How to fix your VAIO SZ spacebar !

Here you go, people... simple as can be !

Note that I am simply using a thin folded piece of yellow Post-It note, sticky on the spacebar side, non-sticky on the sensor side.

Enjoy !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8s0qTjNFKQ

 

Awsome! I'm probably going to do this tonight.

Thank you!

 

...and a savior was born! Thanks!

 

Just an update on this. I'm typing on the laptop now and where I usually hit on this spacebar, it works now!

Thank you again!

 

What did s/he add underneath the spacebar? Was it some chewing gum?

Honest, I don't know!

 

Glad I could help !

There's a cleaner way to do this mod, and I'm sure I'll do it later...

Using something other than Post-It for example And cut a little smaller. It doesn't have to be big...

For now, it works fine.

Just make sure when you put the spacebar back that you hear all the snaps when you press the spacebar back down on the hinges.

I'm sure ostack will come up with a super cool version of this

 

As I mentioned, it's simply a piece of a Post-It note, with a small part of the sticky side so it sticks to the spacebar, but not the sensor.

 

Could not tell, but was it one layer thickness of a post it or more?

 

I cut a strip about 3 cm long and folded it a few times...

I can't be sure... I guess it also depends upon how stiff you want the spacebar... but if its TOO thick, it will always press the spacebar... and that's bad

 

Any chance the space bar might break upon removal? Tis my only worry.

 

OK, here goes:

HOW TO REMOVE THE SZ SPACEBAR

1) Place your thumbnails under the bottom of the spacebar (the touchpad side)

2) Lift upwards slowly and carefully... as soon as you hear a series of SNAP sounds, stop

3) There is a metal bar under the spacebar. This attaches the spacebar to tiny metal hooks under the spacebar. CAREFULLY slide the metal bar towards the touchpad from under the hooks. If you pull up too fast, you might bend the metal.

TO REPLACE THE SPACEBAR

1) Flip out the metal bar on the spacebar, so it looks like this:
______________
|__| <<== this part attaches to the metal hooks

2) Line up bottom of the metal bar with the hooks and slide them in under the metal hooks from the touchpad

3) Lay the spacebar back down, then press it at the edges and at the center, to hear multiple SNAPPING sounds of the hinges connecting back to the spacebar.

Done !

Hope this helps !

 

Works very well for me but I had 3 go to have it perfect...

I encountered the following problems.
No more than 3 layers of paper, more and the key loose its tactile feedback.

make sure the paper is perfectly centered. at first it was no more than 1mm more on the left, and it didn't have an even response. Don't make the paper too wide either

When you pull the key, the white bits may come with it. remove them from the key and fix them on the keyboard first before you try reinserting the key.

this is awesome, just what i needed to have a perfect laptop.
JY

 

Thanks for your feedback, JY. (Merci, mec )

It really could be anything, not necessarily paper. I'm sure people will find something better in time.

It's just something I threw together at the office today at lunch.

 

Magical

Much thanks!

 

wow.. awesome

 

I'll do this tomorrow at the office. Post it notes galore!

 

is it just me or does anyone think sony should be doing this?

 

You've never met an engineer have you?

 

aww my new sz160 has this problem. I guess I need to try this trick

 

I agree with you.... I wrote that in my first post.

However, consider this:

No-one seems to complain as much when you have to install special drivers or install some special software to make a laptop work properly And laptops have lots of that sort of thing.

We're just "installing" a new piece of... "PostItWare"

 

I've forwarded the link to this thread to the Sony repair centre guy. When I got my SZ repaired and mentioned about the keyboard he told me had to replace some keyboard but that didn't fix it.

 

brilliant quote. and well put, your right on the software thing. i still dont know how to fix the other loose bits on my computer.

 

Way to go ikaris! Have some rep...

Javier

 

I finally got it to work the way I want it to after about 10 tries. I layered scotch tape about 5-8 times, cut it to a rectangular shape and applied it to the center of the spacebar. It still has the tactile click and works wherever you press on it.

I would recommend scotch tape for this. It sticks better but still comes off easily and you can layer it to your desired thickness. I also found that having the material a little longer worked best.

Thanks ikaris for being the guinea pig!

 

Well, after all the hype of this simple fix, I don't know if it will be worth going through all the trouble I was planning on

I may just try this first, and if it feels good, I'll call it fixed.

Thanks here too iky...

 

Yo, I modified my space bar. I used scotch tape like xprohx suggested for the extra stick. Everything works fine, except I still can't get the far left to space. I've decided I can live with this because I use my right thumb to space anyway. Any more tape and I"ll lose the tactile click. Maybe I didn't put it on long enough? who knows. Anyway, thanks guys!

 

Thanks for the rep, Jav... it's very much appreciated !

I'm glad everyone has had such great success with this !

Yeah mine is a bit of a hack job, I'll prolly do a better job of it later on. For now, it works fine.

 

Maybe someone can take a picture to show ideal length and position?

 

.

If you want to try it again, maybe add another layer or so. Mine was about 1/2" wide.

