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Silicone spray for keyboard contacts????

Silicone is an insulator and is migratory in nature. By that I mean that you may intend to spray it as a lubricant on moving mechanical parts but it will soon migrate to electrical contacts in close proximity (eg. relays). Silicon grease was banned for use anywhere around relay or other mechanical contacts in telephone exchanges back in the 70's because it started causing havoc with open circuit or intermittent contacts on relays.

Nope. On IBM keyboard keys there is a plastic pin which is inserted into a plastic sleeve with a spring in the center. This is the part that I lube. The keyboard contacts are two sheets of plastic laminated together.

Unfortunately, it's not so easy. IME, there's no way to disable the integral keyboard in software. It must be physically disconnected. I had a Toshiba Tecra 8000 which had a shorted Tab key. Holding down that key on boot forces the machine into a diagnostic mode.

The only way to use the external keyboard was to disco' the internal one.

I picked up a good keyboard on eBay for $10. It was trivial to replace. One small piece of plastic is pried off top, pull out the board, disco' the ribbon, replace...

Might work...didn't on mine. I temporarily slid a piece of card stock between the membranes, which disable the Tab key. The machine booted normally, but soon exhibited other keyboard issues. My daughter must have spilled something on it....

jak

on

into a

lube.

Right, you are talking about a membrane keyboard and the silicone spray is simply for lubrication of the plunger. That's fine, and since the possibility of the silicone migrating between the two mylar sheets is extremely remote (impossible) then there will be no problem at the membrane contacts.

Different thing though if they were mechanical switch contacts and the silicone could get to them.

Buy a junk laptop on ebay. One with a broken display should be cheap.