My TV remote control became less and less responsive. Some buttons stopped working altogether while others responded only when pressed very hard or wiggled around in their socket. This situation became truly inconvenient until I decided to buy a new remote control. However, just before going to the store I decided to open the remote control and see if I can fix it.
I found very quickly that the remote control itself work perfectly – when I used a screw to shorten its contacts it responded perfectly. I didn’t even have to check if it emits IR light because this model has an LED that flashes every time a button is pressed. I realised that the contacts at the other end of the buttons are worn out. So I decided to fix them by gluing small caps of aluminium foil onto them.
Luckily this model had a plastic frame with holes for the button, so I placed aluminium foil on the frame and punched nice round caps by pressing the button.
I then glued the caps to the buttons with a wee bit of glue to get this:
And now the remote control works perfectly except for the volume up/down buttons.