Is it safe to glue keys to a laptop keyboard?

August 18, 2009 7:59 AM

The left CTRL key popped off of my ThinkPad T43, the casualty of a RAM upgrade. The blue nipple seems to have come unglued from both the keyboard and the key. Is it safe to glue onto the keyboard? Googling reveals warnings of not using superglue and using superglue. Would a silicon adhesive be safer? Better?
posted by puckupdate to Technology (6 answers total)

If you want to toss $50 at it, you can get a replacement keyboard.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:17 AM on August 18, 2009

As a general rule to live by, never use superglue on nipples. Ever.

Rather than using an adhesive, set the nipple back in place and gently replace the key. The nipple, which acts as a spring, will be wedged in place and shouldn't* fall out.

*I've done the nipple wedge on a Thinkpad T60, iBook and a MacBook pro. None have slipped. Yet.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:37 AM on August 18, 2009

Yeah, the nipples aren't physically attached to laptop keyboards, but are held in place by pressure when they key is properly attached. You should be able to pop the key right back on.
posted by pmbuko at 9:55 AM on August 18, 2009

Is your laptop under warranty? That should be covered. If not, replacement keyboards are cheap and its super easy to change out a laptop keyboard.
posted by radioamy at 10:19 AM on August 18, 2009

Thanks CPH! I had been trying to force it in, but once I went gentle, it seemed to work fine!
posted by puckupdate at 1:00 PM on August 18, 2009

OK. As it turns out, the key was broken, so I ordered a new key off of ebay and I was all set. I'm VERY glad I didn't glue anything down.
posted by puckupdate at 2:05 PM on September 20, 2009