Small hardware crisis: F6 and F3 keys stopped working

[mr_lou]

I'm tagging @Bryce because he was the one modding this machine for me a while back.

A week or two ago I noticed my F6 key didn't work anymore. I use this a lot when creating music in STarKos to change octave. But I could press F9 to cycle through octaves, so I just did that.
But just now my F3 key also stopped working. First I had to press a bit harder. Then a bit harder. And then it stopped working completely. Only took about 10 minutes.
This is a minor crisis for me as I NEED my F3 key in STarKos. 

So, any advice? Am I so lucky that I can just spray some kind of contact-thingy in there?
So far all I've tried was to remove the keys and blow some air in there, but that doesn't do anything.
I also tried pressing lightly with a screw-driver - this works on other keys, but not my F6 and F3 key.

[gerald]

I'm tagging @Bryce because he was the one modding this machine for me a while back.

A week or two ago I noticed my F6 key didn't work anymore. I use this a lot when creating music in STarKos to change octave. But I could press F9 to cycle through octaves, so I just did that.
But just now my F3 key also stopped working. First I had to press a bit harder. Then a bit harder. And then it stopped working completely. Only took about 10 minutes.
This is a minor crisis for me as I NEED my F3 key in STarKos. 

So, any advice? Am I so lucky that I can just spray some kind of contact-thingy in there?
So far all I've tried was to remove the keys and blow some air in there, but that doesn't do anything.
I also tried pressing lightly with a screw-driver - this works on other keys, but not my F6 and F3 key.

F3, F6 are on the same line, what about ENTER/up/down/left/.f9 ?
You can try re-settling the membrane connector, but I fear the membrane is slowly dying. One of my plus has the same symptoms.

[mr_lou]

F3, F6 are on the same line, what about ENTER/up/down/left/.f9 ?
You can try re-settling the membrane connector, but I fear the membrane is slowly dying. One of my plus has the same symptoms.

All the other keys work fine. F3 also suddenly works again. So only F6 is currently not working. I can live with that.
Shouldn't the membrane die on the most used keys first?

[TomEtJerry]

Hello,

I have managed to repair three CPC Plus membranes with Loctite 3863 circuit painting. You should verify if there is no conductivity problem on the membrane with a multimeter.  That's easy to do.  Usually, the membranes were in bad shape due to "liquid invasion" or humidity problem. The circuirty then is not cutted, but the electric signal is lower than on a membrane in perfect condition (sorry for my auwful english... ).

[Bryce]

Hi MrLou,
    unfortunately, I can only confirm what the guys above have said. Your membrane is coming to and end. You could try repairing it like Tom&Jerry suggests, but from experience it's a never ending story. You repair one point and two weeks later the next point breaks. There's still NOS mebranes available. I'd invest in one of those.

Bryce.

[AMSDOS]

Hmm my 6128 seems to be doing something like that. Only in my case it's with the DEL key & Left Arrow. The Left Arrow won't work at all. 

[TFM]

Well, where to get NOS membrane for a 6128 ?

[AMSDOS]

Well, where to get NOS membrane for a 6128 ?

All I could find was this page that states only new membranes are only available for 664 followed by a list of PC keyboard alternatives. I still need to open it up and see if it is that though.

[mr_lou]

Hi MrLou,
    unfortunately, I can only confirm what the guys above have said. Your membrane is coming to and end. You could try repairing it like Tom&Jerry suggests, but from experience it's a never ending story. You repair one point and two weeks later the next point breaks. There's still NOS mebranes available. I'd invest in one of those.

I'll do that then. 
You wouldn't happen to know where I can find these? Searching on eBay gives me nothing.

EDIT: Nevermind, found some on tradeinpost.com so I'll contact them.

[AMSDOS]

I had a look at my Keyboard membrane, but I thought it looked alright, though some of the white bits around the actual connection for the keys looked a bit corroded, is that bad? I couldn't see any damage to what appeared to be the actual line for the signal, unless the white part plays a role.


I cleaned it down with Dust Vac and put it back together, but then other keys weren't working while the Left Arrow was working again, so I opened it up again unplugged the Membrane from the Mainboard, plug it back it, still doing the same thing. So I elevated the keyboard while caused some non working keys to start working again, but now my spacebar is not working!    I'm guessing there's still dust or dirt in there causing this, but I wasn't able to track it down.


Any suggestions?