On Oct 12, 2008, at 4:28 AM, Rick King wrote: > Why is it that Mac stopped making decent keyboards and now sell utter > crap? I just got done taking a hammer to yet another one of these > worthless usb abortions Mac switched to. In the last year I have > gone through at least 6. They just quit working. I worked with that > one for some time. It started typing two's all by itself so I > flipped it upside down and beat on it to make that stop. Then it > starts in on 0's. Then the caps lock key quits and half the letters > go. I unplug it, plug it back in. Reboot the whole machine. Even > turning it upside down and pounding on the damn thing only does so > much. Why did they ever stop making those nice ADB keyboards? Or a > much better question would be .... why did the cheap bastards do away > with the ADB port so they could save a buck a unit? I would have > thought Apple would be above such Intel-like behavior. Intel hacked > the cache in a P3 to save a buck and called it a Celeron. Winmodem > riser cards. The list goes on. Everytime I sit in front of a Mac > anymore and have to look at one of those USB keyboards it just pisses > me off. Is there some way I can cheaply get a trusty old extended > keyboard to work on this miserable usb interface? Most adapters I > have seen cost 50 or more. I am this close to taking a hammer to the > whole thing.
My first Apple USB keyboard, a clear, extended Pro model, came from a dumpster at a nearby university. From the stickiness of the keys it seemed obvious that a sugary soda was spilled or perhaps purposefully poured into the keyboard? I found disassembly instructions with photos on the web, and I spent four hours disassembling the entire keyboard. It was difficult, I think there were at least 40 screws, and all the separate keys, etc. The contacts are gold, and there are those standard urethane rubber sheets that make the electronic connection beneath the keys. Two or three of the contacts had corrosion on the gold. I had no conductive trace paint to repair it. I just cleaned it really good, and hoped what was remaining of the gold would be enough. That was about 5 years ago. I use the keyboard every day without any issues at all. I was expecting it to fail at any moment, and so far, not a single problem. I'm typing on it now. I'd suggest not man-handling your keyboards so much. I've never banged on mine, or done anything harsh to it. If it started auto-repeating 2's or whatever, I'd get another keyboard to use. Going through six keyboards in one year surely must place you about six standard deviations from the mean. I will agree that the ADB keyboards are bombproof and probably better. A quick search of eBay for "ADB USB adapter" under "Completed Items" shows that the cheapest one sold for $16.76 shipped, five sold for under $20 shipped, and seven more for under $30 shipped. Several in the $25 range shipped were "Buy It Now" for new items. Place a search with email notification and you'll know instantly when another becomes available. If you adore the ADB keyboard, buy an adapter. With a dozen selling for less than $30 in the past month, it shouldn't take you long to snag one cheaply enough. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
