Hey everyone! It's been a while since my last blog post, I know. Anyways, I have come back with a nice repair I have accomplished so I can finally make a guide to help you out! Photos of my own process while I was repairing my Q10 was taken so you can see each step.
My keyboard worked fine, but because I work with a lot of tools and wood which gives off a lot of sawdust, some entered into my keyboard and stopped the 'P', 'Enter' and 'A' keys pressing properly although they still worked. This guide still works as a keyboard replacement guide and provides some other optional steps while you have your BlackBerry opened up.
Tools needed:
T3, T4 and T5 Screwdriver
Philips PH000 Screwdriver
A few pry tools, preferably a metal pry tool as well.
Notes:
T3 is RED
T4 is GREEN
T5 is BLUE
Philips PH000 is Fuchsia
Step 1:
Flip your BlackBerry to the back and take out the back cover, SD Cards, SIM cards and battery.
You will see that there is 5 screws easily accessible to you. 2 T4 screws and 3 T5 screws. Use the photos to assist you so you don't get confused with what screws go where. Remember to always keep screws separate even if they look the same just so you don't accidentally mix up a longer screw with a shorter one and so on.
Step 2:
Underneath the silver band you will find 2 screws that are hidden behind a small sticker. These screws are
T3, so unscrew those screws. Then you can easily slide the top housing up and it will slide out.
Step 3:
Next, flip over to the front of your BlackBerry and now you will have to pry the plastic "U" shaped piece off, which can be a little hard. What I did was press the Shift key down which opens a gap that you can put the screwdriver between the key and the plastic U piece, and then slowly insert the screwdriver further so it was in on it's own. Sounds weird I know, but it won't damage your key.
Once you have your screwdriver in, more to your metal flat pry tool to properly pry off the entire plastic piece.
Step 4:
Now that you have taken off the 'U' shaped plastic piece off, it will reveal 2 T5 screws. Proceed to unscrew them.
Step 5:
Flip to the back of the BlackBerry and move to the top of the device. You will see
2 T4 screws. Proceed to unscrew them. Once unscrewed you can carefully pull off the plastic back housing.
Step 6:
Move away the back housing. Now you have access to the motherboard, but first you'll need to disconnect the flex cables that are visible to you. That will release the board somewhat, but that will move us onto the next step.
Step 7:
Now you have to actually have to remove the motherboard CAREFULLY. The black sticker that sits under the battery (seen in the photos that has the SIM orientation, CC logo, serial numbers and battery contact orientation) also sticks to the motherboard so you have to essentially peel the motherboard slowly away. De-routing any flex cables, you essentially want to get the motherboard and hold it from the left side and basically hinge it to the right away from the sticker and it should peel away, if that makes sense.
Step 8:Now that you have the motherboard taken out, place it somewhere safe. You will need to continue working on the housing itself and away from the motherboard.
Looking where the + and - battery terminals are on the phone, you will see right next to that there is 2 tabs where it stuck to the motherboard. Don't rip it, but slowly start to peel it up. This shouldn't rip because it's a form of strong aluminium, but that said you still need to be careful. Peel it up to just above the FCC labels with the bin and stuff. When you peel up the 2 tabs on the right you will also discover a shiny copper tape just underneath it. Peel that slowly too.
If you see the photos, you'll be able to understand easier.
Under those 2 foil tapes that is peeled up you will find 2 Phillips PH000 screws. Take them out and keep them separate.
Step 9:
You're pretty much almost done here. Once you have taken out the two Phillips PH000 screws, turn the phone to it's side and use your index finger to slowly push the keyboard out near the keyboard's flex cable itself. Do the same for the other side too, and the keyboard will eventually pop out.
You have successfully removed your keyboard. Now you can drop in your replacement BlackBerry Q10 keyboard and do the steps in reverse. You can even clean your keyboard if it still works like I did with a clean toothbrush. Don't forget, since you have your entire phone apart, you can also use the toothbrush with some 99% IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) to clean up the housing for any dirt that's not accessible when the handset it put back together. You can also clean up the motherboard gently with some IPA and some Q-Tips/cotton buds.
OPTIONAL:
Now this normally would be it, but there's an optional step if you have your headphone jack faulty and needs replacing or cleaning while it's apart. Even though my headphone jack wasn't faulty, it needed a clean around the corners and stuff.
Up on the top, there are 2 T4 screws holding the headphone jack in, Remove those, and your headphone jack pops off. If you need to replace or clean, you can do so now.
If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments, or DM me on my IG/Twitter. I hope this helped you fix your BlackBerry Q10's keyboard, it's' been almost a month for me and the fix has worked!
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