Trying to repair a hotswap socket, with a complication (Epomaker RT100)

Makerspace General DIY
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I’ve posted this a few places, haven’t had any replies. I’ve got an Epomaker RT100 that doesn’t work and when I opened it up I found that one of the hotswap sockets had been pushed out on one side, along with the solder pad.

Now it’s my understanding that when hotswap sockets break they usually only break that key, they don’t kill the whole thing. But that’s the situation that I have here, the keyboard doesn’t turn on or do anything. (Well the battery light seems to work. Nothing else.) There’s no other visible damage to any of the circuit boards.

If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the socket didn’t merely pull away from the circuit board, it also took a little piece with it on the side. And it’s my guess that the little piece there is a broken trace and that’s what the real problem is. Maybe.

I can do some very basic soldering but I don’t really know what I’m doing here so I thought I’d ask for advice. What do you all think?

I’ve tried messing around with it a bit already. I soldered on a wire from that contact to the far contact of the next socket over, and was a little pleased with what a neat job I did. I didn’t work. Then I had to remove that wire and screw around with it some more… I think the socket has basically pulled up the pad on the other side now as well, thanks to all the handling, so now I need to fix that too.

broken socket
broken socket1920×1440 182 KB

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If you are ok with it looking like a repair, this video is likely what you are looking for:

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If the keyboard does not start there is another problem on top of the one with the socket that is detached.
If it was only the socket then the keyboard would work with the exception of the key with the detached socket.

You can at least check if you have current that goes to the PCB, it may be only a broken wire …
Otherwise looks like a dead keyboard and you should ask for a replacement from the company were you purchase it.

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With the way that pad has been lifted off the board, it is going to difficult to repair. If it’s still connected electrically, I’d silicone glue it to keep it from getting any worse. If it’s disconnected, you’ll need to find what it was connected to before, scratch off the coating to get to the copper underneath, and solder to that (greenwiring I believe it’s called).

One thing to check because I nearly returned a board for it: if you only tested with a USB C to C cable, might be worth checking an A-to-C cable. I had a few cheap boards that have a USB C connector but don’t have the CC resistors, which means it won’t power on with a C-to-C cable.