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Celeron

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2004
705
9
I have a fairly simple problem here. My 3 months old, rev. B 12'' Powerbook has a squeeky space bar. Everytime I push it down I get an annoying little squeek. How can I fix this? How do the keys pop off? I assume I could pop off the space bar and put a little 3-in-1 oil in there to keep everything running smoothly.

Just a note, I haven't spilled anything in my PB and this has occured from normal everyday use.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
 

mikeyfern

macrumors member
Mar 3, 2004
45
0
Don't use 3-in-1, it will gum everything up. I would pop it off and clean it with a Q-tip with a smidge of rubbing alcohol. Even that makes me nervous when dealing with a powerbook.

Is there an apple store near you? Or any PC repair place could probably give you advice. keyboards should be the same for PC laptops too.
 

G5orbust

macrumors 65816
Jun 14, 2002
1,309
0
WD40 might be a bit too strong. Try the cleaning thing, but I have a feeling it may be an internal problem (each key has a little register thing that registers the keystroke). That register button may be contacting something and scratching it. If cleaning doesnt work, call up Apple (if you still can for free) and see what they say.
 

stevehaslip

macrumors 6502a
Apr 30, 2004
657
0
The Ocean Floor
how do you pop off a powerbook key? i want to take of the spacebar and re-seat it, it sticks up just a fraction on the left side. I've left it alone until now because i didnt want to break it off and render it unsuable. any help would be great.
 

Celeron

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2004
705
9
mikeyfern said:
Don't use 3-in-1, it will gum everything up. I would pop it off and clean it with a Q-tip with a smidge of rubbing alcohol. Even that makes me nervous when dealing with a powerbook.

Is there an apple store near you? Or any PC repair place could probably give you advice. keyboards should be the same for PC laptops too.

I looked into popping it off but it turns out the space bar is a lot more complex than the rest of the keys on the laptop. There's a whole lot of extra things buried underneither.

Yah, there's an Apple store near my house, which I will probably be making a trip to this weekend. Maybe I'll run it down there and see what they say. For a 3 month old machine the keyboard shouldn't squeek.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 

Finiksa

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2003
595
13
Australia
Celeron said:
My 3 months old, rev. B 12'' Powerbook has a squeeky space bar. Everytime I push it down I get an annoying little squeek. How can I fix this?

You probably already know this, the long keys (space, shift, return…) have a metal stabilizing bar underneath them, which is basically a piece of U shaped wire. It's designed so that when you press on one end of the long key the whole key is depressed evenly.

The wire is clipped to the under side of the key and keyboard surface with with small plastic hooks. To prevent the metal from wearing away at the plastic a small amount of lubricant is applied at the factory, I think it's probably some form of silicone gel and they didn't apply enough on your space key.

Take it into an Apple store they maybe able to apply more for you, I wouldn't recommend using any oil based lubricant on it.
 

Celeron

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2004
705
9
Thats exactly what the problem is. If I had to describe it, thats how I would do it.
 
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