My son just rage lost in SC2...

[CuriousMike]

... and punched his brand new Christmas gift , a QuickFire Rapid keyboard... busting the springs under the space bar.

Anyone know if this type of thing is repairable?

If repairable, the keyboard is now mine.

 

[CuriousMike]

Well, now that i'm looking at it, it doesn't appear broke.
It's just the spacebar, and it appears two level-ers popped off but don't look broke.

 

[Red Hawk]

I think your son needs a break from SC2.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Looks like it just needs a new set of stabs. If the stems are broken off, though, you'll have to figure out a clever way of getting them out.

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index....keycap-stabilizer-insert-2pcs.html#ad-image-0

Edit: if you're looking for a better idea of what these should look like: clicky

The ends of that metal bar thing on the keyboard itself hook into the things that broke off (stab == stabilizer). You can pull off any of the shift keys, the enter key, or the backspace key if you need a better idea of what you should be looking at. Now, turn over the spacebar and look in the outer two "holes". You should see the remainders of what your kiddo broke off in them.

Overall a very easy fix for the reward of typing on a mechanical keyboard (but browns... ugh ). And WASD Keyboards (where I linked you) is highly reputable, just ask the dudes over at geekhack.org what they think of them

 

[rambonutz]

^ What chubbyfatazn said. This youtube video might help too: "How to change / remove bigger keycaps of a Filco mechanical keyboard".

 

[CuriousMike]

Edit: if you're looking for a better idea of what these should look like: clicky

The ends of that metal bar thing on the keyboard itself hook into the things that broke off (stab == stabilizer). You can pull off any of the shift keys, the enter key, or the backspace key if you need a better idea of what you should be looking at. Now, turn over the spacebar and look in the outer two "holes". You should see the remainders of what your kiddo broke off in them.

Overall a very easy fix for the reward of typing on a mechanical keyboard (but browns... ugh ). And WASD Keyboards (where I linked you) is highly reputable, just ask the dudes over at geekhack.org what they think of them

Dude! Your words + picture = win.
The stabs did not break off - they simply fell off.
It took me a few tries to orient them ( they are evidently directional ), and a little trial+error ... but the spacebar is back on and we have a winner.

THANKS !

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Dude! Your words + picture = win.
The stabs did not break off - they simply fell off.
It took me a few tries to orient them ( they are evidently directional ), and a little trial+error ... but the spacebar is back on and we have a winner.

THANKS !

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Kinda surprised your son pounded on it hard enough for them to pop out... I've always had to wrestle the stabs out whenever I was swapping keycaps.

 

[magomago]

congrats on your new filco

 

[Fenixgoon]

keep the keyboard anyway

 

[DrunkenSano]

winner winner chicken dinner!

Kinda surprised your son pounded on it hard enough for them to pop out... I've always had to wrestle the stabs out whenever i was swapping keycaps.

hulk smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash

 

[BrightCandle]

Thankfully the keyboard fix is cheap, which should spare some money for some anger management sessions.

 

[sweenish]

I hope your kid's replacement keyboard is terrible.

 

[Zak_]

Get him one of those throwaway dells that's got keycaps less than a 1/4 inch tall! At least for a little while... That's what I'm suffering with while my quickfire is being RMA'ed.

 

[Snock514]

I have the same keyboard and I have 1 broken tab and I managed to switch it with one on the right shift key since I never use it. The button still works but it sticks a little bit on the side that doesn't have a tab if you hit it from the very end of it. Also make sure you put the tabs back the right way (spin em 180 degrees) because if you don't you'll have a hell of a time trying to fit the piece in the slot, took me a few minutes to realize they weren't symmetrical.

 

[Keeper]

I hope your kid's replacement keyboard is terrible.

+1

How old is son?

 

[CuriousMike]

He's 16, and is incredibly mild.
Quiet.

To say that his mother and I were surprised and disappointed was an understatement.

I talked to him an hour after the incident, and he was just in a major feeling sorry for himself state, claiming he isn't good at anything. (Claiming he wasn't good at baseball when he was clearly a good player, amongst other things.)

He has put a LOT of time into SC2, continuously watches streams of top players playing, reading key forums etc.

He told me "I've put so much time into the game, and I still suck."
Which can't be true because he's Gold or Platinum or whatever the next to the top rank is.

There's some growing up going on in the house this week, that's for sure.

 

[CuriousMike]

took me a few minutes to realize they weren't symmetrical.

Right - I sorta mentioned I had an issue determining orientation.

Unfortunately, I discovered that the backspace key is broke - not responding. Interestingly, I read a few reviews on Amazon of people complaining about that exact key breaking after time.

I suppose the fist pound just broke whatever that weak link was.

Ugh. I have a ticket in with Cooler Master to see if I can send it in and get it fixed.

 

[CPA]

I have a 17 year old who rages at times too. The funniest thing is when he screams about mouse lag (which may be true), yet doesn't install the proper drivers, has literally 10 other programs open and running (two/three other web-based games, open Skype, etc), all while trying to play BF4. Well, duh, what do you think is going to happen...somethings got to give.

 

[Nebor]

He's 16, and is incredibly mild.
Quiet.

To say that his mother and I were surprised and disappointed was an understatement.

I talked to him an hour after the incident, and he was just in a major feeling sorry for himself state, claiming he isn't good at anything. (Claiming he wasn't good at baseball when he was clearly a good player, amongst other things.)

