Comment by deathanatos | Hacker News Reader

Comment by deathanatos | Hacker News Reader

> I grumpily ordered a replacement key for 15 euros. In the months after that, replacement keys became a recurring cost. After spending more than 100 euros on plastic keys, which would soon break again, I calculated that my keyboard had 90 keys and that replacing them all just once would cost me 1,350 euros.

Am I missing something, or can an entire replacement keyboard not be had for ~32 EUR? https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Keyboard-Lenovo-Thinkpad-...

Also… I have a T460p, bought in 2016. Perhaps I've gotten lucky, but it's well out of warranty at this point and we've only cracked the S key. (But the key functions, so I've not bothered to replace it.) The TrackPoint™ nub needs replacing, though, the original power supply failed and was replaced, and my battery is pretty close to dead after ~4.5 years (I think I get ~an hour of life?)

pro tip: go on-location to a laptop shop, that happens to repair (even for warranty) etc ringing and mailing usually isn't enough to bother, or gets 'pls pay 5-10€ for no reason'

source: worked at one, we had a full size box (1m x .5m x .5m) full of dead or half-dead keyboards, exactly for this purpose; most of them being lenovo (also lenovo has like 30 different kbds, keys are NOT interchangable)

if you're a respecting person, might as well give you one of the 50 i feel bad to say, but saying you're a past customer of them will almost gurantee a free key

Potentially - but I think that part of the author's point is that this shouldn't be necessary. Binning an entire keyboard for the sake of a few keys breaking?

in a community of fellow used-product users, you could buy the replacement kb and part out the keys to fellow travelers

Innovative idea :) Could be extended to buying and sharing multiple sets of parts for multiple products.

you are missing something. I stopped buying t430 keyboards after the second broke. the machine is still up and running but with an external keyboard.

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