Key requires a bit more force

[Dave Britten]

Ha, I fixed the problem. It was actually pretty hilarious - I've never seen this particular manufacturing "defect" before.

The air duster didn't help, so I dove in with the screwdriver. (Warranties are for wimps, right?) I didn't see anything wrong with the inside of the plastic key cap, or the outside of the keyboard dome sheet, but even just the metal dome itself felt harder to push than all the others.

I carefully started peeling up the tape layer over the keyboard domes to reach the 3. Then I had an "oh fuck" moment - I saw a key dome shoot out of the calculator and across the room.

After my heart started beating again, I examined the keyboard sheet for damage, but... all the domes were still there?

Yup, it turns out the 3 somehow had two metal domes stacked neatly underneath it! The extra, obviously not being stuck to the adhesive, happily made a run for it as I was peeling up the tape. No wonder it needed more force to depress. I dug the extra dome out of the carpet, reassembled the Prime, and now the 3 feels and responds just the same as any other key. Not sure what I should do with the extra dome, though... Tim, awfully nice of your team to hide free spare parts inside the case like that.