Logitech G213 Keyboard - Faulty - missed / duplicate key presses: Fixed

I got this G213 keyboard from Curry's in June. It was part of a pack that game with the G203 mouse and G332 headset and was intended for use with a new gaming PC I was building. It took another month before I'd finished buying all the bits for the PC so the keyboard stayed in its box. When I came to use it for the first time, it was clear that the keyboard had a problem. The left-hand CTRL and SHIFT keys only worked intermittently. The E and S had the same problem (but hardly ever worked), and the R key often registered two presses at a time. The keyboard was basically unusable. And playing Fortnite on it was impossible. 

So, I decided it should go back to Curry's. 

I had two problems with that, however. The only receipt I had was the Paypal transaction which didn't specify the item bought or contain an order number. And the Curry's Helpline was no good as they couldn't stay on the line long enough to take my details. Very annoying when the telephone queue to speak to someone is an hour long. I therefore decided to cut my losses and scrap the keyboard. Individual keys go for a few quid on ebay so I figured I could get some money back by selling it in bits. I did have to wait for my new keyboard to arrive though. And now that it has, I set about dismantling the G213. I took some photos of the process.

First, I removed the rubber pads from the corners and under the wrist rest. I warmed them a bit with a hairdryer before sticking my spadger underneath. For reasons that will become apparent, I'm glad I took care with this. Then I removed the seven silver screws and the two black screws.

At this stage the top part of the keyboard can be unclipped from the bottom part. I used my spadger again, very carefully working my round the casing. Note that the top part can be lifted away without needing to remove any of the keys. This is a picture of the underside of the top part with keys in situ.

Close up of the underside of the keys

And this is the silicone membrane that lives under the top part of the keyboard. It is held in place by some pegs on the bottom part of the key board. But here's the interesting thing - on my keyboard it wasn't particularly "in place".

Circuit board...

 

The silicon membrane can be peeled back to reveal the actual gubbins of the keyboard. There are three layers of plastic film. The top and bottom layers contain the "circuit" for each key. The middle layer is clear but contains a small reveal for each key. You can see this if you zoom into any of the pictures below.

I think it works like this. When a key is pressed, the raised dome on the membrane under the key is squished onto the top layer of film. This, in turn, presses the printed circuit through the cutout in plain middle layer and makes contact with the circuit on the layer underneath. This is the point at which the key-press is registered. It occurred to me that if any of the sheets were misaligned, or if the silicon membrane wasn't sitting quite right, there could be issues with typing. I tested my theory by typing straight on to the top layer of film (just using my finger tips). The keyboard was fully operational! 

I decided against scrapping it and instead reassembled it very carefully. Before doing so, I took a few more pictures of the internals. These are pictures which all the films peeled back:

Bits of plastic swarf in the membrane...

I got rid of the swarf and dusted the plastic films with a lint free cloth. I then rolled them back into place taking care to ensure that they were properly located on the pins and completely flat. I then rolled the membrane over and again ensured that it was located on the pins and completely flat. I then refitted the top half of the keyboard - there are some locating tabs for that purpose so I made sure that the top was completely clipped into the bottom before re-fixing the screws. I fixed the black screws in first but without turning the keyboard completely upside down. Once they were in, I turned the keyboard over completely and added the silver screws and the rubber feet. 

And wow - the keyboard now works completely fine! In fact, the key-press movement feels completely different. Previously it was really squishy but now seems far more precise. I think the problem was probably that the silicon membrane was not fitted properly when the keyboard was originally built. Either that, or it has somehow been dislodged in transit. Anyway, if you've got one of these keyboards and it starts playing up (and you've not just spilled your beer on it), I reckon just taking it apart a bit and rebuilding it should sort it.

As a final note, this was not a complete disassembly - they was no need for that, in my opinion. But if you need to take all the internals apart as well, this video on youtube may help.

More soon, no doubt....

D