"robb" wrote in message
...
wow thanks legg,

i guess alot of detective information is allready there in the fault
description that i ignored.

namely a group of buttons have all failed yet other groups of buttons with
different functions has not failed on the same board should lead one to
suspect a possible common shared connection between these three failed
buttons.

so look to the common connection point for all three failed buttons.

how simple and forthright yet elusive to amateurs like me.

one interesting thing i noticed is one of the alphanumeric LED cells has
artifacts (slight glowing) displayed in it and the artifacts shimmer and
change slightly when a BAD buton is pushed could this indicate a failure
of
some component ?


Sounds like there might be a missing ground, which would cause current to
flow down paths it shouldn't. It's common for problems like this to be
caused by cold solder joints or hairline fractures in circuit boards, I'd
start by touching up any suspect joints.