Razer has made a remarkably feature optimized common use keyboard, bringing with a beautiful gloss finish, one USB connector, mic and headphone 3.5mm plug, a touch pad media panel, and that oh-so-sexy blue backlit keys with a flat profile rubber coating. Posting a review right after this.

But so the same problems always occur, even with something as sexy as this, its really got “the day of the month once in a while”. Things do get under the keys and that irritates people who appreciate well-made art as such (read: me). Having had the courage and foolishness to dismantle everything without so much of a second thought, well what do you think I did?

Introducing the blue LED lit panel and touch pads~

Razer Lycosa Touch Pad

So how did I get here?

The solution, as with most case, lies in the back of the keyboard. Gee this is idiot-proof: remove all screws.

You see that white round sticker in the middle of the keyboard? That’s a Warranty Protection Sticker.

Sticker Removed=No Warranty.

The way to go about this (unproven as of yet, thankfully) is to take it off from the edge of the sticker with your nails. Nice and slowly, like the wrapping paper from the present that your crush gave you. Place it somewhere you can remember too. Remove the screw under the sticker.

Now with every screw out, you can pry open the keyboard begining from the side where the wrist rest is attached to. Work your way gentle across the keyboard to the point where the wires exit the keyboard. That’s where you need to undo the locking clips by opening up the keyboard like a clam. where the hinges are on the both sides beside the wires. Then you will see the LED panel and touch pad panels (described as touch pad assembly here on) along with the silicone spring pads .

Left: Main Board. Top: Touch Pad assembly. Right: Media Touch Panel. Black block in the middle of the picture pin connection between main board and media touch panel.

What you see above is what you get removing the back cover off. A long touch pad assembly with silicone spring pad (hidden from view) connected to a main board via ribbon connectors and silver taped to it. The main board also connect to the media touch panel via pin connectors. You will have to remove the main board from the media touch panel gently. Try to to be gentle on the pins and still maintaining the position of the silver tape on the main board and touch pad. Set it aside, and then we can begin to remove the silicone spring pad and media touch panel.
I thank Razer for making a one peice silicone spring pad. I had a terribly great time with INDIVIDUAL spring bits from other keyboards, and I lost some of these bits too, but with the Lycosa this is not an issue.

Silicone Spring Pad. Media Touch Panel (right)

Remove the spring pad from the screw thread column slowly and gently. Patience and precise careful work are great things to have all the time. Then unscrew and remove the media touch panel as well and set aside.

Unscrew the media touch panel, and we will finally have the the key plate isolated.
Its gets a little tricky. You have to remove all the long keys. By that it means all the keys that are long and have a supporting metal bar attached to it. These are the left and right shift, enter, numpad enter, zero, minus, and backspace. All long keys are held by a primary column that has clip lock and another or a few supporting columns that do not have these locks, so do look carefully and push out at the right columns.

Metal Supports And Long Keys

You will see below what I have removed.

key plate and removed keys. some other non-metal-supported keys like a, g, h and numpad period are removed to allow water to flush thru better

There’s already some lubricant grease between the metal key supports and the plastic holder for the metal supports on the key plate, so you may want to either remove that completely or flush the key plate with water anyway and leave it there, drying just the area around it.

You can choose to remove more keys so that the water can flush out everything under the keys more efficiently.

Dry out the keys with a towel. You can then begin to remove some of the keys to dry the underplate to aid in quicker drying. I personally won’t recommend using a blow dryer for long durations or at high power, as heat may cause the plastic to soften without you noticing it, and may also cause the rubber coating on the keys to shrink too much in differnece, causing a seperation with the key itself. Nonetheless everyone is entitled to try and I would welcome your report=)

Its a long tedious task to dry it but it will be well worth it. Drying it well is pretty important if you do not want to cause your metal supports from rusting. Make sure you can dry as much seperate components as much as you can as your time (or patience) allows.

Well, I’m sure most people are able to assemble what they diassembled, but in any case, I will go thru it.

1.)All dried, place silicone spring pad onto the key plate. Watch for matching holes before you try to press it in.

2.)Map the main board + touch pad to the screw thread columns slowly and gently. At the same time concurrently, ensure that theScrew back.I hope you enjoy your fresh and new Lycosa once again.

Disclaimer: Modification and disassembly is carried out to the owner’s own risk of damaging and voiding of warranty. If you are not cofident and unsure, do try other more superficial solutions