PDA

View Full Version : [FIXED 11.10.2007]Major hardware keyboard issues


wlgarfo
16th August 2007, 08:04 PM
Hi again,

so i recently fixed my keyboard issue and to lighten up darkness: it was not a software-issue.
after playing with the thought of returning the phone to tmobile, i flashed the "new official" tmobile-DE rom, and the tmobile service center told me, that this would void my warranty because the rom hasn't been downloaded from the offical tmobile-DE website... so i discarded the option of returning the phone in the next few month ;)

toda i woke up and retried my hardware-keyboard on the vario 2, i recognized something which was: the reason for the vario dropping so much keypresses, was a bad contactivity... i mean: i can hear the key i press "clicking" but no char appeared on the screen... so i disassembled the vario 2 todays morning, and searched for a way to fix this, a way to give the keyboard a better fitting, or somewhat like that. the difficultest thing was to remove the "void"-label without tearing it... took me about 15 minutes to remove this damn label, but it remained intact :D

after that, i systematically disassembled the phone, and i did the following things to the keyboard-parts:

removed the white label which was on the "contact-side" of the keyboard-circuit
realligned this label and put it back on the circuit
then i put the keys and the circuit back into the housing, and got a piece of paper
i cut this to be as long an high as the circuit itself is, and put 3 of those paper-sheets onto the back of the keyboard-circuit, then fixed the 3 sheets a little with the flex-cable connecting the keyboard to the main-circuit.
then put the phone back together an tested it

my keyboards working like a charm right now, i'm so happy that my phones completely working again, without returning it :)

i thought this might help someone who has got same problems, perhaps my keyboard got this malfunction after the first drop, i do not remember when this problem occured the first time, and actually... i don't have to anymore ;)

greetings from germany
garfield


hellow to all

so i'm using my hermes (MDA Vario II) for as much as two months now.
I dropped it two times, first time 20cm onto carpet, second time 40cm onto the street -.-
but as far as i can see, not much damage, some scratches, nothing to worry about.

since i have this phone, i flashed several roms onto it. Black/Faria/Schaps/t-mobile_shipped/dopod wm6/black wm6 final/and many others... even some of my own roms got tested in there

i wasn't able to test the shipped status for very long, because i flashed the first custom rom about five days after hardware-arrival

the one thing driving me insane at the moment is the f**king hardware-keyboard. sometimes the "red dot" (for the second assignment of the keys) gets locked, without me wanting this. or i press "space" and nothing happens, or even worse, it adds some crazy special symbols to my sms wich then extends to four or more sms...
the e and w keys sometimes do not respond, and worst case ever had: keyboards gets fully locked up... had to soft-reset.

during the testing of the many custom roms, which were pre-finals, (in contrast to wm6-release versions), i thought: "yes everythings working, and the keyboard driver is producing crap". but even with the dopod rom (wm6) now active on my hermes, i have problems described above.

may it be the 1.50 radio? should i go back to 1.47?
or is it an hardware issue? should i return the phone to my loval mobilcom-store?

its driving me insane, i have to recheck every word two times... and i have to correct many things... actually i'm typing very fast, and this lowers my typing speed by, lets say 2000%


looking forward to hear your ideas,
will be grateful for every idea, which gets me some closer to a solution...

greetings
and keep up all your good work
garfield

(sorry for typing bad english (if i did so), at least im german)

MikeChannon
16th August 2007, 08:53 PM
There can be software issues that cause freezing and perhaps laggy behaviour on the keyboard. However, from what you describe, I tend to think it's primarily a hardware issue. (Possibly made worse or even more annoying by software slow downs for unrelated reasons.

If having used different ROMs, key behaviour is still largely the same (eg the same keys respond poorly or require harder presses) then I suggest you have the not uncommon hardware keyboard issue:

Keyboard dismantling pics:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=319315&page=2

If changing ROMs leads to varying issues with the key board, but the behaviour of the keys changes ie different keys cause problems then it could either be software or the keyboard ribbon cable is poorly connected.

Mike

wlgarfo
17th August 2007, 12:32 AM
thanks for the link,
actually i thought about disassembling my hermes, but then again thought about warranty because its just 2 months of age...

i'll test the keys some more, especially the space, e, w, and "reddot" seem malfunctional... will keep an eye on the keys, and if original WM5 rom does not help, i will reflash the phone to factory default, and return the phone to my nearest store... they will have a solution :) and if it will be a replacement i'll be happy with it either ;)

greetings
garfield

wlgarfo
9th October 2007, 10:13 PM
hi @ all...

sorry for digging this thread out :)

but recently i recognized my keyboard to be malfunctional again.

with "again" i mean, i thought it worked quite good for some time (lets say a month or so) but for some tome now, i assume 3weeks now, my keyboard throws the same annoying malfuntions as it had done the time i opened this thread. perhaps i ignored them for a while, so i haven't recognized the malfunction, but maybe my phone was really "cured" for some time.

Note: i've been running on the official dopod wm6 rom all the time since i opened this thread. WM% and WM5 original didn't help me, so i decided to stick to WM6. i've just tried 3 different roms, and two pandora self-cooked-roms in the last hour, and tested my keybard very much.
but it seems to be faulty... it lags some keys (in fact "reddot", e, w, space, colon (as a result of the reddot hang) and sometimes i get the "reddot" locked with only pressing it a single time. three words later i recognize that i am writing crap ;)

so... any remainig ideas? or should i return it back to t-mobile?
i tried wm5/6 several roms
also tried various radios, at the moment running on 1.54...
if i want to return it, what do i have to look out for? should i flash it back to original t_mob_101_shipped_rom? and should i restore the original SPL?
i've simunlocked the phone... but did'nt SUPERCID it... always used the Hard-SPL 2.10. Is there any way to bring my phone into a state in which it would be possible and safe to return it?

greetings
garfield

wlgarfo
11th November 2007, 02:04 PM
fixed my problem (see first post)