ernesto18

Q: Apple USB keyboard does not work

I have the same problem as described by Sweboss on November 15th, 2012. The Apple USB keyboard is working perfectly, but if I shut down the computer, when I switch it on again, the USB keyboard does not respond, and the computer is looking for a Bluetooth keyboard (which I had before). I have tried switching off, unplugging all peripherals, then unplugging the computer, waiting 15 seconds, then plug it in, wait 5 seconds (this is a remedy proposed in other mails). Switch on and the USB keyboard does not respond. It is not that particular USB port, as it works perfectly well with other peripherals like my scanner, or printer, and changing ports does not help. And when I tried it last time, I had no other USB peripherals connected. Can anyone help?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Mar 20, 2013 3:31 AM

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Q: Apple USB keyboard does not work

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  • by Ralph Landry1,

    Ralph Landry1 Mar 27, 2014 4:36 AM in response to Schorn
    Level 8 (41,782 points)
    Mar 27, 2014 4:36 AM in response to Schorn

    Schorn wrote:

     

    That's an OS issue and there's this small chance that some apple dev eventually looks at this issue, so I'm bumping it

    Not likely since the participants in here are only fellow users, no Apple people take part.  And, as 71 pointed out, this thread is a year old so no longer gets any attention except from the few of us who have responded in the past.

     

    If this is truly an issue, start another thread so more people see it wihtout having to search for the topic.

  • by earlgrayboba,

    earlgrayboba earlgrayboba Apr 2, 2014 2:42 PM in response to ernesto18
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 2, 2014 2:42 PM in response to ernesto18

    I wanted to confirm a working solution from this post. I had a power outage today with my 27" iMac (late 2013 model), and my extended keyboard was unresponsive, while the USB ports were functioniong. I followed the advice to unplug the extended keyboard and swipe my hand across the keyboard several times. I then plugged the keyboard back in, and it was working again. The suggestion that this may be a capacitive effect sounds reasonable. Thank you for this thread.

  • by Ralph Landry1,

    Ralph Landry1 Apr 2, 2014 4:50 PM in response to earlgrayboba
    Level 8 (41,782 points)
    Apr 2, 2014 4:50 PM in response to earlgrayboba

    That was a solution for erratic behavior of a wireless keyboard, but a great data point to hear that it also works well with the wired keyboard...since that also uses capacitance switches, stands to reason.

  • by ngranillo,

    ngranillo ngranillo May 31, 2014 5:01 PM in response to ernesto18
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2014 5:01 PM in response to ernesto18

    I have previously used resetting the PRAM and found success.  No success with that method today, but the USB extension cord worked like a charm.  No idea why this happens or why these solutions work, but glad they have. 

  • by antoniopedota,

    antoniopedota antoniopedota Jun 19, 2014 4:33 PM in response to Ralph Landry1
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jun 19, 2014 4:33 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

    Hi Ralph. This issue is really getting on my nerves now. Look what happened to me. I plugged my old black KB that came with my silver into the iMac to see if the iMac would react and it did. I then plugged the black KB into back into my old Silver and now the KB does not work....jajajaja this is a joke. It does not work with or without the extension. This KB has always worked on the Silver. This makes me think that something happened to the black KB when plugged in the iMac. The KB that came with my iMac (the new silver & white) is not working and I´m writing from a white KB that with the extension plugged into a cinema monitor rather than the iMac, works just fine. Anyway, I´ll try reseting the PRAM to see what happnes. Any thoughts? Thanks for your time.

  • by Drew Eastmead,

    Drew Eastmead Drew Eastmead Jul 1, 2014 3:17 PM in response to antoniopedota
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 1, 2014 3:17 PM in response to antoniopedota

    Same issue. Just experimented for 2 hours. The ONLY solution = "USB extension cord worked like a charm."

     

    I have a brand new MacBook Pro (2014) and brand new Mac USB keyboard. The keyboard was completely unresponsive for 2 hours. I did at least 10 restarts, 5 shutdowns, 3 PRAM resets, trashed the Library preferences file named "com.apple.keyboard," etc. Pretty pathetic and terribly frustrating experience. There are no "drivers," or keyboard setup assistant that can help.

     

    I confirmed the keyboard worked on another Mac, and tested all the USB ports on my laptop multiple times. There's no reasonable explanation for why the keyboard would be unresponsive on THIS machine for that long.

