On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:52:38 +0000, jan olieslagers
wrote:

schreef:
It looks as if I'll have to do the repair myself.

New keyboards are available from the OEM (Vivo) for about $40. The HP
maintenance manual is available via the internet. That leaves a few
issues unresolved but since the thing was working in the past I'll
assume it can be returned to service.

-R.S.Hoover
-(KA6HZF)

Bob,
Allow me to suggest some clarification.
I understand you are after an "identical" or "matched"
or "certified" keyboard - but there's no need.
Any PC keyboard with the proper interface
(in your case, USB, I understand)
and the proper layout (US English, assumedly) will do.
Indeed it shouldn't be too difficult to locate a
suitable keyboard near you (neighbours? friends? shop PC?)
and borrow it for a quick swap, just to confirm the diagnosis.

An IMPORTANT correction here.
This WILL work - BUT. The original damaged keyboard MUST be
disconnected first if, as I suspect, at least one key is "stuck"
electrically.

As for returning the PC to service:
yes, sooner or later that's always possible.
Questions are
1) if it's worth the money (I abandoned a laptop
after breaking the display, the replacement was over-expensive)
2) whether you can recover the data from the harddisk.
This is crucial: a new harddisk is easily available
at reasonable cost, but is unfortunately supplied blank.
Indeed you'll likely find the data on the disk
much more valuable than the PC as such.

It is not out of the ordinary for the data to be worth HUNDREDS of
times more than the computer it is on.

I'd pull the hard drive, stick it into a USB drive case, and connect
it to another computer to see if it is readable before wasting ANY
more time on the computer. No need to get the old computer running if
you can just pop the data from the old drive into a new computer.
(by the way, I do this a LOT in my business - repairing and
maintaining computer systems)

There's companies specialized in recovering data
from crashed harddisks but they're horribly expensive.

Hoping this helps,
KA

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