Strange laptop repair/parts-finding issue

[Mercutio]

One of my students brought me an Inspiron 1750 this morning. He had attempted to replace its keyboard and in fact had downloaded the proper documentation and followed along.
Normally, a keyboard repair is dead simple but in this case the guy broke the little keyboard ribbon cable retention bracket (do those things have a name?) and now the dude can't find it. I'm also at a loss as to what to suggest as an alternative since the ribbon does not stay in place otherwise and something simple like electrical tape doesn't seem to be working for holding it down properly either - there's a little "wiggle room" inside the connector and the keyboard functions inconsistently.

It's probably a $.01 piece of plastic but as far as I can tell, the only way to buy another one is to buy the whole system board. I've checked a few other laptops I have sitting around and none of the others use a retention bar that's quite like that one, either.

I told the guy I'd see if I could figure anything out but so far I'm kind of drawing a blank.

I can take a picture if anyone really wants to see.

 

[Howell]

I'm going to assume that this is an accurate picture​ of the ZIF socket. It is hard to tell in which direction the latch is providing force to develop a more elegant solution. My first thoughts are to superglue the broken latch with some reinforcement if needed. If the only solution appears to include replacing the motherboard, try to glue the connector in with locktite, elmers, epoxy (written in order of increasing permanence).

 

[timwhit]

3D printer?

 

[Mercutio]

The guy told me that the bracket (the black piece in your photo I think - I haven't actually seen it) came off with the ribbon and now he can't find that piece. I've never seen one that works that way. I guess I'll go buy some locktite.

 

[Striker]

I would use some type of adhesive as well. It's the cheapest fix I can think of anyway.

 

[Stereodude]

Adhesive isn't going to work. You need something in there to force the printed flex cable to make contact with the metal fingers in the connector via pressure.

 

[Mercutio]

I haven't gotten around to actually trying it yet. I'm not sure if the bar part contains any points of contact or if it's just there for tension.

 

[P5-133XL]

My assumption is that if you apply some pressure while the glue is setting that everything will stay in place, hopefully forever since not all glues are easy to reapply after failure.

 

[Bozo]

Is there a computer repair shop in your area that would allow to to root through their trash for the connector latch?

 

[sedrosken]

When I went to replace my keyboard, this was my greatest fear because they made it plain as day that if you screw up you have to replace the whole board, or look ghetto as hell while using an external keyboard.

 

[Tannin]

You might try someone mechanical. Not a computer repair tech - we computer guys are nothing more than board jockeys these days - but someone who actually makes and/or repairs things with his hands. General electronic repair guys (the ones who used to fix TV sets) tend to be pretty good at fabricating this sort of stuff.

 

[Mercutio]

For future reference, the connection is called an FFC (Flat Flexible cable) or FPC (flexible printed circuit) and is a quasi-standard for electronics guys. The connectors are standardized by the number of pins and spacing between them (in millimeters). Mystery solved, and in a way that does not involve the random application of glue.