Replacing a broken laptop key with a new key from LaptopKey.com
Laptops are expensive. Laptops are made of cheap plastic. Laptops are hard to repair.
Ever break a laptop key? I've had plenty of them pop off, and I usually pop 'em right back on.
But this time I had a "loose" shift key on the Lenovo G555. It wouldn't stay put. It would woggle around and stop working.
What could I do? I could replace the entire keyboard. However, replacement laptop keyboards are generally expensive, and I try as hard as possible to avoid taking laptops apart because as hard as they are to crack open, they're harder to put back together.
They're just not designed to be serviced. And the $800-$1,000 laptops are generally no better in this regard than the $300-$500 kind I tend to use.
I did a little Googling. I found LaptopKey.com. While they happen to be in the same neighborhood as the Daily News, I didn't know that at the time, and I did the whole thing over the Web.
I was able to identify my keyboard not just by the laptop's model number but by a detailed photo. You see, keyboards can change even if model numbers don't.
I found my exact keyboard, ordered my left "shift" key, and got it via U.S. Mail in about a week.
The cost was about $4.99 for the key and another $2 for shipping. Sure it didn't cost anywhere near $2 to send a single plastic key wrapped in a small protective sleeve and then sealed in a standard No. 10 paper envelope, but I was able to "save" my $329 laptop for a mere $7. And if I needed more than one key, I would have gotten a break on the shipping.
And where else are you going to get an individual key for your specific laptop's keyboard?
I was happy to get the key for $7. If you don't count my time, it's the second-cheapest laptop repair I've ever done (I replaced a power jack; the part cost me $2 but it took about three hours; this took maybe 5 minutes).
LaptopKey.com offers a number of videos on how to remove and install laptop keys. They didn't seem anywhere near specific enough to really help with my particular laptop key, and I was too impatient to watch them all.
Luckily it was easy to pry up my slightly broken key, then hook in the new "shift" key and press down until it snapped into place.
That was it. I was back in the key-pounding business.
So if you need to replace a laptop keyboard key, LaptopKey.com can definitely help you out.
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So what would you recommend I do after a laptop spill? I spilled a can of soda on the laptop and now its super sticky and the keys don't work properly. In this case would it be best for me to just replace the keyboard or can I still get my with just replacing the individual keys? Any info would be great!