Its easy to change your laptop keyboard. So your laptop is now useless because the 'A' key suddenly just stopped, or your cat pulled half the keys off !? Maybe you spilt your tea and your keyboard is swollen with sticky liquid !

Once one key stops working, they dont usually recover. You can try removing the key cap with a screw driver gently to see if there is any obstruction, but be very careful as the key spring supporting this cap is very fragile and hard to get back in place if the spring comes in pieces. All is not loats though - you will be surprised how easy it is to replace your keyboard, and in doing so you can avoid having to pay a high price locally for what should be a relatively easy repair.

You can get a price online at www.laptopsparesshop.co.uk or ask your local stockist. Some brands, notable Acer, Toshiba and IBM price their keyboards very reasonably. Brands lioke Samsung, Fujitsu, Sony and Packard Bell tend to be more expensive, but you should still be able to complete the replacement for less than £60 in most cases.

The laptop spares shop can supply or source acer keyboard or any laptop keyboard really.

Not to worry, dont be scared of a high repair bill, you can swap the board out yourself !

The following notes are for guidance only, and if you are in any doubt at any stage you should take the machine to a reputable repair shop.
We stock keyboards for acer, toshiba, HP, fujitsu, IBM, sony and samsung. The Laptop Spares Shop also sources parts for many other clients, and we can usually source most keyboards for lesser known brands within 4-5 days maximum.

Please email sales@laptopsparesshop.co.uk if you need any help or advise prior to purchase, or contact 01282 864415.

FIRST - make sure the machine is powered off and dis-connected from the mains. Now remove the battery by clicking any locks switches to allow battery removal.Then flip the machine over and check for any screws with a keyboard label next to them. These need to come out (well obviously!)

Most ibm and other keyboards are removed in the same way
Once the mentioned screws are removed check in the empty battery console.

If there are any screws around the battery tray area these may be anchoring the platic trim along the top of the keyboard. Also remove the screws in each back corner of the casing. Now check the back of the machine to see if the hinge covers have any screws holding them in place - remove them if so.

If you are happy that all screws have been removed, gently prise up the platic trim at the top of the keyboard. BE CAREFUL this may be very stiff and held on by several plastic clips. Once lifted check to see if the power button is connected to the motherboard or power pcb, and dis-connect to allow removal.

Unscrew any screws at the top of the keyboard to allow it to be lifted off the machine. Again be careful, some models have a small amount of glue holding the keyboard in place.

Now lift the keyboard gently off the machine and reveal the the connection ribbon. Gently push up the lugs on the clip where the keyboard connects to the laptop (very gentle here!)

Now gently slide the keyboard ribbon out of its connector and lift the board off the machine.

The laptop spares shop accepts no responsibility for any damage you may do to your machine in removing the keyboard. The notes above are for guidance only, and you should consult the support manual for your machine by contacting manufacturer support first.

Place an order and reverse the above process when your new keyboard arrives.

I hope the above has prooved useful, and gives you the confidence to tackle this fairly simple repair yourself.The trickiest part is removing the trim above the keyboard, which can be very stiff and feel to be anchored by screws. In fact, if you have removed the screws from under the keyboard, this is held in place only by plastic clips to the side of the machine. The use of a good flat scrw driver will remove this - but be careful.

Also exercise caution and extreme care when unclipping the ribbon from the motherboard once the keyboard is lifted. The anchor bracket where the ribbon connects is very thin & delicate, and is very easy to break - so be careful !!

Thanks for reading this, and if you do decide that the above is not for you, you can always ship the machine to us for replacement. We usually charge an extra £10 for the above.

We also stock laptop as well as quality and accessories.

Please contact The Laptop Spares Shop Ltd, 259 North Valley Road,Colne,Lancashire,UK. BB8 9DR if you need any more help. You can also email us at sales@laptopsparesshop.co.uk or telephone us on 01282 864415. Please also check laptopsparesshop.co.uk for more information about dell D600

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Usually when it comes down to the techy specifications laptops can be fit and equal to each other. However there are certain elements that can be mentioned as quite stable advangates and disadvantages.

