New Wireless Keyboard (Aluminum) Power On/Off

Question

Level 1

10 points

New Wireless Keyboard (Aluminum) Power On/Off

I've just received my new Apple wireless keyboard and it works fine except it doesn't seem to do what the User Guide says regarding the power light and on/off switch. According to the User Guide: "When the Power On light is off, the keyboard is off". However, when I press the power switch, the green power light comes on for about 3 seconds and then goes off again, leaving no indication of whether the keyboard is on or off!

Also, the User Guide suggests "To conserve battery power, turn your keyboard off when you aren’t using it." However, whenever I press the power switch, the power light always comes on for about 3 seconds, implying I'm turning it on again every time. There doesn't seem to be any way of actually turning it off as suggested in the Guide?!

Has anyone else got one of these new keyboards and are they getting the same behaviour, or does mine have a faulty power switch/light?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Sep 21, 2007 1:55 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Joel S

Level 2

189 points

Sep 23, 2007 10:20 AM in response to the new beat

Actually, I think everything is working fine for all of us. I was confusing the truly off state, with the 'powered-down' state. Thanks for the tip on turning it off - I wasn't holding in the power button long enough.

When the keyboard is truly off, the only way to turn it back on is with the power button. When the keyboard has auto-powered down, then pressing any key will power it back up. You can 'see' this by turning on caps lock. When the keyboard auto powers down, the little caps lock light will turn off.

I think we can all agree that the manual is terrible.

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 23, 2007 9:56 AM in response to PeterLboro

I do not have this problem with my new aluminum wireless keyboard. When powering off, you have to hold the power button in for a few seconds. A thing will then pop up on the screen showing that the keyboard has been turned off. Once my keyboard is turned off, pressing buttons does absolutely nothing. Either you all are not holding the power button long enough for it to turn off, or you have faulty keyboards.

As far as the light staying on, I think that was a misprint in the manual. Having the light stay on would just be a waste of battery.

Reply

Answer 3

Conal Ho

Level 3

503 points

Sep 23, 2007 9:58 PM in response to PeterLboro

To turn off the keyboard, I believe you need to press and hold the Power Button until the green light goes off. Yes, the green light does turn on and then off again when its on. This behaviour is similar to the old wireless keyboard. It makes sense for the green light to go off in order to save energy.

Reply

Answer 4

PeterLboro Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 24, 2007 3:33 AM in response to Conal Ho

Thanks everyone, I think we can all agree that this issue is "solved"!

As you've stated, when you switch on the new keyboard the light comes on briefly and then goes off. The keyboard is turned off by pressing the power key until the light comes on and then goes off. Once fully off, the keyboard does not respond to any keys until the power key is pressed and released again.

Obviously Apple need to fix their manual ASAP if they want to avoid lots of unnecessary support calls and confused customers!

Thanks again.

Peter

Reply

Answer 5

Joel S

Level 2

189 points

Sep 21, 2007 6:21 PM in response to PeterLboro

Have the exact same behaviour - you are not alone. Called Support and they had no idea. In fact, they were shocked I had one already. Here is my guess: They made a boo boo - copy and paste from the 1st gen BT Keyboard. On the 1st gen, the green light on the botton does stay on (at least I think it does). I think on these, the green light blinks to let you know you've pressed the button.

That, or we both have defective keyboards 🙂

Oh, one other thing support told me. Supposedly these new BT keyboards actually power themselves down after a period of non-use. Can't confirm, but that is what I was told.

Reply

Answer 6

Oct 10, 2007 7:18 PM in response to RAM7

I have phoned them too and according to the person I talked to there is not supposed to be a light showing. Just blinking when its beening paired other than that its not to show any lights. If you ask me they don't know for sure what its supposed to be doing. I wish it did have a light on so that I know when I turn it off its OFF.

Reply

Answer 7

Conal Ho

Level 3

503 points

Sep 23, 2007 9:59 PM in response to Joel S

In the first gen keyboard, the green light does not stay on for long--only for a couple of seconds and then turns off.

