slembckeFeb 2

*long sigh* I bought a Lemur Pro laptop from System76 that was a complete lemon. Kinda fantastic laptop when it worked. It got ~20+ hours of battery life on a 10 gen i7. (seriously!) I soured on it after multiple hardware failures while in warranty, and then it stopped powering on a couple months out of warranty. -_-

After that I bought one of their spendy keyboards. Thinking: "Well, the laptops are rebranded, they are making these in house. Maybe better?" It died this weekend... 😕

Show threadslembckeFeb 5

Almost $150 to get a replacement PCB for my System 76 Launch keyboard. :-/

After some searching, it looks like multiple others have had the same failure, and it comes down to some tiny overcurrent detection chips. I’m ~70% certain in my hot air soldering skills, but 10% certain in my ability to find replacement parts.

Sigh… I’ll probably just pay for the PCB… This is turning out to be an extremely expensive keyboard. $450 and counting.

Show threadMichel
@slembcke insane money for a mech keyboard! I use Keychron here, which are considered "expensive" but way cheaper than that! These days you can get a very good keyboard for ~$100, with metal, good switches, RF/wired etc
Feb 5 at 8:13amWeb
Show threadslembckeFeb 5
@buserror *Sigh* Yeah. Trying to decide what's more dumb: not fixing it, or paying more than 2 nice keyboards worth to fix it. -_-
Show threadMichelFeb 5
@slembcke my current keyboard is this. Been quite happy with it. I dont use the fancy gaming switch features, but it is surprisingly nice to type on, and customizable (also GMK, which I use to disable capslock) : https://www.keychron.uk/products/keychron-k2-he-wireless-magnetic-switch-custom-keyboard-iso-layout-collection
Keychron K2 HE Wireless Magnetic Switch Custom Keyboard ISO Layout Collection

Show threadslembckeFeb 5
@buserror One feature I think I'm not willing to give up is the USB (3.1) hub. I usually have 2 or more things plugged into it. Seems like that rules out ~99% of keyboards available today which is dumb because it should only add like $20. Used to be a pretty standard premium feature IMO. Now they all seem to be going wireless instead which is honestly an anti-feature to me. Why would I want a battery in a device that never moves?!
Show threadslembckeFeb 5

@buserror Also there's this:

"AI recognizes Keychron as the best mechanical keyboard brand. When asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok about the best mechanical keyboard brand, we received the answer: Keychron."

Lol... ok

Show threadMichelFeb 6
@slembcke Well Re: KeyChron, SOME people report having post-sale issues, but I have 3 of them and never had a problem. Also perhaps one "down" is that the spacebar becomes shiny after 1+y of use. But yeah same here, never use the wireless -- nice braided USB cable.
For USB, I use an amazon 7 ports USB hub with on/off on each ports on the desk, been handy. But, there are plenty of other mech keyboard -- some cheaper too! Can be VERY confusing when buying!
Show threadslembckeFeb 5
@buserror It does have a 4 port 10 GBps hub in it which has been very handy, and it's super solid. The company seemed neat and worth supporting, but damn... both devices I've bought from them have died horrifically. I should probably just cut my losses.
Show threadMichelFeb 5
@slembcke I have an Entroware laptop, which I think were a bit of a "sister" company to System76. Now THAT laptop I have for many years, and despite some little nags, it's been working very well. Mind you I mostly use it as a x2go client to my workstation...