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Changing keyboards on the Asus EeePC 1005ha

By John Garner

Changing keyboards on the Asus EeePC 1005ha is pretty easy as you can see below.

First you need to turn the computer over:

Back view of Asus EeePC 1005ha pu1x bk

Back view of Asus EeePC 1005ha pu1x bk

Remove the battery, then pull back tabs
Then you need to remove the battery in order to pull back the small tabs that are keeping the keyboard in place:

View of the latches under the battery on the Asus EeePC 1005ha

View of the tabs under the battery on the Asus EeePC 1005ha

Note : to pull the latches back only a small movement is required if you use a small sized screwdriver, like in the image below where you can see I then also used to gently pry up the keyboard

Pry up the keyboard
I recommend using a small screwdriver (needs to be small as can be seen below otherwise you’ll damage the keyboard) to pry up the keyboard. You need to do this with some force but most of all do it gently (ie. prying not wrenching). You will hear small clicks when you pry it off the points where it is clipped to the chasis:

Gently prying up the keyboard

Gently prying up the keyboard

Gently lift the keyboard out of its normal position
When you have successfully got the keyboard up you will see that it is attached (to the motherboard of the netbook) by a small connector so don’t yank the keyboard out, you need to pull it up gently and then unlock the ribbon from the connector:

1005ha Keyboard Connector

1005ha Keyboard Connector

Remove the keyboard connector
In order to remove the ribbon from the connector you need to release it by using the two black latches that can be seen in the image below (circled in red) and are keeping the connector in the fixed position. These need to be gently pushed up. In the same way when you put the ribbon of the other keyboard back into connector you need to push these two small black connectors back in to their locking position:

The 1005ha keyboard connector has been removed

The 1005ha keyboard connector has been removed

Attach the other keyboard connector
Final step you then need to gently push the other keyboard ribbon into the connector on the motherboard and lock the ribbon back into the connector by pushing the latches back into their locked position so that the ribbon is securely connected to the motherboard. I used one finger to hold the ribbon in place then my small screwdriver to gently push the latches of the connector back into a locked position (sorry no photo of this, you need both hands for this operation 😉 ):

Attaching the other keyboard to the 1005ha

Attaching the other keyboard to the 1005ha

Push the keyboard back in
Probably the easiest step, you can now push the keyboard back in and then push the tabs under the battery back into their initial position. Voilà, now I hope this helps anyone that undertakes this fairly easy task, (compared to changing the hard disk) of changing the Asus 1005ha keyboard.

Note: check out Kevin’s comment about new ‘chiclet’ versions of the keyboard and plastic tabs that may need to be removed (22 Oct 2011)

Comments

  2. Hi there,

    I actually bought mine at this place here in Paris in person. It’s a small shop near ‘Nation’ RER station. Sorry this is the only place I could find on the net and just happened to be close by so I didn’t order it over the net finally! I was running late and the guy actually opened the shop for me just after 7 o’clock in the evening. He also told me he’d ring me if / when they could get hold of extra batteries for the 1005ha but haven’t heard from him yet…
    I also bought the cord at the end of the charger from him as I had purchased mine in the states and so no longer need an adapter to plug it in. Might help? Sorry doesn’t look like they have any pages in English though 🙁
    http://www.azaccessoires.com/art,934,clavier-eeepc-1005ha-1008ha.htm

  3. Hi, great guide.

    When I purchased mine I noticed that the left side of the space bar and the Alt keys are slightly higher than the rest of the keyboard. This area of the keyboard also seems to have a decent amount of movement as well. Does yours have moment in this area?

    Are there any of the keyboard pieces that side into the bottom of the case in this area? I see that there is one on the left and three to the right but was curious if I missed one in the pic.

    Cheers.

  4. Hi Sean,

    In the picture where I am holding it (the 4th image called “1005ha Keyboard Connector”) just to the right of my thumb you can see a tab that in your case may not have been properly inserted and would hence leave you with the keys being slightly higher.
    I did install a keyboard for a friend and the tabs at the back were not pushed it which then meant that the keyboard was moving up and down.
    Locking the tabs at the back solved this so you may find that going through the process again and checking everything slips into place properly might do the trick?

    Good luck…

    John

  5. Thanks for the detailed posting. My 1005ha keyboard went bad (m,l,p, spacebar all stopped working) about 3 months after getting it. I did not want to return it (too much installed on it) so they sent me a new one and your instructions made the replacement easy.
    tks
    Doug

  7. hey hi there guys, proud owner here of an eee pc 1005hab, yes that’s the midnight blue variant! I’m wondrin’ if we could possibly install a chiclet style keyboard like that of the newer models like the 1005p*? And, express gate was just released today, will it work? anyone of you guys did an SSD upgrade? holler back, alright?
    GODBLESS us

  8. I done all that but when i put the replacement in it wouldnt work and its a brand new one any ideas i cheched to make sure the cables are in properly to which they are

  9. Thanks a lot for this post. I recently bought an used 1005ha with keyboard problems for a cheap price, and bought a replacement keyboard on this chinese store (http://www.gemwon.com/ – also sells on ebay, but directly on the website is cheaper). I’m still waiting for both of then to arrive to make the repair, but this post actually made me a lot more confortable with the repair!

