I have a laptop (an Apple Powerbook G4 17 inch) where the keyboard is not
working right. It seems the owner dropped it and the connector that
accepts the ribbon cable from the keyboard has come a little loose. The
connector has 40 very fine leads, closely spaced, that are surface mounted
to the motherboard (or should be).

Reconnecting this thing looks like a real challenge. The leads are too
fine and too closely spaced for my finest point soldering iron, and
I think it would take superman to apply new solder to each of those
leads without shorting them together.

The only thing I can think of right now is to just apply heat and
pressure to the leads, in the hope that there's enough solder still
under them to reattach them.

Replacing the motherboard is a very expensive option (about $600), and
I'm not keen on destroying the motherboard attempting to reconnect
the keyboard connector, since the laptop is at least working right now
with a USB keyboard attached.

Any advice very much appreciated.