Various problems

Interestingly, it shows a Vesatec V80. Exactly the same thing has happened to the platten roller in my V80 :-(, so sometime I am going to have to work out how to repair that,,, Is this a real problem? I generally pull all the keycaps (and clean those with Maplin foam cleaner), then if possible take the rest of the keyboard apart and clean all the bits spearately. Yes, it's time-consuming (takes an afternoon to do a keyboard), but it doesn't involve making/obtaining special parts, etc. There is one big difference between a failed nylon gear and, say, that crashed hard drive or a failed custom chip. And that is it's possible to make a new gear using tools that a serious model enginenr (and thus also computer restorer) would have. But no way are you going to make a hard disk platter or heads in a home workshop. And another point is that in general it's possible to deduce the design of mechancial bits from the remains. If you have a nylon gear that was pressed onto a spindle and has now split (a very common failure mode), you can cound the teeth, deduce the pitch from the undamaged part, and thus make a replacement. Good luck deducing the properties of a failed ASIC in the same way. -tony