He has put a LOT of time into SC2, continuously watches streams of top players playing, reading key forums etc.

He told me "I've put so much time into the game, and I still suck."
Which can't be true because he's Gold or Platinum or whatever the next to the top rank is.

There's some growing up going on in the house this week, that's for sure.

Just explain to him that all the best Starcraft players are Korean, and since he's not Korean, he'll never be the best. But he can be better at other things, like baseball, or driving.

 

[magomago]

He's 16, and is incredibly mild.
Quiet.

To say that his mother and I were surprised and disappointed was an understatement.

I talked to him an hour after the incident, and he was just in a major feeling sorry for himself state, claiming he isn't good at anything. (Claiming he wasn't good at baseball when he was clearly a good player, amongst other things.)

He has put a LOT of time into SC2, continuously watches streams of top players playing, reading key forums etc.

He told me "I've put so much time into the game, and I still suck."
Which can't be true because he's Gold or Platinum or whatever the next to the top rank is.

There's some growing up going on in the house this week, that's for sure.

Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Masters, Grand Masters.

GM is largely just professional SC2 players, or people who do 8+ hours a day.

Masters is where the best players are, sans GM players. The psychological aspect of this game matters a lot, especially how you tie it to what is going on, and how you use your mechanics to support your strategy.

Diamond is where you start thinking more deeply about the game, and your mechanics are already solid. Being able to start to execute on the ideas of masters helps you to get above, and using micro becomes more valuable.

Platinum - People from the lower ranks that finally figured it out and really execute well on their macro.

Bronze --> Gold...just building basic mechanics...back in the day it was all a wash and bronze/silver really meant nothing, and gold was only marginally better. Today its probably more stratified because only the dedicated players still play, but its still comes down to mechanics development. Having good macro is what will get you to Platinum; you don't need incredible counter strategies or deep thinking...having a plan, executing on it well while mataining your macro, and making 1 or two adjustments is all you really need. Sometimes you won't win (ie.e two guys have solid macro plans, but the rock paper scissors matchup means that one person's army is destroyed) and thats the fact of life in these leagues.




I don't know if you play SC2, but to be fair to him until you get to masters its all about improving mechanics. As you noticed in this other thread http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2362170 the game isn't easy, its really really hard.

But the other problem is that people in masters and above are those who habitually play all the time, sometimes its all they play, so they know not only know the mechanics very well, but they spent a lot of time with mind games.

If he has been putting all those hours into the game and he is still only Gold..maybe the rage quit was worth it ;-) J/K. But if he is not Platinum yet, and he has been putting in all those hours, and its been a couple of months at this point, maybe he should reassess what he is doing and think about what he could do to practice smarter.
Learning to step back, analyze your actions, identifying what is working well and isn't, and charting a course forward may be a great life lesson to take out of this.

 

[Soundmanred]

 

[Batmeat]

so in this case a rage fail = win............for you.

 

[Majes]

Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Masters, Grand Masters.

GM is largely just professional SC2 players, or people who do 8+ hours a day.

Masters is where the best players are, sans GM players.

Platinum is where you start thinking more deeply about the game, and your mechanics are already solid.

Bronze --> Gold...just building basic mechanics...back in the day it was all a wash and bronze/silver really meant nothing, and gold was only marginally better. Today its probably more stratified because only the dedicated players still play, but its still comes down to mechanics development.

I don't know if you play SC2, but to be fair to him until you get to masters its all about improving mechanics. As you noticed in this other thread http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2362170 the game isn't easy, its really really hard.

But the other problem is that people in masters and above are those who habitually play all the time, sometimes its all they play, so they know not only know the mechanics very well, but they spent a lot of time with mind games.

If he has been putting all those hours into the game and he is still only Gold..maybe the rage quit was worth it ;-) J/K. But if he is not Platinum yet, and he has been putting in all those hours, and its been a couple of months at this point, maybe he should reassess what he is doing and think about what he could do to practice smarter.
Learning to step back, analyze your actions, identifying what is working well and isn't, and charting a course forward may be a great life lesson to take out of this.

Isn't there a diamond league? Or did they take that out? I was always in Diamond when I got placed.

 

[magomago]

Isn't there a diamond league? Or did they take that out? I was always in Diamond when I got placed.

Oops, I fixed it Been a long time since I played. They did have a copper league for a while, and that one got nixed. Personally I would preferred keeping it just because all the really bad players need to go somewhere.

Honestly most my anecdotal time in Bronze and Silver was just about learning to stop cheese. Gold was really about learning to prepare for early timing pushes and some early harass while knowing the other person is thinking the exact same thing. I could never quite got into Platinum because my overall macro wasn't there. High Gold is the best I was able to consistently do. The other problem is I always played Terran and couldn't really interpret the scouts well, as well as wasn't consistent about scouting over and over.

What I wrote was really an amalgamation of everything I learned over time from pros playing, analysis on team liquid, and stuff I saw on Day9.

 

[Dumac]

He told me "I've put so much time into the game, and I still suck."
Which can't be true because he's Gold or Platinum or whatever the next to the top rank is.

Not to be rude but gold is pretty bad, platinum is okay, diamond is good, and masters is great.

I used to rage at SC2 as well, until I restructured my mindset going into the game. After that I played a lot better. It is probably your son needs to tackle too.

Although even the best players rage sometimes. I remember Day 9's story about how he punched his keyboard so hard his hand was bleeding after lousing a tournament match.