Background
I have two Librem 14 laptops (one as-new, one with faults that I’m attempting to repair). They sat in storage, unused in their original boxes, for a few years while I’ve been busy raising a young family. One Librem 14 is essentially like-new without any issues. The second had unresolved issues (returning the device to Purism in the USA was cost prohibitive for me and I was unsure of the backlog they had given customers had issues with product orders). This post is about bringing that second device back into use. It has a battery/charging fault and a keyboard fault (cross keys), and I broke a keycap hinge trying to self-diagnose (reading guidance from other threads), so I’d rather get some informed opinions before doing more damage.
I do have a ticket open with Purism Support, but given the current backlog I’m hoping the community can help in parallel, especially with sourcing parts (as the automated reply indicates delays).
Issue 1 - Battery / charging / barrel jack
- Battery wasn’t detected at all on the faulty unit - LED white (AC only), 0%, no charging.
- The barrel jack visibly sparks when plugging in AC to this unit.
- I swapped batteries between my two units. The “dead” battery took an initial trickle charge once it was in the good laptop, then charged to 100% normally (in the faulty laptop) - so the cells themselves seem fine, and it matches Purism’s own note that deeply-discharged batteries after long storage can take a while to start registering charge again.
- Back in the faulty unit, the reported charge has since done odd things - 49% health, then 6% health this morning. The LED stays orange (what I’ve been calling yellow) even with the battery and AC both disconnected, only powering on again after a delay. That persistent-LED-with-everything-unplugged behaviour isn’t in Purism’s documented LED table, so I suspect either EC confusion or a hardware fault specific to this unit. I’ve unplugged the battery and drained residual current by holding the power button. LED has since turned off.
Given the sparking jack and the odd battery behaviour are on the same unit, I suspect they may be connected rather than coincidental.
Issue 2 - Keyboard shorting (this is my main frustration)
| Key pressed | Also registers (+ is used to show cross-key) |
|---|---|
| F5 | F5 + F10 + Del |
| F10 | F10 + F5 + Del |
| Del | Del + F5 + F10 |
| 8 | 8 + 9 |
| 9 | 9 + 8 |
| I | I + O |
| O | O + I |
| K | K + L |
| L | L + K |
| , | , + . |
| . | . + , |
| → | → + ↓ |
| ↓ | ↓ + → |
I checked this against the key matrix table on the Purism keyboard troubleshooting page. Every affected key sits on Output row 0, 5, or 7, and everywhere those rows share an input column, you get exactly the ghost groups above (Del/F5/F10 on Input 4, 8/9 on Input 5, I/O on Input 6, K/L on Input 7, comma/period on Input 0, right/down arrow on Input 1). That’s a clean fit for a 3-way short between those rows.
If that’s right, F6, F11, and Print Screen (also on rows 0/5/7, via Input 3) should ghost together too - I haven’t tested that yet (I hadn’t noticed this, as the online keyboard-tester didn’t illuminate the function keys, but it appears that F6/F11/Print Screen all short and output the Print Screen).
The doc notes these shorts are usually on the mainboard near the keyboard ribbon connector rather than on the keyboard itself - which, in hindsight, means my attempt to find debris by removing keycaps probably wasn’t going to find anything. I broke the scissor hinge on the right arrow key in the process (and I may have damaged others so I’d like to buy some replacement scissor hinges).
I’ve removed and attempted reseating the keyboard ribbon cable several times (similar to this post /reboot-purism-14/23777/12. I’ve cleaned it multiple times with isopropyl alcohol. The ribbon cable doesn’t appear damaged. It’s worth noting I’ve also updated the following:
- Clean install: pureos-11-gnome-live-20260515_amd64.iso
- EC firmware updated: ec-1.14_2025-11-25.rom.gz
- PureBoot updated: pureboot-librem_14-Release-30.1.zip
Possibly related: “silver domes”
Purism’s Power issues page (#battery-drains-while-the-system-is-off) documents a known fault where uncovered contacts under the mainboard (“silver domes”) cause both keyboard cross-talk and battery drain while the system is off - fixed by covering them with non-conductive / kapton tape. My overnight battery health from 49%→6% drop looks a lot like that second symptom. Has anyone dealt with this on a v1 board? Removing the mainboard (#l14-mainboard-disassembly) would require me to redo the thermal paste and I held off doing this as it’s quite involved. Is it worth doing before I chase the keyboard matrix short separately, or are they likely unrelated faults?
Replacement Part #s / hardware help wanted
- Internal Keyboard - not listed anywhere (/Hardware/Librem_14/Maintenance/parts.html)(battery and barrel jack are, keyboard isn’t). Does anyone know the actual keyboard hardware manufacturer, or a source for scissor hinges / keycaps? There’s a “Librem 14 v01” keyboard listed by a China-based seller - layout looks close but not identical, and the keycap font doesn’t match Purism’s (which are likely made specially for Purism). Since the keyboard membrane is glued to the frame, I’d rather source replacement scissor hinges than replace the whole assembly.
- Barrel jack - Purism’s parts page lists it as a Same Sky PJ-023D, marked discontinued (contact Support to order). Has anyone sourced this independently, or found a pin-compatible substitute? It appears to be (Power Barrel Connector Jack 0.70mm ID (0.028"), 2.35mm OD (0.093") EIAJ-1 Through Hole, Right Angle). Similar to this post (/librem-14-power-jack-replacement/28024) mine sparking makes me want to replace it rather than keep testing it.
- CMOS battery - noting for my own records: Purism’s docs list this as a CR2025 (generic CMOS connector with positive-negative polarity orientation), however some users mentioned using the CR2032. Can someone please confirm the correct CMOS battery and polarity?
Happy to post board photos or run more tests if it helps narrow things down. Hopefully doing these repairs can help others keep their Librem 14s in service for longer. Thank you in advance.