Too thick = lose the tactile feel
Too thin = still wont register an action when pressing on the left side of the space bar

My psp had this problem when playing street fighter alpha 3. It had trouble registering diagnols during quick gameplay. I layered some scotch tape to raise the buttons a little and it fixed this.

 

Great fix! This is why I frequent forums like this to find solutions for problems that the mfgs either ignor of take forever to fix. I only had one concern. There are other posts about the keyboard pressing against the screen. This fix does raise the space key slightly. I currently place a Klearscreen cloth over the keyboard when I close the lid. I followed the instructions, used a 3" by 3" postit, cut about 3 cm with the sticky part on top and folded. I tried the full 3" and it worked but I did notice that the space key was higher. So, I cut the next one down by 3/4 inch to 2.25". That made the space key almost at the same level as the other keys. Sorry for the mix of english and metric measurements.

 

why dont yall just use double sided tape and not take the backing off the other side???

I dont have that problem with me T350 =p

 

Not sure what you mean by "not take the backing off the other side?."

 

Sounds promising so far.

My machine was picked up this morning, so i'll have to wait a week or two before I can try it.

 

Should this be stickied... ? Mods ?

 

i did this mod and it works schweet....thanks..

 

Thanks, glad it helped !

 

Thanks a lot, it works great just with a some paper.

 

Great work Ikaris!!! 6 layers of transparent tape worked for me too. I adjusted slightly the metal hooks too. Now the spacebar feels much more firm ...

 

Glad to help !

 

I used a very low profile double stick tape......and swee!!!!!

 

Great show Ikaris! Will try this tonight. Well, maybe Sony should just redesign their spacebar button. Your show just proving that some big chunck of plastic missing there

 

Sweet, I have a great story too Ikaris! I used a 1.5mm 3M double sided tape. It seemed raised a bit but I've no problem pressing the spacebar anywhere. I might want to find thinner one. Thanks a bunch! That saves my energy to mock one of Sony tech support and time of course

My only advice is becareful upon removing the spacebar. There are 2 hinges holding it on both sides. Here is how I did mine:
1. positioned both thumb nails on both sides of the spacebar
2. Lift it up slowly and you'll hear clicking noise and stop at about 25-30 degrees. I recommend you to try to have a vision and see the hinges while lifting it up
3. Pull it in toward your direction. That way you wont break the plastic holding the hinges.
4. Place the double sided tape underneath the spacebar right above the sensor.
5. Put everything back in. Don't forget to slide the hinges back in before you press down hard the spacebar to lock it to secure position.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the comments, guys ! Glad it helped !

BTW, I posted a guide on how to remove the spacebar on page two...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1365820#post1365820

 

I fixed mine last night. Big thanks to the folks in this thread that created the wordaround solution

FYI - I called sony last week about my open ticket and they are totally clueless better yet, useless

 

Sorry Ikaris, i didn't see your direction You know usually guys do it himself first and read the manual when they are caught in trouble

Oh ya, just my thought. There are 3 clips to the spacebar: left, middle, and right. I did few trials and come to this conclusion:
1. The middle clip is not attached after installing the 3M double-sided tape. If you have this attached, you will have problem for the spacebar to function properly. I've read some op complaining that they can't have the space bar to work after doing this operation.
2. Only the left and right clips are lock/attach
3. Therefore, this looks like a design flaw. The middle clip should be shorter so that if you press on the sides, it touches the sensor.

Just becareful not to use thick double-sided tape since that might raise the spacebar too high and might touches your screen and eventually damage it when you close the screen or carry it around. Again that's just my thoughts. Hope that's useful.

 

Thanks for the fix suggestion. I finally worked up the nerve to remove the spacebar (I actually broke a similar vaio keyboard's shift key a few months ago, so I was worried).

I applied 5-6 layers of scotch tape that I cut at about 3/4 long ways so it would fit between the ridges at the center of the keyboard. Spacebar is now very responsive from end to end.

Some notes:
1) The spacebar is now a tiny bit higher than the other keys. I held the closed laptop up to a light and looked through it to see if it was touching the screen. Clearance looks ok, as long as you don't squeeze the laptop near the center.

2) As noted by another poster in this thread, the center clips for the spacebar are not connected after doing this. I'm not sure if that contributes to the more reliable feel, but I am slightly concerned about the extra repetative stress that will be borne by the side clips alone. They might break more quickly as a result of this modification.

Anyway, a working keyboard for half the time is better than a broken keyboard for all eternity . At least if the spacebar dies while under warranty, it's easy to remove evidence of this tampering.

 

I actually tried to chat with Sony support about this issue prior to finding this post. The solution I got from Sony was funny...the lady actually said sorry and disconnected me. I was in the middle of typing a question about the warranty too.

Attached is my worthless solution from Sony.

I did as this post instructed with 8 layers of scotch tape wherein I'm now a happy camper with my keyboard.

 

Not good from the Sony side.

 

Haha, that customer service bot performed exactly as it was programmed to!!!

Javier

 

another method I found since I didn't want my spacebar being raised so high was to bend it gently so that when you put it back in its slightly warped with the edges curved up a little from the middle. This fixed mine perfectly and its exactly level with the rest of the keys. You just have to be careful though as I did crack mine just a little and I imagine it could break quite easily.