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Sticking Spacebar on my PowerBook
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12 Feb 2006
The space bar on my PowerBook has been sticking as long as I can remember — perhaps it came like that, I don’t recall. The key only travelled about halfway down; sometimes it added a space, sometimes it didn’t. I tried all the various recomendations I’d found online: vaccuuming the keyboard, shaking it upside down, and a few other odd ones. Nothing worked.
Today I got annoyed with it enough that I just pushed down really hard. I heard a “crack” and a bunch of spaces appeared on the screen. The spacebar now works just fine. Whatever was causing it to stick has been broken, pulverized, pushed aside, or otherwise rendered harmless.
I don’t know why it worked, what was causing it to stick, or if you’ll have the same results. If you choose this course of action, you’re on your own. If your keyboard breaks or your laptop begins to emit a foul odor, don’t hold me responsible.
Comments
Hugh
February 13, 2006 9:04 AM
I've had my infant son pull the keys off my keyboard and few times and had to perform the push-crack a few times as well. I've noticed that there is a hook for part of the connector that should be slid underneath first.
Aaron
August 12, 2006 9:43 PM
The push-down-really-hard method works miracles.
tom
August 28, 2006 12:09 PM
hey i just did the same thing and it worked. awesome. thanks for the advice. this is a dell though, so it must work for all sticky laptop space bars.
James
October 13, 2006 6:38 PM
You have rediscovered the fix we used to apply to ADM-3's back in the day.
jim
March 14, 2007 11:51 PM
wow just tried the push really hard and it's seemed to completely fix my problem. the spacebar feels really smooth!
Bob
January 10, 2008 12:31 AM
My Left arrow key has been sticking for a while, this method hasn't 100% cured the key, but it operating at a nice 90%. Thanks a lot Adam and your Neanderthalian logic!
Anon
October 22, 2008 6:37 AM
My space bar is now cured! Such a simple thing for a really annoying problem! Thanks
Karen
October 12, 2009 8:43 PM
Yeap! This amazing technique works :-) Thanks!
Devon Mercurious
March 4, 2010 2:13 PM
I have a powerbook G4 This is my problem My spacebar wnt work at all except I press the command or ap[ple key while pressing it then it work how do i correct this ? Thanks Guys
sam
June 30, 2011 8:00 PM
Yeeeaaah i tried it, i dont have to press as hard but still hard enough to anger me lol
sam
June 30, 2011 8:00 PM
Yeeeaaah i tried it, i dont have to press as hard but still hard enough to anger me lol
This discussion has been closed.