My sons PC has a broken on/off button. The button is plastic and comes away
with the front case. With the case front off there is no problem pressing
the electronic switch underneath and starting the PC. How would I go about
repairing the switch?
I thought you just wrote that the switch was fine, doesn't
need repaired, only the button is broken.
If this is the situation, it depends a lot on exactly what
that button is like. "Often", the case front plastic bezel
has a recessed hole mounted into it. Inside that hole they
place a spring, then the button slides in, catching two of
it's side tabs on slots in the molded plastic bezel hole.
This is a reasonably reliable way to do it, but I suppose
nothing is impossible for a kid to break.
It's an old second hand PC with no documentation and I
have no idea what make it is.
A better description of exactly what is broken, what and
where going into great detail, might help. Linking to a
picture of it that you host elsewhere might help a lot too.
I don't know how mechanically inclined you are nor how much
experience with drilling, soldering, etc, but it wouldn't be
too hard to either put in a new switch hole or drill out the
existing switch hole to put a separate replacement switch
assembly in... though if placed where the original was, the
easiest way to do it is to use a large enough diameter
switch that the original switch cavity is entirely removed.
"Sometimes" the easiest way to remove it is to just take a
bare hacksaw blade in your gloved hand and approach it from
the back side of the bezel, flexing the blade to cut it
flush to the bezel. Other times a dremel tool might be
easier to use.
If you don't care about reusing the original switch cavity
for the new switch, (or even if you do) just measure the
clearance between the bezel front surface and the case metal
frame front surface while the bezel is on the case so you
will know how much clearance you have for a replacement
switch.
If it's just some little plastic tab broken off of
something, if broken off the bezel portion it might be
possible to superglue or epoxy it on again or implement
something equivalent with scraps of material (metal,
plastic, etc). If it's just the tabs on the button that are
broken, and the button comes out the front when released,
one way to fix that is to take a long thin bolt with a nut
on it. Cut away part of the back of the button that
contacts the switch when depressed, put the nut on the bolt
and put it through the back of the bezel button cavity.
Screw the bolt into the back of the button (drill a slight
hole if necessary into the button and/or fill the back of
the button with epoxy so you have a larger area to work
with) then once you have the screw length adjusted to press
the switch when the button is depressed, turn the nut till
it becomes a stop, preventing the button from being pushed
forward too far out of the cavity by the spring. Once the
nut is in the right position, put a drop of super-glue or
loctite on it to keep it from turning over time (or use two
nuts tightened against each other). Some bezels may not
provide enough room to do this, you really have to take it
on a case by case basis (pun intended).
