A1297 17" MacBook Pro Keyboard

marioski

Hey there. Device listed above had some beer spilled on it a while back. Some cleanup measures were taken at the time, but not by me, so unsure of thoroughness. Keyboard is no longer functional, though trackpad, power button, and everything else on unit are all working fine. External keyboards work fine via USB as well. Might this be a good candidate for keyboard-only replacement, despite the tedious procedure?

John

Hi, and thanks for the post!

You're lucky it still powers on -- in most cases like that the connection between the power button and board would have been severed, but it sounds like you are an expert beer spiller. :-) Yes, I'd say that's an ideal case for a keyboard replacement. I haven't worked on many 17" unibodies, so there may be some particularities I'm not aware of, but the procedure should be basically the same. Just make sure you get the right part on Ebay, and use the guides on iFixit.com.

It may be worth checking to see how much more the entire topcase/keyboard assembly is than just the keyboard itself, because if it's only slightly more, it may be worth just buying the whole thing. It's a much easier repair to just swap out the whole topcase, and you also avoid the possibility of messing up the keyboard illumination, which it's almost impossible not to do when replacing the keyboard (or at least personally I've had a bad track record with that).

Anyway, good luck! Keep in mind you might still have some beer residue cleanup to do once you're inside...you can take care of this with a soft toothbrush and 90% rubbing alcohol.

Thanks, and let me know how it goes!

John