  • by antoniopedota,

    antoniopedota antoniopedota Jul 1, 2014 4:10 PM in response to Drew Eastmead
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 1, 2014 4:10 PM in response to Drew Eastmead

    Hi Drew. I´m glad the extension worked for you. My iMac sees the KB but it behaves strange. Still trying to see what is going on. Next, I´ll try to plug the KB into a pc to see. Cheers!

  • by Thrifty One,

    Thrifty One Thrifty One Jul 1, 2014 8:50 PM in response to antoniopedota
    Level 2 (270 points)
    Jul 1, 2014 8:50 PM in response to antoniopedota

    I had similar problems with my late 2012 iMac and the wired keyboard.  Sometimes at startup it would never work. I would try different USB ports but it would not work. I had to get the keyboard from my son's 2009 iMac to then log on.

     

    It would then start working again after a whie. Very frustrating. I was still in my 12-month warranty period so took it to the local Apple store and had it replaced. This was 3 months ago - never had any further problems.  It was definitely something wrong with that keyboard.

  • by antoniopedota,

    antoniopedota antoniopedota Jul 2, 2014 6:22 AM in response to Thrifty One
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 2, 2014 6:22 AM in response to Thrifty One

    Hi Thrifty. Definitely something is wrong with the KB. It is just that I can´t take to  an apple store and get it replaced since I´m in Caracas and warranty does not apply here. My iMac is only 1 and 1/2 year old. Just to try, I plugged it in my MacBookPro and the machine sees it but for example from the text editor when I hit enter from the external KB, the machine beeps. Where as if I hit enter from the MBP´s KB it does not beep. So I guess something happened to the KB and it is out of action (all this done with and without extension cords). Shame on apple!

  • by designodactyl,

    designodactyl designodactyl Nov 1, 2014 6:44 PM in response to ernesto18
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2014 6:44 PM in response to ernesto18

    Also confirming a working solution—

     

    I had tried PRAM reset, software updates, several restarts and safe boots with no luck and all ports we working perfectly with other devices. Both keyboard and MacBook are only a few months old.


    — after all that, unplugging keyboard and rubbing my hand up and down several times did the trick.

     

    Reminds me of blowing my SNES when the game froze!

  • by Jemmyn,

    Jemmyn Jemmyn Feb 4, 2015 7:54 AM in response to designodactyl
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 4, 2015 7:54 AM in response to designodactyl

    iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)

    Yosemite 10.10.2

    Same issue. I noticed it first randomly and I thought the Apple USB keyboard was bad. I unplugged the keyboard and tried a mouse in the same port. The mouse worked. The keyboard would not work on any other port. My experience was that the mouse would also not work plugged into the keyboard. I grabbed another keyboard exactly the same, about a month old and plugged it in and it worked perfectly. I figured it was a bad keyboard but later I tried switching they keyboards back and the one I thought was bad worked again.

    This happened again recently when I booted up the computer while holding the shift key down... When it got to the login screen the keyboard was not working so I restarted with the mouse. After restart they keyboard would still now work. I plugged in the other keyboard and it worked. Its not the connections on the keyboard because the one I thought was bad has been working fine on another computer for over a month now. Its this particular machine that has the issue and its intermittent so of course if I took it to the apple repair shop they would not be able to duplicate it or they would have to keep my computer for a month. Neither of these are okay with me. Lets find a fix apple!

  • by NJ333,

    NJ333 NJ333 Jan 8, 2016 3:49 PM in response to caribooderek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2016 3:49 PM in response to caribooderek

    I tried all the other suggestions but this is the only one that made a difference. Not sure why a USB connector made a difference?

  • by BillCameron,

    BillCameron BillCameron Sep 21, 2016 4:15 PM in response to ernesto18
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 4:15 PM in response to ernesto18

    If you are using a usb hub of any kind - this is what worked for me:

     

    Connect the keyboard directly to the usb port on your mac.

     

    That's it.

     

    Don't run your keyboard through a hub. I was running mine through the hub that is built in to my monitor. It's something to do with the hub not drawing enough power to keep the port active. I don't really get it, but I'm typing right now so it works.

     

    For a $3500 computer you wouldn't think this would be an issue, but here we are.

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