Replace Toshiba Satellite 555-C5274 laptop keyboard

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Toshiba Satellite C55-B5200 Keyboard Replacement
I have seen YouTube instructions on how to remove the keyboard from a Toshiba Satellite laptop but not for a Toshiba Satellite 555-C5274 laptop.

Will these instructions be ok? Toshiba Satellite C55-B5200 Keyboard Replacement.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Toshiba+Satellite+C55-B5200+Keyboard+Replacement/105087
The pictures look exactly like the Toshiba Satellite C55-B5200 laptop & Keyboard I’ll work on.

After replacing it, will the Toshiba Satellite 555-C5274 laptop recognize it so it will usable, or do I have to do anything so that it will be usable?

With all that said, none of the keys on the Toshiba Satellite 555-C5274 laptop work.
— The mouse pad runs excellently.

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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I have found that you get excellent information at Ifixit. Although I’ve never replaced the keyboard in a Toshiba laptop, the information that they have put looks good.

Some things to keep in mind when replacing your keyboard:

* Either wear a static-removal wrist band or touch some metal from time to time while doing the keyboard replacement, to de-static your hands, so that you don’t short something out while working on your laptop.

* Keep track of where you removed which screws, so that you will get the same ones back in the same holes when you are putting it all back together. I have found that a piece of posterboard, with diagrams drawn, is a good place to put the screws after removing them.

* Be careful when removing the back. Sometimes it’s not easy to get it loose.

* A magnetic screw driver is useful to keep from dropping screws where you can’t easily retrieve them, or to retrieve a screw if you have dropped it.

* Be extremely careful when removing the ribbon cable – it likely has tiny clips, and those tiny clips are very easy to break if you aren’t careful. And once you break them, your motherboard may be toast.

If you go slow, and if you have a big, clean work area, you should be fine. This doesn’t look that hard. (The hardest part for me would be removing the back, after I have removed all of the screws.)

Before starting, does an external keyboard work? If it doesn’t work either, then there is likely some other problem, not the internal keyboard.

For future reference, if you use an external keyboard whenever you are at your desk, you will put less wear and tear on the internal keyboard.

Good luck!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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cmptrgy

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Minor but irritating cause: in the area the keyboard clips into on most laptops you will find either raised metal “pips”, a sprung connection or possibly a stuck down foil extension which is connected to the metalized lining of the plastic parts. The area will align with a small area of the metal base of the keyboard which is left exposed (especially if you find a hole punched in the plastic backing film for no reason.)

All laptops have this – it facilitates the draining of any static charge you generate on the back plate as you charge up shuffling your office chair on the carpet (that can be up to 18Kv on a  dry day apparently.. basically you are one connection of a leyden jar, the plastic keys are the jar’s insulator, and the metal back plate of the keyboard is the other side or the jar the opposite charge is induced upon and the keyboard connections are in the middle as two layers with an insulating spacer between.)

This voltage is easily enough to swamp the keyboard signals and stop it working so be sure that connection is clean and connecting.

Images reveal your keyboard has screws so cleaning may well involve posting a cue tip (cotton bud) through the hole the pillars on the keyboard fit into to clean the contact area within and of course ensure the screws are fitted when you reassemble!

As to testing I would also suggest attempting to boot a Windows recovery media if you have it, as without a keyboard you won’t get very far, but if you can get to command prompt and type the issue is unlikely to be the keyboard..

It doesn’t seem extremely clear on how the connectors work so I attached some “open and closed” pictures which might help. These connectors require almost no force to operate (the one with the long flap especially so). Reseating them might even get it working as the connections are often carbon over silver conductive ink and sometimes the silver oxidises and the reaction leaves a non conductive ink residue and moving the ribbon a few thou can help, but I think it more likely you have a stuck key which has no special “function” but its enough to lock out the other keys. firing up notepad could reveal the culprit, but the chances of doing much about it are low.