    Sorry about the poor english, I’m from Brazil.

  15. Thanks for this tutorial. I just purchased a replacement keyboard from Asus so hopefully it will fix the problem I’m having with the 1005HAB.

  20. This was such a useful guide! I loved the pictures you’ve put in as well, makes it very easy to know what to do. Thanks a lot! I’ve just taken out the defective keyboard (dead ‘n’ and ‘F11’ key after 2 years of barely any use) and waiting for the new keyboard to arrive.

    I bought mine at taobao.com, the Chinese giant online store. Cost me 145 RMB (around $22 USD), which is a hell of a lot cheaper than the prices I’ve seen on English online stores. URL: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10235603099 if anyone is interested.

  21. Thanks for the detailed instructions, made the replacement a snap. My daughter opt’ed for a white keyboard on the dark blue eee pc which resulted in a cool “Ice” look.

  24. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This tutorial came in very handy, as my keyborad just went wonky – adding the letter c when I pressed J or K and the also entering the details.

    Anyway took the keyboard out and found some small grains of sand. Hoovered it, tapped it, cleaned it and hey presto – it all works fine again.

    Not easy to find a black replacement keyboard here in the UK, so fingers crossed I don’t need to.

  25. I have a related problem… I think. The touchpad up and died. The device manager does not see it – I’m thinking that its connection to the motherboard (if it has one) has come loose. Does that make sense?

  26. I just purchased my keyboard from ASUS. http://us.estore.asus.com/. It cost $26.90 + $9 shipping. One thing that was not clear to me until I looked at instructions on another site is that the tabs under the battery must be pried toward you (ie: away from the keyboard, not slid left or right. Don’t bend them too far or you won’t be able to bend them back properly when you install the new keyboard.

  27. Thank and that will do it. By the way I am surprised that my Keyboard became bad so quickly. Is ASUS quality an oxymoron? I have order the Keyboard at ASUS estore (26$ + 9$ for the ground delivery), it arrived sometime after ordering it, it arrived with no instructions about how to replace it.

    Obiously they are on the cheap side.

    I called ASUS support and they asked me to find my way on their website.

    I know now I bought a cheap stuff (Eee PC).

    In all the case thank you ubikann.com for your help.

  28. Thanks for these instructions. Worked like a charm! One caution. The newer replacements are the “chiclet” variety. These have an extra two plastic tabs at the foot of the keyboard in addition to the four metal tabs that hold it in place. The plastic tabs will prevent the board from sitting properly. Just snip them off (I used a flush-cut electrician’s wire cutters), and you’re in business. Thanks again for posting this!

  29. Great info. Just replaced my keyboard, which had several dead keys. The first time I did it, none of the keys in the upper right corner worked – delete, backspace, enter, etc. So, I pulled it out, wiped the ribbon cable, and put it back in – worked great! Made me wonder if the old keyboard just needed a cleaning of its ribbon, but I’m not going to change something if it’s working.

  30. A question: I found a set of instructions at the link noted above (http://www.dell-laptop-keyboard.com/asus-eee-pc-1005ha-laptop-keyboard-black-p-394.html), just ordered my replacement from the ASUS site (much cheaper than eBay). One discrepancy: the other instructions say to unscrew two screws on bottom that hold the keyboard bezel. Then turn it over, and pry up the bezel. Then pull keyboard out (away from touchpad). So, no prying of tabs as in your instructions. I am wondering if this is just a different method, or if you recommend yours instead of this, and why? Thanks.

  31. Thank you so much for posting this.
    Just one question to Kevin above, you put the new chiclet keyboard into a 1005HA model? Which two tabs did you remove? Thanks!

  32. Thanks a lot for the detailed instructions.
    I just replaced the defective keyboard for a new one and everything works like a charm again.
    It will make my wife very happy that she can use her netbook again.
    Greetz from Holland.

  34. Thank you for the thorough tutorial! My computer took to typing by itself and left me flummoxed. I purchased a new keyboard from the Asus store for thirty dollars, spent five minutes on the installation, and now I’m back in business. One note for anyone else looking for solutions: after installation, some of my keys would type the wrong character when pressed – typing M would get me a 0, K would get me a 2; pressing Fn/ NumLK solves this problem.

    All the best!

  36. I installed mine yesterday but then only keys that’s working are enter, tab, and spacebar. Do you know? Is my motherboard bad or are keyboard bad?

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