SK-8845CR Key/Keyboard replacement

[tomdavos]

Hello ThinkPad Enthusiasts,

I recently acquired a BNIB SK-8845CR(No touchpad model) from an IBM warehouse, however when I open the box I was disappointed to see that the bottom 3 arrow keys(L, D, R) had all broken off. Upon further inspection, I could see that the little hooks on the bottom of the scissor hinge had broken. I would assume some kind of impact took them out.

So I am now searching for either a compatible fru keyboard to swap with the broken one(it appears very similar to the T41 keyboard), or ideally individual keys/hinges to pop in place of the 3 broken ones. Size wise it lines up with my T420 keyboard, but appearance wise is nearly identical to the T41, minus the Meta key.

I wanted to see if anyone has ever faced this issue with the SK-8845 models. I know these keyboards were produced by LITE-ON and are not exactly the same as the Thinkpad keyboards, but I'm hopeful for some compatibility somewhere.

Any recommendations?

[sharktastica]

Basically, your only option is sourcing another keyboard from the same family (SK-8835, 8840, 8845RC or 8845CR) and ideally one made around the same year I'm afraid.

Swapping the entire keyboard assembly for an actual ThinkPad keyboard is out of the question since the keyboard's membrane flex connectors are different. These keyboards have a single long row of pins (scroll down to "controller board" photos) versus the two-row 'button' style connector (see third photo) ThinkPad keyboards of at least the era the SK-8835/884x family was launched (ie, T30/T4x) and beyond use.

As for swapping individual keycaps and mechanisms, again you're basically limited to sourcing from keyboards of the same family. I have several of these keyboards and actual ThinkPads to compare to, but I've found none that share compatible keycaps. Trying to search for a possible answer also yields the same story - note the comments on this article. This doesn't necessarily completely exclude the possibility and if I'm wrong I hope someone can input, but I'm doubtful from my own experience. The problem is that the many OEMs that have made ThinkPad keyboards over the years typically have their own slightly different implementation of scissor-switches and mount to go with it. Indeed, I don't think LITE-ON made any ThinkPad laptop keyboards during the 'classic' era and to my knowledge has only made AccuType ("chiclet") style ThinkPad keyboards.

[RealBlackStuff]

Classic area KB producers: Chicony, Alps and NMB.
Read a bit more about these (e.g. T60): viewtopic.php?t=44310