Med-Psych.com

I just made a post about replacing my Acer laptop keyboard. Replacing that keyboard was easy and straightforward.

Over the past few months I've been having intermittent problems with a few of the keys on my Treo 755p. While I've always had some minor issues with the phone, I have yet to find a phone that works better for my needs. It's not too big, I'm fairly quick with the keyboard, and most of the website I visit regularly have mobile versions that work very well on the phone.

When I was having problems, I did start to look into other options. I admit that I do like the newly released HTC Touch Pro 2. The Touch Pro 2 has many new features, but a lot of them are things I don't need. Much of it is eye candy. While the big screen may be nice for viewing some websites, that's only good if you have a fast device. From some of the preliminary reports I've read, the rendering of websites is a bit sluggish on Sprint's network. The only feature I think I would like is the wi-fi. There are plenty of times I'm in a location that has poor wireless access but a wifi signal at a time when I'm mainly interested in browsing the web. The Touch Pro 2 is also expensive (at least for now) priced at $349 after rebates and discounts. It's also a bigger phone and has worse battery life.

So, I had decided to look into what I could do to salvage my dying phone. I did even consider buying a new 755p which would be around $99 after all rebates and a new 2 year contract. I did some searching around and saw that people are selling the keyboards for the 755p on E-bay, just like they were for the Acer 3618awlci that I had recently fixed. The Acer went so easily I figured this would probably be similar.

It was harder to find information online about replacing the keyboard on the Treo, but I did see a few videos on how to take apart the 755p. I figured it can't be too hard.

I almost ordered the wrong part on e-bay. I saw they were selling replacement keypads for my phone and I was going to order that. I couldn't find any new keypads - they were all advertised as having been removed from old phones, but were in good condition. As I was searching around for a place that sells new parts, I noticed that places were selling the membrane for the keypad. It isn't clearly marked in the listings for the keypad that there is also a separate membrane behind the keypad.

If I had just bought the keypad, it would not have fixed my phone. The keypad is actually in nearly perfect condition. It was the membrane behind it that was not working right. I went ahead and ordered a new membrane for my keypad for $11.99 with free shipping, coming all the way from Hong Kong. I have no idea how a place can make electronics for this low of a price and that is including shipping it internationally.

While waiting for the membrane to arrive, I was having ongoing problems with the keypad not working. While it's annoying to type and have some letters not show up - and you have to go back and push really hard or from a different angle to get the letters to show up - it became much more problematic when it was the power button that wasn't working. Turning the phone on isn't horrible as I could use any of the other quick-keys, but shutting it off was a pain. Sometimes I'd just have to wait for it to shut itself off due to inactivity.

Anyway, the membrane arrived fairly quickly (considering from where it was sent) - maybe 10 days after ordering. Not only did they send the membrane, but they also sent a little screw driver that I needed to take apart the phone. I hadn't really thought that I'd need a special screwdriver.

I removed the battery cover and stylus and started removing the screws - thankfully I had the special screwdriver or I would have been stuck. I wasn't able to get the sides to separate properly. I figured maybe I missed a hidden screw underneath the rubber grip on the back top right corner. I removed the rubber grip and saw what looks like an antenna, and a small red circle that says "palm" in another spot. I'm not able to get the phone to separate so I decide I should look up online how to do this.

I found a video on you-tube, but the video showed using a special tool to separate the sides of the phone once you remove the screws. I was hoping I didn't need that kind of tool also. The helpful part was that they showed removing a screw right where that red ciricle that says "Palm" was located. I realized they must have put a red sticker over the screw-head to verify that the phone has not been opened. I went ahead and pushed the screwdriver into the circle and sure enough, it was a screw. I got that removed and still had a hard time separating the phone. I didn't have the special tool, but used a mini flat-head screwdriver. I think some areas of the case may have cracked partially, but not all the way through. I tried to be as careful as possible, especially in those areas where I could see the case was being stressed. I did finally work the case apart. While the video showed the speaker wire connection, in my phone it looked like it was not only plugged into the oppose side, but also had a point where it was attached to the other side. After playing around with the configuration of the two halves, I decided to try to see if I could remove the keypad without actually unplugging the speaker and fully separating the two halves.

I was able to remove the screw over the keypad, and remove the ribbon holding the keypad in place. There were two more small philips screws holding the keypad in place that wasn't shown in the video. The video must have been geared towards replacing the screen more-so than replacing the keypad. I did finally get the old membrane removed and got the new one put in. Connecting the ribbon was easier than I had expected and amazingly I was able to put all the pieces back together to get the phone case closed properly. All the screws went back into their proper places and amazingly, the keypad seems to work like new again.

While I would definitely do this again if I needed to, I have to admit it was a bit more anxiety provoking than changing the keyboard on my laptop. The parts are smaller and it was more stuff to take apart in order to get access to the keypad.

I am happy to think that I was able to salvage my phone for $11.99 and a bit of sweat as opposed to a new phone for $99 with a new contract (meaning I couldn't get as good of a discount on a new phone for 1.5 years). Maybe I will wind up buying the Touch Pro 2 after I see more reviews from people about how it really performs and possibly after a price drop, or maybe by the time my phone is caput a better option will be available (which is very likely given how rapidly the cell phone market is evolving).

Hi MD1,

I know this topic is a bit older already, but I am facing the same problem: My Palm Treo 755p keyboard doesn't work as well anymore.

Could you please post where you bought the membrane that you replaced? I can't seem to find one. If you don't want to post that here, could you perhaps send me a private message with the information about the spare part?

Thank you!

Ebay - something like this. After posting, I realized the above one is used. There are also some new keypads on ebay like this. I think the one I bought also came with a special screwdriver though.