Conference 7.286::atarist

        It is possible that  you have a "real" problem with the keyboard,
        however, I have found with mine that it is just oxidized
        contacts.
        
        Atari uses little domes that have what appears to be a carbon dot
        in the center.  When depressed, the dot shorts the PWB traces
        under it, which appear to be a carbon covered etch.
        
        I took my keyboard apart and cleaned the etch contact area with
        Cramolin Red, flushed it, then applied Cramolin Blue.  I then
        reassembled my keyboard (minus one dome which disappeared - I
        chose the caps lock key to disable) and it works much better, but
        not great - at least all I have to do now is to firmly depress
        the key in the center of the keycap.  
        
        Before I had to pound on the key to break through the oxidation
        (also I had to let the machine warm up a bit so the materials
        would expand and give a somewhat improved contact area).
        
        The keys that gave me trouble were - r, t, s, shift, space bar
        and e.
        
        Bob

    I have seen some wierd stuff with the keyboard.  I once had a problem
    where the keyboard was typing by itself.  I tried everything I could
    think of, after many hours, I broke down and drove to the repair
    shop.  When I got there it worked fine.  They said my unplugging
    then 're-pluggin' the mouse and joystick had fixed the problem.  Mind
    you there was nothing wrong with the mouse or joystick, they still work
    fine 2 years later.  So just try unplugging everything.
                 
    Jim

You might not be missing a "dome".  Did you put two under the RETURN
key?  Although the plastic allows for two under the RETURN key, only one
is provided.  I also wondered for a while if I lost one of those domes
when I cleaned all the gunk out of my keybaord, but later confirmed that
RETURN only gets one.

I don't know what those chemicals are, but I got good response by
cleaning them mechanically with an eraser, making sure that I got all of
the eraser droppings off the board by wiping it with a soft lint-free cloth.

I didn't have an oxidation problem, but developed keyboad problems after
having immersed the keyboard in a sinkfull of clean dishwater, part of
my attempt to get the cigarette smoke smell out if it.

    re: .2
    	I had a similar problem and the solution was to unplug one of
    my joysticks. It was new and worked fine in the store (later) but
    (first, then still later) caused the left side of my keyboard to
    go to sleep.  My older stick caused no such problems and the new
    one caused the store computer no problems. The guy I sold it to
    (with warning and no warantee) hasn't complained. Point being, before
    you dismember your system, or spend your paycheck getting someone
    else to do it, make sure the problem isn't some strange quirk due
    to your other plug-ins.

    Well I tried unplugging my joystick and mouse. No good.
    So I cleaned all the contacts on the keyboard. No good.
    
    Any more suggestions before I either have it mended or buy a new
    one?
    
    Thanks so far
    Tony
    

It is HIGHLY LIKELY, especially this time of year, that what has
happened is that a static electric shock went through your fingers and
fried one of the pins of the keyboard controller chip.  I did this once
to a H19 terminal, and lost a handful of keys, all in aproximately the
same area.  Somebody touched me and I felt the shock, and immediately
thereafter there was 5 or 6 keys that didn't work.

The fix, in all likelihood, is to simply replace the keyboard
controller chip.  It's socketed (in my system anyway), and should only
cost about $20.00 from Best Electronics or an authorized Atari repair
center.

    I know I've come in to this discussion a bit late in the day, but
    you could just try reseating (removing and replacing) the key board
    chip if it is socketed on your system. Many faults are caused by
    the chips creeping out of the socket and by (invisible) oxidisation
    of the socket and chip legs.
    
    We see this sort of problem a lot in field service.
    
    Best of luck Chris.