Tools of the trade

[eyoungren]

I ordered an A1314 wireless keyboard for my Mac Mini last week. Finally got delivered today. Paid $16 for it off eBay. Really nice. Going to tie this into PowerPC by saying I could have used it with my PowerBook(s) and PowerMac(s).

And that is the operative phrase here…could have.

Now many of you know that at one point a hacksaw became part of my PowerPC toolbelt. Pesky screws that are too long needed to be cut off. Anyway…add a metal bar and a sledgehammer to the toot belt!

I went to replace the batteries on this, only to find out they were stuck. So, I looked up how to get them out and carefully followed the instructions on getting the power cylinder and logicboard out.

Then came the trauma. I tried pressing, they wouldn't budge. So I went to a screwdriver and a hammer. I succeeded in wedging the blade into the battery. I pulled out a wooden dowel and carefully stuck it into the cylinder and proceeded to hammer. After about 30 mins, I managed to only made the BOTTOM battery move a bit.

So, I messaged the eBay vendor about how this keyboard was not-functional (as advertised). How can it be functional if the batteries can't be replaced? The damn batteries are bonded with the inside of the cylinder.

The seller promptly refunded my $16 and shipping. I'm out nothing.

After a couple hours of stewing on this, I pulled out a sledgehammer and proceeded to destroy the wood dowel I had previously inserted. Eventually it broke off and I had to pull the remainder of it out with pliers. So, I broke out a metal bar that we've had for 23 years when we bought a mailbox. This thing is long, but the diameter is small enough to fit in the cylinder.

With metal rod and sledgehammer I made the damn batteries move. Now keep in mind that with all this hammering, keys have been falling off and I've been setting them aside. Once I got movement on these stuck batteries though it was all over for this keyboard.

Aluminum frame ≠ to steel bar with sledghammer. Totally bent, tore and warped the frame and popped several keys off. At this point though it's a matter of will for me. Took a few more whacks, but the damned things came out.

Now, I know I could have tried WD40 or some other sfuff (baking soda and water maybe), but the corrosion was bad and the batteries had swollen. I knew when I asked for the refund that the only way I was going to get them out was by destroying the keyboard. These things were stuck in there so tight that pounding on the steel rod with a GD sledhammer FLATTENED part of the top of the bar!

But I don't feel bad about this because I paid $0 for it.

Now though, I have…parts.

It sucks, but at least I got my money back.

 

[retta283]

Quite the story, thanks for sharing. I've actually had to do similar work on one of these before, in 2015 a customer brought me this keyboard (with his iMac) saying that the batteries were jammed due to a bad warp in the tube. He asked me to attempt removal of the batteries, I told him I could very well end up making it worse and he said it was fine if I broke it.

After I had determined the problem with the iMac (Bad Nvidia 8800GS GPU) I decided to try the keyboard. Popped the thing open and I could already see the leakage. The cap was stuck on somewhat which was an instant sign this was going to be a mess. Tried around it to see if I could loosen it from the cylinder surround, with some banging on the keyboard and working my way around with an old flathead I was able to get the first battery out, although towards the end I just grabbed the battery with tweezers and ripped it out. It was almost melted onto the warped part of the case and was stuck to it. The side facing outward wasn't stuck as bad.

Now the second battery was really stuck because it had expanded perfectly into the shape of the tube and was corroded really bad. Popped the plastic off and the whole thing was corroded, the spring looked rusty. Power terminal was corroded into the battery so it was junk already. Repeated my method from the first but there was no way for me to get a good grip on the battery with the obstruction of the cylinder in my way.

Now I pulled out my hammer, secured the keyboard, and started coming down on it. This caused massive warping in the side of the keyboard the remaining keys went off. Worked at it a bit with the flathead to loosen and went back with the hammer. This was enough to work it out. Customer got a good laugh when I showed him what was left of it, he didn't want the keycaps so I took them myself. My 2011 wireless keyboard has a few of the keycaps from it on it right now.

The only way I see of doing this without destroying the keyboard is using a solution like baking soda or vinegar to clean the corrosion away enough to clear the surround of the battery, but in situations like these it's too far gone to save it like this.

 

[eyoungren]

Quite the story, thanks for sharing. I've actually had to do similar work on one of these before, in 2015 a customer brought me this keyboard (with his iMac) saying that the batteries were jammed due to a bad warp in the tube. He asked me to attempt removal of the batteries, I told him I could very well end up making it worse and he said it was fine if I broke it.

After I had determined the problem with the iMac (Bad Nvidia 8800GS GPU) I decided to try the keyboard. Popped the thing open and I could already see the leakage. The cap was stuck on somewhat which was an instant sign this was going to be a mess. Tried around it to see if I could loosen it from the cylinder surround, with some banging on the keyboard and working my way around with an old flathead I was able to get the first battery out, although towards the end I just grabbed the battery with tweezers and ripped it out. It was almost melted onto the warped part of the case and was stuck to it. The side facing outward wasn't stuck as bad.

Now the second battery was really stuck because it had expanded perfectly into the shape of the tube and was corroded really bad. Popped the plastic off and the whole thing was corroded, the spring looked rusty. Power terminal was corroded into the battery so it was junk already. Repeated my method from the first but there was no way for me to get a good grip on the battery with the obstruction of the cylinder in my way.

Now I pulled out my hammer, secured the keyboard, and started coming down on it. This caused massive warping in the side of the keyboard the remaining keys went off. Worked at it a bit with the flathead to loosen and went back with the hammer. This was enough to work it out. Customer got a good laugh when I showed him what was left of it, he didn't want the keycaps so I took them myself. My 2011 wireless keyboard has a few of the keycaps from it on it right now.

The only way I see of doing this without destroying the keyboard is using a solution like baking soda or vinegar to clean the corrosion away enough to clear the surround of the battery, but in situations like these it's too far gone to save it like this.

Yeah, that was my diagnosis. Good to know I'm not the only one that has experienced this. It was an awful shame to destroy a perfectly good keyboard, but without the ability to replace the batteries it's useless except for parts anyway.

I see the cylinders on eBay going for about $15 so I may try making something off it.

 

[m1maverick]

Sometimes applying heat can get things to loosen up.

 

[mortlocli]

Wow!!! After reading this I went and took the batteries out of my keyboard. It came with a second hand iMac (intel) but at the mo Ive been using a wired keyboard so I can use button combinations to start up linux.
..so you may have save me a heap of pain if my batteries had swollen up...so Thanks guys!!!!

The other bonus was while hunting for where Id put the keyboard I found a usb wireless adapter from years back that Id forgotten I had. Recently Id installed tiger on a imac G5 that a friend had given me. So far Id tried two wifi adapters without success. But this old one I just re-discovered actually lists Mac OSX 10.3 PPC only and 10.4 universal on the box.

What can I say... gonna try that shortly but big thank you again !!! wouldn't have happened if I hadn't read your postings. Guess thats the great part of what this web site is all about.