Dead

This is the inside of a Microsoft wireless keyboard 2000. It had been left unused for a long while and the batteries had leaked over the terminals, but even when I cleaned it up, it refused to come to life. The receiver showed up when plugged into my computer, but the basic keyboard refused to wake up.

Cheap keyboard like this have very little to them. There is a silicon-rubber mat with bumps in that forms the switches. A plastic plate with contacts on that sits under the rubber domes, a small controller which converts which contact you've made and sends the signal to the computer - in this case via a wireless link.

It's quite horrible really, the keys have no travel, feel squidgy, and being wireless for no reason uses batteries and then stops working. I can sort of see the point of a wireless mouse, but for a desktop keyboard or a trackball there's no real benefit and several reasons not to like them. They are more expensive, more prone to fail, use batteries (though you can obviously use rechargeable) and technically have more lag so not so good for games...