Power Button and some keyboard issues - MacBook Unibody 2008 (A1278)

[pdeli]

Hello,

I have an "old" MacBook Unibody A1278 (I think it's the first generation unibody MacBooks still with removable battery). Now here are the symptoms:

• does not start when power button is pressed;
• left shift, control, option and command keys remain software depressed although physically not pressed anymore. The same goes for the right hand-side command key. All the other keys work perfectly fine and react as they should (tested several times). I checked if this was not a software issue by connecting a BT keyboard and it works perfectly.

To my knowledge the apparatus did not suffer any shocks, nor did it have any liquid inside (coffee, water or anything else that might damage the machine).


What I did:

• opened the MB;
• dismantled it (thanks to iFixit);
• cleaned it (was pretty dirty inside with lots of dust everywhere);
• remounted it;
• I found which pins to shortcut on the motherboard in order to start the computer (they work for the forced shut down as well, like the power button);
• completely reinstalled it with Mountain Lion and fully updated (10.8.4 on 2013.09.08);
• which allowed me to do a SMC reset (I did two in fact);
• I also did 2 PRAM resets (which worked despite the erratically functioning keys).

My diagnostic (which is quite obvious) is that the power button is dead, however I don't understand the erratical behaviour of the above mentioned keys.

My questions:

• Any suggestions on how to repair/replace the power button?
• Any ideas about the erratically working keys?
• Any alternatives short of changing the Upper Case?

Thanks and best regards,
pdeli

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