Asus Zenbook UX31A 键盘失灵修复

Asus Zenbooks have a horrible horrible design flaw. The power button is part of the keyboard, so if your keyboard stops working, you can’t turn on the laptop. Specifically I have the ux301-dh71t, and a single drop of water fell on my “up” key. Due to the keyboard not being water resistant this drop of water eventually corroded the keyboard circuitry, killed a bunch of keys around it and eventually the power key too. There is no other way I found to turn on the laptop, other than opening the back cover and short circuiting 2 pins on the keyboard connector (wide blue ribbon). In order for this to work you need to have the notebook partially open otherwise it won’t turn on. Be very careful not to short circuit other stuff. I was able to get it to turn on by short circuiting the 1st pin and the 4th 5th or 6th (not sure exactly since they are so small). The first pin would be the one closer to the power button side. I then connected a usb keyboard and proceeded to download my data.

Replacing the internal keyboard is not an easy task at all, there are about 60 screws and a dozen connectors you need to remove to get to it. ASUS did a horrible job here, with such a vulnerable hard to replace keyboard which is unfortunate because it’s an amazing laptop. The power button should always be separate from the keyboard. Normally I would have popped the ssd in another computer but these are dual raid 0 ssd’s, not an easy data recovery task.

Works! I modified this method by using 2 staples already stuck together when I pried them away from the pack. Per the method, I straightened, cut extra length (used pliers to move back-and-forth exactly where the bends are for a regular-sized staple), taped, bent ends using pliers, and fit snugly over the connector. Another modification - I used a glue gun to dab a big drop of glue on each staple so it stuck to the connector. Then taped crosswise twice. Tiny bulge against the back cover, but that just means it will hold it in place.

This is a lovely computer otherwise marred by a $@$*!& keyboard connector.

I modify this method by replacing the staple by a 16mm Diameter Wire Fastener Circle Cable Clips like this one (https://www.amazon.com/ADMI-16mm-Diamete...). It fixs exactly with the good spreading.

1 - remove the metal nail

2 - with a cutter adjust the plastic clip (thickness / 2, round)

3 - fix the 2 plastic clips with adhesive tape

Late to this game.

The one I have I’ve tried every-which-a-way. I even used alcohol to clean the ribbon cable thinking it might have corrosion (which works on a lot of them!)— no go. Are these netbooks known to have sh*t keyboards? Is it worth trying another, or is it the socket at fault? What a sh*t thing to foist off to the public, ASUS!