to time. I don't want keys that don't belong to their meanings anymore.

I might order it from Sony.Com directly, then. I'll look into that.

 

Hi to everyone, I'm new in this forum!

I have nearly the same problem... I want to buy the new Vaio Z11, but i need it with a swiss keyboard (it's quite diffrent from the german one) and
i want the premium carbon finish. But the problem is that in Luxembourg where I live, or in Switzerland there's only the black finish available with the swiss keyboard. I contacted sonystyle.de but they can't configure it with another keyboard apart from the german one.

So my question is do you thing it is possible to change the keyboard by a sony service? Or does anyone have a better idea?

(PS: I don't think i could change the keyboard by myself.. Even if I could, I don't know from where i could get a swiss Vaio Z11 keyboard...)