For Lenovo T61p laptop we can talk about the following:

Advantages:

• recognition of the ThinkPad brand

Disadvantages:

• keyboard lighting is more aggressive and neighbors in the train or plane can be against it
• smaller memory compared to its potential competitor Dell Precision M2400

Recommended products for comparisons:

• Dell M2400 - Compare Laptops Review for Dell Precision M2400
• Lenovo ThinkPad R61 Laptop Reviews - How to Compare Laptop Specs
• HP 6510b Review - Best Compare Laptops Reviews
• Dell E5400 Pros and Cons - Info to Compare Laptops Reviews

This post is dedicated to the advantages and disadvantages of Dell M2400 laptop.

Advantages:

• Small laptop weight
• slice battery option (gives longer battery life)
• backlit keyboards
• can have up to 8 GB of 800 MHz memory

Disadvantages:

• as any "extra battery" the slice option is adding to the weight of the weight of the laptop

You can read more tips about other models here:

• HP 6510b Review - Best Compare Laptops Reviews
• Lenovo ThinkPad R61 Laptop Reviews - How to Compare Laptop Specs

For more details about other competitors in the niche please read:

• Dell E5400 Pros and Cons - Info to Compare Laptops Reviews
• HP 6510b Review - Best Compare Laptops Reviews

Now let's get down to advantages and disadvantages of Lenovo ThinkPad R61

Advantages:

• recognition of the ThinkPad/ThinkVantage brand
• full disk encryption

Disadvantages:

• no Smart Card reading
• no integrated WWAN

HP 6510b laptop also has its own advantages and disadvantages compared to other products in this niche.

Advantages:

• light weight
• Smart Card option available
• 14-cell extended battery that prolongs the life of the battery to 14.5 hours

Disadvantages:

• the added battery itself adds 0.8 kg in weight
• disk encryption leaves OS opened
• docking solution is compatible with small number of systems

For more tips in the niche of laptops and computers in general, please read other posts on the blog.

For computer training course choise, please make sure that you know these tips - Free Basic Computer Training Course Tips - How to Evaluate One

Dell E5400 - as any product on the market - has its advantages and disadvantages. This post is devoted to showing the most important pros and cons of the product.

Advantages:

• uses common docking solution
• better security with disk data encryption
• "born" to most connections, GPS including - this means better connectivity
• budget friendly in terms of framework

Disadvantages:

• other models have longer battery life, but usually this adds up to the weight of the battery
• no SmartCard reader

For more tips about this and other laptop models and their comparisons, please stay in touch with Free Computers Tips feed.

You can learn more useful tips about your computer only if you join computer training courses. But - to be frank - depsite the fact the Net is full of versatile computer training educational projects and courses, there are many traps and tricks in the courses.

That is why, if you decide to attend computer training courses online or offlie, please make sure that you know about Avoiding Problems In Online Computer Training Courses and Free Basic Computer Training Course Tips - How to Evaluate One.

Ok, and here comes the video tip about using the Run command on your computer

P.S. You can get all our informational updates from RSS feed automatically, right after they get published here on the blog. That is why if you are interested to stay plugged to the best computer education tips, please grab our computer knowledge RSS feed.

Whereas we do not pretend to be the ultimate source of computer knowledge or the best online free computer training course, part of the job that we do is the explanation of how an average user can choose the best computer training course in the net. To make sure that you do not get into typical traps, please read these posts:

• Computer Security Issues, Terminology and Ethics
• Problems In Online Computer Training Courses
• Computer Training Course - Outline of Possible Schemes
• Online Computer User Security Training

These post will prepare you to the wise choise of the best computer training courses.

And now, as promised, the video tip about how to create a shortcut on your computer

This video is showing you how to change the time and date on your computer so that it works properly. This is part of the free computer training course project that is launched on the blog and has the aim to share the best tips and make people educated about how to use their PCs.

Moreover, we highly recommend you to read these posts, because they explain the typical problems people meet with computer courses - Avoiding Problems in Online Computer Training Courses and Computer Security Issues, Terminology and Ethics.

The topic of computer security is very huge and includes various subjects. Today we decided to share with you a simple and practical tip about adding password for login.

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