[olpc-help] Sticky keyboard keys; Please RMA the laptops

[Anonymous]

After being told I could not RMA my laptop, I attempted a "field repair".  I disassembled the laptop to the point where the green rubber mat comes in contact with the circuit board.  I lifted up the corner of the mat with the Alt key to see if there was anything blatantly wrong with it.  Seeing nothing wrong, I determined there was nothing I could do so I reassembled my OLPC and turned it on.

Surprisingly, not only did the laptop turn on but the problem with the Alt key appears to be gone.  Now, it has only been a few hours so the problem might return, but this indicates to me that the problem is definitely a hardware issue and likely is related to how the rubber mat comes in contact with the keyboard circuit board area.  My best guess as to what is causing the problem is either the glue holding the rubber mat down is conductive or the keyboard needs air under it to work correctly.

While I was taking my OLPC apart, I thought of a software work around.  I could probably write my own key map and just assign the Alt key to nothing.  That way Linux would completely ignore any Alt signals.