Can everybody mail me their "broken" midplates? Well yesterday I had this problem with my left-side convenience key not working. I suspect this happened after taking the phone apart several times (long story). Anyway after taking it apart twice this morning and cleaning it... still no luck. Left side key dead.
Upon closer inspection, and my third dissection of the phone I realized that the little tiny gold pins on the main board weren't touching the contacts on the little piece of tape on the midplate. So I gently bent those back and upwards with a tiny screwdriver and voila. Left button works again.
So I think all your midplates are fine, it's just the pins on the board are smashed down possibly from overtightening.
the plastic film around my left key on the midplate is coming up, i also suspected from repeated taking apart of the device.
Great info, if my replacement midplate from cnn.cn does not work, I know what is up.
I have noticed that If i don't tighten that screw(the one next to the left button) all the way, the screen distorts when certain keys are pressed and when the trackball is pressed.