Is it possible to repair an Asus Gaming Laptop's RGB Membrane Keyboard?

[ecestudent21]

Hi, eevblog, this is my first post and a little urgent one. I'm a student who's laptop died and one of the problems is that laptop keyboard has gone bad. According to the repair technician, there is a "short circuit" in the keyboard. He wants me to buy a new one I don't want to spend the money and wait that long. I need my laptop ASAP & am willing to put in 3-5 hrs of learning about membrane keyboards, repair techniques and the actual repair itself. I have a basic understanding of its working (switching, membrane construction, multiplexing, LEDs etc).

My question is, is it possible to disassemble, troubleshoot and repair the keyboard in 5hrs? I will post pics & part numbers below. Turns out the backlight and keyboard have separate cables. If it's only a backlight issue, will it be possible to use the keyboard without the backlight? If it's a keyboard membrane or cable issue, are they fixable?

Laptop Model number: Asus ROG Strix GL503GE EN216T (US Backlit RGB Keyboard)
Replace Part Numbers: AEBKLU00020 V170146DS1

Example listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-keyboard-For-Asus-GL503-GL503V-GL503VD-GL503VS-GL503VM-GL503GE-US-Backlit-/372582818560

Pictures:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51PotIWSHFL._SL1000_.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KXHK6zsAL._SL1000_.jpg
https://ecs7.tokopedia.net/img/cache/900/VqbcmM/2020/8/23/88861dbf-fa61-493c-b536-847b6b698d47.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zkMyHiOlL._AC_.jpg

I have attached pictures of my keyboard top panel as well.

I am a student and very busy with exams, please don't misunderstand if I don't reply immediately.

Thank you.

[ecestudent21]

Here are pics of mine: The W key looks a little damaged, don't know if that's the issue or whatever,

Video:
https://youtu.be/NwTn0Fl8rvs

Note: The above video is not my laptop, but it has the exact same symptoms. My laptop had a shorted Vcore IC (ISL ones) & couple of shorted diodes and capacitors according to the technician. He's repaired the motherboard and is asking for a replacement keyboard.

If I have any hopes of repairing this keyboard myself or getting the technician to do it for me instead of buying a new one, I am going to spend 3 hrs on studying and learning everything I need to learn and contact the technician to either get it fixed by him or to fix it myself. I am thinking of peeling off the back layer or taking off the keycaps or whatever to access the internals and attempt a repair. I just wanna know the chances of a successful repair.

I want to be tech literate if I contact him because like most technicians in my country he's going to try and spin up some shit and not discuss the problem. They expect you to pay them whatever they ask and not ask any questions about it. I am trying to save every penny here.

[gnuarm]

The terms the repair guy is using don't make much sense to me.  How does he know there is a "short circuit" anywhere?  90% of problems are connectors and switches, mechanical parts.  Do you trust this guy? 

I bought a new keyboard for my laptop for $25.  That said I've been to timid to open up the thing and replace it.  I don't have a backup computer other than a tiny net book and I don't want to be left stranded.  lol  I do have another laptop but it craps out on trying to run pretty much anything after booting.  So that's hard to debug.  Probably need to reformat and reinstall. 

I've never found a PC repair person who was worth a crap.  I do know one, but he is on the other side of the country.  The damage to the W key is superficial.  I have that to my M and N keys.  Paint scratched off.  I've never had any luck with replacing key caps.  They break when I try to pry them off.  That's not where anything you need access to sits.  I'm pretty sure you need to take the keyboard out of the computer, but it's better to just buy a new one.  Can you find one on eBay or elsewhere on the Internet?  I guess you don't want to wait for delivery.  If it is broken, you can't break it any more.

[Rasz]

riveted, not repairable
If you are that cheap buy Croatian one for $26 and glue stickers over wrong letters.

[ecestudent21]

$26 is totally in my budget. Btw it's not really all about being cheap. It's the wait time involved as well. I don't wanna spend money where I don't need to as a student.

Do I have to sticker them up and choose EN(US) as the language in the OS? The keys are all over the place Croatian. How do I even go about it?

[ecestudent21]

The terms the repair guy is using don't make much sense to me.  How does he know there is a "short circuit" anywhere?  90% of problems are connectors and switches, mechanical parts.  Do you trust this guy? 

I bought a new keyboard for my laptop for $25.  That said I've been to timid to open up the thing and replace it.  I don't have a backup computer other than a tiny net book and I don't want to be left stranded.  lol  I do have another laptop but it craps out on trying to run pretty much anything after booting.  So that's hard to debug.  Probably need to reformat and reinstall. 

