deskthority

Hello & greetings to all,
I have an Apple M0116 keyboard which I got with a Mac SE many years ago, but I'm recently getting a problem with some keys sticking. More precisely, the key doesn't go down smoothly (some friction) and then fails to spring back correctly. This happens on keys around the edge such as the Numpad zero, Return and delete.
I haven't disassembled this keyboard in around 15 years so I wouldn't be surprised if it's dirt related.
Could someone give me some tips on where to start? e.g. how to safely remove the key caps without breaking them and if disassembling the keyswitches etc is a good idea.

Many thanks.

The most likely part of the switch to break is one of the 'T' pieces (the retention tabs). Fortunately the switch still remains together and still works after you break one off. Do expect pulling Alps keycaps to take a lot of force, and opening the switches is fiddly.

Does the keyboard actually look really dirty? I had an Alps keyboard sat gathering dust for years and none of it got inside the switches, and they still work beautifully — makes me wonder what has actually happened to the keyboard, perhaps something got spilt onto it?