Rant: My trusty mechanical keyboard finally gave out after 12 years of service

It was the Z key on my old Das Keyboard. Just stopped registering last Tuesday during a late night writing session. Tried swapping the switch with the Scroll Lock key but my soldering job was garbage and now the board is a brick. Thing had been through 3 moves and countless spilled coffees. Anyone had luck bringing a dead mechanical back to life or should I just accept the loss and start shopping for a new one?

2 comments

2 Comments

willow6722d ago

Man that really hurts... twelve years is a long time to build muscle memory with a board. I had a similar thing happen with my old Filco, the A key just gave up one day and I tried the same switch swap trick but ended up with a half melted mess. Honestly the worst part is knowing every new board will feel wrong for months. Maybe check if the PCB traces are still good before you give up, sometimes it's just a broken solder joint on the controller that a local repair shop could fix for cheap.

lane.joel2d ago

Is it really that serious though? "Twelve years is a long time to build muscle memory" I mean it's a keyboard not a custom fitted baseball glove. You hit A and it types A it's not that deep. I swapped from a tenkeyless to a 60% a few years back and it felt weird for maybe a week. People act like their fingers are going to forget how to spell or something. Unless you're typing for a living like a court reporter you'll get used to it fast.