I've got a TSU7000 that some of the hard buttons do not work. The bad buttons are: all hard buttons on the right side and two of the center (below the screen) buttons. The rest of the TSU700 is fine. The light button, the toggle below it, and all the other below screen buttons are fine. The remote touch screen works fine. I'm able to flash it and upload/download .pcf files with no problem. Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone know of any way to clean or check the buttons? I am familar with how to take the remote apart.

Well after being frustrated that the remote did not work properly, I decided to experiment a little. I took it apart and removed the pink plastic strip that acts as the continuity for the hard buttons. I cleaned it with alcohol, reassembled the whole thing and....IT WORKS GREAT!

Glad you got it working. My personal recommendation would have been the same but not knowing whether you'd done this type of thing before, I could not recommend that you crack the thing open.

For anyone else attempting this repair....

DO NOT USE fingernail polish remover or any liquid containing acetone. Use only deionized water or alcohol.

Lyndel

And... If you use a Q-Tip or cotton swab, make sure that you get all lint off the board as it does have a tendency to catch on the metal contacts (past experience). What will happen is that it will float around inside and eventually may end up in the center of the contact. The result is that the button will press but you may have to press a bit harder to activate it and get the friendly "beep".

How difficult is this procedure?
In particular how high is the risk that one destroys more than before?

I have opened and fixed many devices before, however, whenever I open remote any device with these kind of buttons I end up with a mess.

the foil is oily, does not fit when I put it back, etc...

And its really more that the button works when pressed a little harder and it just does not have the feeling as before.

Can this be fixed by your procedure?

How do you put the pressure feeling back?

Thanks

I did not find the procedure too difficult, however I'm used to dealing with small electronic boards.

To open the remote you will need the correct tools (i.e. small torques bit, very small screwdriver, and maybe a small pick.

The risk of "destroying" somrthing depends on your skill. Go very slow and don't force anything. It took me awhile to figure out how the device "snapped" together.

The only way you will get a mess is if you hurry and don't make good notes while you disassemble the unit.

The foil in these units is more like plastic than foil. If you are careful you will not destroy it.

You might not get the feeling back to the buttons, but what you will get is better continuity on the actual contacts. The "feeling" may not come back as it comes from the plastic levers that actuate the buttons. These are small foil dimples imbeded in a thin plastic strip.

I cleaned the small foil dimples for better contact on the board and this did not work. Was I suppose to clean the board contacts as well? If not, is there something else that I can do? The buttons do work, just not all the time.

Yes, clean both the board and the foil dimples as well. Make sure not to press too hard on the dimples. Also, ensure that you do not leave any lint on the circuit board.

I had the right hand two of the four hard buttons below the screen become intermittent and then fail (RU960). In my case, cleaning had no effect, but a little time tracing connectivity on the PCB revealed that the two tracks leading to the outer ring contact of the buttons had broken. These tracks (for the right hand two buttons) come from lower down on the PCB, where the contacts for the arrow keys are and join the button ring contact from below.

In my case the breakage had occurred just where the track joined the button contact - in order to determine this I had to scratch away the coating over the problem track. I did this very cautiously using a sharp multimeter probe. The other multimeter probe was connected to the source of the track and the multimeter was set onto continuity check. In this manner, as soon as I had removed enough coating to get electrical contact with the track, the multimeter beeps. Cutting too deeply at this point will leave you with two breaks in the track instead of one.

Ideally you'd be fixing this sort of breakage with a conductive pen or paint (too small for soldering in my opinion). I didn't have either to hand, but by exposing the track on either side of the break and drawing over the area with a very soft (6B) pencil I was able to restore connectivity and button function. (The pencil trick was a favourite for clock unlocking AMD processors by re-connecting some cut traces on the surface of the package. Just blow away any excess graphite to avoid it rattling around and getting into somewhere it shouldn't).

Standard disclaimers - if you don't feel confident, don't try something like this. If you break your pronto further, all you get to do is keep both halves...

Robin

My FirmButton 4 doesn't work any more. The tactile feel of the button is the same for the other firm buttons so I assume there's some connection inside that broke.

I don't trust myself to do the sort of repairs mentioned.

Does anybody think that a good TV repairman or a computer repair place would be able to fix it?

My worry would be that he wouldn't be able to get it back together again!