Reply

Answer 8

Oct 9, 2007 6:40 PM in response to PeterLboro

very true I was looking for a thread on this. I too was expecting that the green light would be on to show that the keyboard was on. Wish it had been I don't think that a little green light would make that much of a drain on the battery and it would also tell us if the keyboard did go to "sleep" if the green light went off then on again once it "woke up"

Reply

Answer 9

RAM7

Level 1

4 points

Oct 10, 2007 11:09 AM in response to PeterLboro

I have exactly the same problem. Finally someone at Apple, after three tries and some waiting on the phone line, said that there should be a red and green signal light. Red when the keyboard is off and green when it is on. No where in the manual does it say anything about this problem. As it stands now I have the same signal green whether the computer is on or off. I fear another wireless keyboard will have the same problem.

Reply

Answer 10

Nov 23, 2007 2:45 AM in response to PeterLboro

same story for me...i called the help desk that have no clue how it is supposed to work. I received a new keyboard.
The issue I had though is that after 1 month of normal usage the batteries where out !!!!
I never switched on or off the keybaord and also understood that like the mouse when not use it goes into stby. Only for long period of non usage the on/off switched is needed.
Did u experience the same battery issue??????

Reply

Answer 11

PeterLboro Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 22, 2007 8:15 AM in response to Joel S

Hi Joel

Thanks for the response and further information. I suspect that you're right and the keyboards are behaving as designed but not as described! I have one of the previous wireless keyboards and the power switch on the underside is illuminated and the green light does stay on whilst powered up.

If you look at the description of the new keyboards on the Apple store web site, you'll find the following statement:

"The keyboard automatically powers down when you’re not using it and turns on instantly as soon as you start typing. This intelligent power management means you’ll get up to nine months of battery life based on average usage patterns. It also has an on/off switch for when you’re away from your computer for a long time."

So it looks like the auto-power down is a feature, which helps. However, it still doesn't explain how you can confirm that you've turned it off using the on/off switch since you get the same brief flash of of the light every time you press the on/off switch.

I think we're both still waiting for a definitive response from someone at Apple, don't you?!

Cheers

Peter

Reply

Answer 12

Joel S

Level 2

189 points

Sep 22, 2007 9:42 AM in response to PeterLboro

Peter,

It's kind of funny: If pressing keys automatically turns it back on, how does one know, when they have pressed the power button, that the keyboard has been turned off??

Message was edited by: Joel S

Reply

Answer 13

PeterLboro Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 22, 2007 6:11 PM in response to Joel S

Joel,

That is what I was wondering, how can you tell the keyboard is off if there is no indicator showing when it is on. The on/off button seems to be a complete waste of time as you can turn it on by pressing any key and you can't turn it off but have to wait for it to time-out!

No sign of a definitive answer yet!

Regards

Peter

Reply

Answer 14

Nov 2, 2007 8:53 AM in response to PeterLboro

Hello Peter, sorry for the off-topic to your thread.
I am very interested in the new BT Keyboard for the new AluMac. But I really would like to know how long it takes till the Keyboard is ready to use after reboot or awake from sleep ... (?) You may answer in the thread I started for that issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1189384&tstart=0

1000Thx!

Reply

Answer 15

Nov 2, 2007 10:35 AM in response to Thomas Halenbeck

I was glad to find this thread, to reassure me that my new wireless kb was not faulty. The power light behaviour now makes sense...but forgive me for continuing the discussion with another question - I'm doing so becuase its a question relating to UK settings, and I see that Peter is in UK...

I'm a brand-new switcher, and am finding myself very frustrated by the fact that this new keyboard has lots of symbols which appear on the 'wrong' keys. I've spent years learning to instinctively 'know' where the characters are, and now Apple is forcing me either to re-learn a new layout (and since I'm working on PC's a lot too, this is very annoying) or live with a keyboard which has symbols printed on keys which don't relate to those symbols!

What's the experience of other UK users who want to use the keyboard laid out the way they've always known it?

Reply