Reinstalling a key - Acer One Netbook Model 255E

Acer One Netbook Model 255E- Reinstalling a Key

I am posting this long procedure because the key installation video at http://www.laptopkeys.com clearly was not applicable to my keyboard. In their video the two small thin sheet metal pieces (see below) are not attached to the keys. With my keys they are attached to the key.

I was using my netbook while lying on my bed, netbook propped on my chest, screen opened wide and the keyboard almost vertical. I dropped a book, it hit the E key and knocked it off. I used Google and found a complete replacement keyboard for about $30 but didn't order it at the time. I would either use the netbook without the key in place or when at a table balance the key over its key space and type that way. One day, while typing normally with the key balanced over its key space, the key snapped in place. But, alas, not permanently. A few days later it fell off again.

Looking at the black key upside down it seemed just one piece of black plastic. But one time while holding it right-side up two thin black metal pieces were suddenly apparent. Before with the key upside down the black metal pieces so perfectly matched the color and texture of the black plastic that they were essentially “invisible”. But when holding the key right side up it could be seen that the two metal pieces would hang down forming an X (rather like the legs of a folding lawn chair with a canvas seat and back) . One piece was pivoted from the lower edge of the key, the other from the upper edge of the key. Both pieces were shaped like a squared off letter C and pivoted from the key at the open ends of the C.

Looking at the key space in the keyboard the was a bright tin-plated piece of metal surrounding the round elastic key switch button in the center. The lower (nearer to me) end of that piece was bent into a hook. If you hold your hand before you, palm up, and curl you fingers toward you that was the shape of that hook. At the upper end (away from me) of that piece there were two small tabs, left and right, bent up 90 degrees from the plane of the keyboard. Each tab had a small hole that serves as a pivot for the metal piece that is pivoted from the lower edge of the key.

Looking back at the bottom of the key I now saw that the piece pivoting from the lower edge of the key had two small protruding “pins” sticking out to the left and right that would engage in the two pivot holes described in the above paragraph when the key is installed. The other metal piece, the one pivoted from the upper edge of the key, would hook under the hook described above.

To reinstall a key hold it with a pair of tweezers at the upper edge with its upper edge higher than the lower edge. Hook the C hanging from the upper edge under hook described above then carefully lower the key in place and remove the tweezers. Gently press down on the key and it will snap in place.

Either the thin metal piece with the pins bows to let the pins engage the pivot holes or the two tabs bend outward to let that happen. Maybe both things occur simultaneously. In any case it does happen.

The key that surprisingly snapped in place didn't stay there because the two tabs with the pivot holes had been bent outward (away from each other). Ordinary needle nose pliers couldn't bend the tabs back their vertical position. I had to use a fine pair of watchmakers or jewelers pliers to bend them back to vertical.

I took me several days to work this all out. My hope is that this message speeds the process for you.