I have just stupidly managed to snap off the F12 Key on my G4 17" Powerbook, as a fellow Mac user I am sure you know how infuriating this is! I have tried to re attach it but one of the "feet" needed to snap the key back into place has come off.

can anybody point me towards a replacement F12 Key? If not could you recommend me to a website us or uk that will be able to help me.

thanks

How far is the Apple Store from you?

Heh, Go to your nearest apple store, and steal one of the F12 keys from their display, and then.. Run like a Mother..... cause those apple people, Boy they'll get hissy if you mess with the hardware

Neztea

A new one has just opened in birmingham which i can access easily, i think i have fixed it, i sort of pushed a metal hook up and got the key's hook underneath it, i then pressed it down really hard and it seem ok, i will give it a few days to see if it is ok, what can i do at the apple store ask them for a replacement F12 Key?

they may just opt to replace the entire keyboard. you can always try ebay!?!

Yeah see what they say, is it under warranty?

One of the keys broke off my laptop. I reckon I sulked for near to a week.

Hope you can get it repaired.

At my last job we had a couple iBook that we used to "steal" keys from whenever one of the other notebooks lost one of theirs. In a school you can imagine that we'd go through quiet a few keys in a short period of time. When this particular notebook got particularly bare I'd just go to the Apple reseller we got our warrenty work done and dropped it off: they would replace the keys for free. Granted, we did 5-figure business with them so we did get preferential treatment but they said the keys only cost a few cents and they'd replace "normal" customer's keys for free too.

Try just asking for one from the place you bought your computer, it shouldn't cost more than a couple of dollars in the worst case.

I accidently snapped some keys off my iBook once, I went to my local Apple stores, and they fixed it up, they only wobble a little bit now. Just a little different than the keys that never fell off.

The other case would be that you need a new $50 keyboard. (well, at least the iBook keyboard is 50)

i messed up my W

used a needle to get the little foot out from under it
some tweezers and nimble fingers to get that back together
needle again to get it back in
reattached the W

all is well

it seems to be ok, its not as "solid" as it was before but its not fallen off yet, i ordered it from the apple store uk (online) on the weekend i will goto the apple store in bham and see if i can get another F12 key off them. if anybody comes accross one let us know would ya! i have to get a 17" keyb oard F12 right i cant use a 15" or 12" ??

thanks

How did you manage to snap it off in the first place...?

Oh yeas they do When we went there last time we put the microsoft website up on all there computers LOL only joking though I like apple but I did it just for fun

Go to bestbuy and take one of theirs.

i was cleaning it and the cloth got caught under the key as i wiped across it. its been fine all day today and i took it to uni and back no problems

The title and subtitle of this thread made me laugh lots!!

Unlucky, hope you get it sorted. I've so far managed to keep my iBooks in good working order, though with previous pc laptops I have lost keys before.

Dougal.

I think its fine, its not come off and has survived several trips to uni and back, just feels a bit wobbly when i press it...phew!

I assume you want to replace the F12 key for appearance reasons. Don't tell me that you actually use it?

The F12 key triggers Dashboard by default, why wouldn't you use it?

Me too!!! I dont know how, but yea. It was a pain seriously. Would be much easier to lift the keyboard up out of its slot and take it out and fix it, but still. A pain. It should work fine for you now dude. Just see what happens.