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I have a Newton Keyboard but neither Shift key works with my Newton 2100

Huxley

Well-known member
I might be speeding headfirst into "dumb question territory" here but whatever: Does anyone know if the Newton Keyboard requires a driver or extension to work with a Newton 2100? My keyboard 'works' but neither Shift key actually shifts - I have to use the Caps Lock key instead, which is a pain. Tips or tricks would be most appreciated!

Huxley

EDIT: I just found this ~4 year old thread describing the same thing! Hey @Westinghouse - did you ever figure this out with your Newton keyboard?

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splorp

Active member
As mentioned on the tweeter, the Newton Keyboard does not require drivers.

The suggestion regarding a broken trace in that earlier thread is interesting, but I find it hard to believe that the same circuit board issue would happen to so many keyboards. I think the failing capacitor or dirty contact theories are more likely.

I’ve never had one of my many Newton Keyboards suffer from nonfunctional shift keys, otherwise I’d open one up a tinker with it myself.
 

Huxley

Well-known member
Nope. Bought a new keyboard. The new one works fine. Issue is definitely with the old keyboard.
Huh, that's interesting. I haven't attempted to fix / clean mine yet, but your comment definitely has me wondering if there's a design flaw with these keyboards that makes the Shift keys prone to failing in a way that doesn't seem to apply to the other keys...

Either way, thanks for confirming!

Huxley
 

Westinghouse

Well-known member
I still have the old one around; if you do manage to get yours working, please share your findings -- I'd love to fix my old one!
 
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