It’s bound to happen, eventually- keyboards are like anything else, and subject to the same wear and tear as any piece of hardware. If you use one enough, eventually, you’re going to have to do a bit of repair work. After all, cleaning your keyboard doesn’t really help when half the keys are missing, does it?
Truth be told, it’s not actually terribly difficult to replace the keys on a PC or laptop – the trick is in finding them. Anyway, if you’ve got some missing keys, there are a few options
Option 1: Contact the Manufacturer: Ideally, you don’t want to do this. The majority of laptop and keyboard manufacturers don’t really do the whole “individual key replacement” thing. Chances are good that if you call in to them and report you’re missing a few keys, they won’t just sell them to you – they’ll demand that you send your malfunctioning hardware in, for them to do the repairs themselves (at a premium, of course). While I’m certain there are a few manufacturers who might prove more helpful, but…don’t get your hopes up.
Option 2: Swap Them Out: You don’t necessarily have to swap all your keys out – you can really just replace each individually malfunctioning cap. Of course, if the replacement keys you find are of a different make than the one’s you’ve already got, your keyboard’s going to look like garbage. As such, the solution is to replace them altogether. Purchase some replacement keys from Amazon, or a similar website. Get a sharp, flat object such as a knife, and slowly/gently work each key off the board. Pop the replacement keys back in, and you’re done!
Option 3: Find Replacements: This one will be tricky. You’re going to have to do a bit of searching online, to see if anyone has replacement keys for your specific make and model. Laptopkey.com might be useful, to that end. Order them up, and pop them back in.
Image Credits: [Inside My Laptop]
The PCMech.com weekly newsletter has been running strong for over 8 years. Sign up to get tech news, updates and exclusive content - right in your inbox. Also get (several) free gifts.