I've never found a PC repair person who was worth a crap.  I do know one, but he is on the other side of the country.  The damage to the W key is superficial.  I have that to my M and N keys.  Paint scratched off.  I've never had any luck with replacing key caps.  They break when I try to pry them off.  That's not where anything you need access to sits.  I'm pretty sure you need to take the keyboard out of the computer, but it's better to just buy a new one.  Can you find one on eBay or elsewhere on the Internet?  I guess you don't want to wait for delivery.  If it is broken, you can't break it any more.

Thanks!, just like you said I too was skeptical, almost like he wants a free spare keyboard. It's a damn membrane with mechanical switches (the keys) and are multiplexed. The backlight is a completely different connector. Moreover I called up the guy yesterday and he spun the same shit saying the "power key is shorted" and he wasn't getting turn on voltage, power key is suppose to be shorted when you press it to turn on.

Then he goes on to say "there are shorts all over the keyboard" when I ask is it only one key?. What really makes me suspicious of this guy is that he said, "the laptop was ready and was only waiting for the replacement keyboard" last week and now when I ask to him to give it back within one day he's saying he's claiming, he said "it was ready for repair and he was only quoting the repair price". I literally have his message on a chat app. I don't want to make too much of an issue until I get back my laptop, but I just don't trust this guy anymore.

I totally agree about computer repair guys with you. In the UK & IN, there are a lot of shitty ones. r/tech support or r/computertechs or whatever I've seen a lot of stories of people being charged 100GBP for a cracked version of windows. Some youtuber repair folks might be good, but are shady asf.

As for the possible errors themselves, I can think of the membrane being damaged or worn out to open circuit rather than short circuit the keyboard. Or somehow a keycap being stuck, shorting it out. But I clearly remember there were no stuck keys like that. As you said it's a paint chip off with the W key. Could there be a chance that the membrane layers got shorted due to fusing together because of overheating or something? I don't know. I'll have to research more & open up other cheap membrane keyboards. The only electrical test points to probe are the pads on the ribbon cable. I'll have to see how it goes when I get it back.

As for my keyboard, I'll probably try & search the local market when I get free time or go with a croatian keyboard if I can get free shipping or somehow try to persuade Chinese sellers for better offer $25 is affordable for me. Turns out my keyboard is riveted and can't be opened for any sort of repair. At the end of the day, it's a factor of time & money. If I had the time, I probably would have fixed my laptop myself as it's 1-2 month course to learn & about $60 worth of tools if you can really squeeze the budget. But most of us don't have the time.

[aqibi2000]

Leave the keyboard flex unplugged and plug in tt on off button board.

Use a USB keyboard

[TimFox]

That’s what I did after an unfortunate water spill on my laptop’s keyboard until my reliable repairman could get the replacement keyboard.  Without unplugging the keyboard, one letter kept repeating.

[YetAnotherTechie]

Tell the repair guy you need it for your exams, to solder an external switch on the keyboard conector to power it on, pay him for the job that's been done, and get it back in your hands.
Until you're finished with your exams use an external keyboard.
I was once like you, poor student, decided to reinstall my system so i had everything neat for studying, one of the steps was upgrade the bios, well, the antivirus that came with the factory restore image blocked the update and bricked my new laptop! Since i am an electronics technician, and even had done hot-flashing in the past, i decided to fix it, turns out the flash was soldered, no problem, i had to revive old computers so i could flash the chip, then things went downhill, long story short it wouldnt boot anymore after soldering the new chip, i spent many many days and ended up having to buy a new motherboard, exausting my cash reserves, i can honestly say that that event f***d up my life, i failed that school year, and had to spend all my free time doing badly paid repairs for years after that (im in a poor country).
This will not take you 5 hours to learn and fix, you have probably already spent more than that with your current research and reading forums looking for a fix. a laptop membrane keyboard is unfixable/not worth fixing, in my gaming laptop the keyboard has gone bad twice and i've never ever spilled or eat anything on top of it.

[YetAnotherTechie]

$26 is totally in my budget. Btw it's not really all about being cheap. It's the wait time involved as well. I don't wanna spend money where I don't need to as a student.

Do I have to sticker them up and choose EN(US) as the language in the OS? The keys are all over the place Croatian. How do I even go about it?

Are you really going to buy a 26$ keyboard plus a 5$ set of stickers to save 15-20$? If you do, at least make sure it has the same number of keys and they have the same physical layout(im not taking about whats printed on them!)
US keyboards have less keys than most european, and enter/delete have different size. Your keyboard goes trough the shell, so it *has* to match physically.
As long as it matches you dont have to select any language.

[SilverSolder]

Use a USB keyboard for the short term.

Then buy a cheap keyboard on eBay to fix your lappy at your leisure.