I don’t know why they are lifting at the side of the keyboard – you would only do that while unclipping the clip at that side with a second tool and I can’t see a clip on the photo (they are not silver if the machine is black..). The only variation on the “clips at the top that push towards the back to release the top edge” I found were with the Lenovo group machines where one had a keyboard which slid down the machine to engage a plug under the mouse pad and was  held in place by screwing down the trim with the speakers, and the other was a horror where you had to prise the metal between the keys towards the mouse pad, which revealed three screws to undo between the rows of keys, and a third where the mouse pad area was removable and the keyboard slid out to the front, and as if that wasn’t enough Lenovo also like to cover the back of the keyboards on their later machines with double sided tape, so your mission could be worse.

Use plastic tools where you can, be gentle with all parts (ie don’t jam the clips back beyond the plastic surface they protrude from or they can break or jam), and take your time to avoid scratches!

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cmptrgy

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Thanks for the information. I did get down to the motherboard area, but those clips and a few other sensitive areas held me back from going further at this time.

On the ifixit website, it mentions Standard Keyboard with 10-key and touchpad with multi-touch control.
— On Standard Keyboard with 10-key, what does 10-key mean?

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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Numeric keypad: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ten_key

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cmptrgy

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It’s one of those jobs where having the right tools for you is the only way to go.

A lot of people would attend to the clips at the top with a guitar plectrum while lifting the edge of the metal keyboard base with another one, sliding the edge plectrum along to hold the keyboard up at the first clip whilst releasing the second and so on.

Myself I have got by with a the long flat edge of a Stanley knife blade (as the blade profile enables you to move the plate fractionally away from the clips by pushing it down the crack between case and plate before levering to lift though there can be blood if you get it wrong!), and the prior removal of the screws allows the plate to dome up to aid unclipping as you move to push back the next clip working along the top.

As it seems you’ve committed to replacing the keyboard the other way for your machine would seem to be to push a suitably sized drift through the screw holes in order to dome the keyboard plate enough for it to clear the clips as you push them back, but be careful- this can snap the clips if they are left singly locked in the “out” position so be careful to only use as much force on the plate as is needed to pop it clear of the clips as you release them. Some HPs actually left a hole in the plastics under the WiFi card door so you could push the keyboard up in this way once the WiFi card was removed.

If you have some other issue I made some fairly generic notes at the link below which might help. Also after all the screws are out it’s worth seeing if the optical drive can be slid out of the machine in the same direction as the drawer slides, as if the drive does come out that way there may be two or three large headed screws with short tiny threads hiding under the drive facia. It’s not shown for this model, but sometimes those fixings vary with the drive manufacturer though most recent drives have the side and rear fixing holes now..

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/completely-black-screen/#post-2395171

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cmptrgy

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Thanks everyone. Mission accomplished. I took my time today and all went well.

My previous experience in https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/completely-black-screen/ was a disaster due to inconsistent communication.

Between the previous posts and this posts recommendations I put myself in charge in this situation & was much more beneficial.

For someone turning 80 in a month, I’m more than proud of accomplishing what I had to do: I’d say better than never.

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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Excellent! The best part of doing a job like that is, after you have finished, it actually works!

I took my daughter’s laptop apart to clean the dust out – it kept rebooting due to an overheating problem. I had what looked like a thousand pieces on the dining room table. My daughter cried, “Dad, will it ever work again?” I was thrilled that, when I got all 1000 pieces put back together, it worked perfectly! And no more rebooting!

Now I get to do some of the same on my truck – it won’t start, and I’ve narrowed it down to the starter relay, the starter solenoid, or the starter itself. It seems so simple till I start reading some of the DIY posts on the internet! Maybe I can fix a mechanic’s computer in exchange for him fixing my truck!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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cmptrgy

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Been there with the truck.

Beware the modern ones measure the volts dropped across the battery fuse (done via the ECU) and drop the relay out if the crank current is too high to prevent a motor with shorted turns from catching fire too easily.

The fun starts when years of starting pulses fatigues the fuse raising its resistance (and thus the apparent current) and quickly turns to horror if the fuse blows as the ECU remains operating but each attempt slowly cooks the current port in t he ECU which gets expensive to fix.

If you see a 100A or so fuse bolted to the earthy side of the battery, perhaps replace it with the manufacturer part anyway.

People will talk. I was using DC4 compound to revive heatsink compound the other day..

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