Well, I took out the TR1 keyboard and eventually got the spacebar keytop to fit back in place. It is tricky and I don’t think I could have done it without removing the keyboard.

Under the spacebar keytop are two wire hinges. Each end terminates to make four total attachment points. The wires on the keytop fit into brackets on the base. Then you press the spacebar down hard in three places. There are inverted-V white “springs” on the base; pressing down snaps the keytop so it grabs them. It is simple once you have done it, but takes some thought and visualization to figure out the first time.

How to remove the TR1 keyboard:

-    1) Turn the TR1 over and pry up the two rear gray rubber feet. Each hides a small Phillips screw. Remove the two screws.

-    6) To reassemble, reverse. The ribbon cable goes in a slot on the left side of the brown connector. Snap the brown connector top down (like closing a small very skinny door.) Put the ribbon cable back under its holder. Snap the keyboard back in—the F6 and F11 tabs will automatically catch. Put the screws back and finally the rubber feet.

The keyboard-removal procedure is not difficult and not really dangerous. Just work carefully to avoid snapping the F6/F11 tabs or accidentally scratching anything. It was more dangerous for me to pull up on my spacebar keytop (to get a crumb out from under it) and then risk breaking a bracket. Fortunately, the spacebar seems fine now.

I have a photo showing the TR1 inside with the keyboard off. It is not real exciting but I could post it if there aren’t some sites that already have photos of the interior. If there ARE sites that already have interior photos, maybe someone here could post a link to the pics.

Here are three photos of the TR1. Each one is roughly 1.5 MB in size.

The first shows what it looks like with the keyboard off.

The second is not as exciting. It shows how thin the keyboard is. I am showing the back of the keyboard since most of you know what the front keys look like!

The third shows the rear of the TR1 with the battery out and the memory access door off. Nothing you couldn’t do yourself in one minute with a jeweler’s screwdriver…

A couple of details. In the first photo, you can see off-white pieces of tape on the bezel, just above where the F5 and F11 keys would be. I put these on so I could easily find those keys by touch, when working in the dark. Fn-F5 controls brightness. F11 switches between normal and full-screen view in Internet Explorer. Given the relatively small vertical size of the TR1 screen, it helps to get rid of menus to gain more screen area.

In the third photo are strips of Velcro, the soft type. These provide felt-like padding for the base. But more importantly, I can put the TR1 on a little shelf that clamps to my tripod. The Velcro holds the TR1 on the shelf while I remotely control my camera and check downloaded photos.

Well, that’s the tour!. Sorry I didn’t get all the outer casing off. My goal was just to get my keyboard working again, which I did.

Here’s a little photo journey I took through my
TR1AP to replace the keyboard:

http://uberdogs.typepad.com/photos/sonytr1ap/

- CG

Why are computers so dumb ??? My keyboard has been “clicking” a lot lately, just like the left part of it wasn t attached anymore. So i followed the journey of cosmology_guy (great job thanks !!). Ii figured that it was only a screw that was not tightened enough. I was already looking wayyyy too far. But i got my prob fixed and i m now :D :D

A computer is only as smart as the person using it.

And, of course, the previous posting was me - not a “guest.”  :xeno:

Sorry ‘bout that.

you can’t purchase individual keys. get a new keyboard if it really bothers you.