Thanks, all suggestions are helpful on this one. A could buy a new keyboard/case for about a tenner but it will still have the standard USB outlet so back to square one. I kept telling myself not to bugger about with it but could not resist it in the end. Now I would like to resolve it anyway as a learning experience. Some more info, the wires coming out of the keyboard are red, blue, green and a plain copper or gold looking one which I original thought was black as I had not properly remove the outer insulation not having an electron microscope handy. The colour coating on the fine wires is not plastic, seems like some kind of spray on coating. Tested it with a meter and it is an insulator of some kind, too thin to remove normally, had to burn it and it ignites quickly for about a second, then have access to the core wire. If I plug a usb mini x usb standard adapter into the pc I get 5V reading on the black and red as one would expect. If I plug a mini connector directly into the pc a cannot find a 5V output at all. Sorry to ramble on but I cant be the first person daft enough to try this, someone must know the answer :-(

Hi Bris, thanks for your reply. Having spent some time on this I have found that the connections (pinouts) from the plug that I cut off to the keyboard are pin1 green=ground, 2 blue=data-, 3red=data+, 4orange=5V+. I have never encountered this combination before. I think you are right about the extra pin on the mini connector firing up the voltage but I had nowhere to connect it other than ground. As the adapter delivers 5v I think the connection is made inside via a small resistor. Even putting it back as it was would not work, half the problem was trying to solder such tiny wires. I how now given up and ordered a new keyboard/case. I did learn something though, not to do it again :-)

Good point woodchip but have you or anyone else seen that pinout configuration before. I probably did put voltage up the wrong wire but hardly surprising as I cut off a standard USB plug and assumed standard wiring. No serious damage luckily, just another tenner up the swanee :-)