My regularly used PM 9600 suddenly started emitting a "plunk-beep" sound whenever a key on the keyboard was pressed AND the key stroke would not register what it was supposed to do. The power key continued a bit still to initiate shutdown, but that now beeps, too. I tried a second keyboard with the same result. I've replugged in the keyboard and checked that all other cables are tight. I've restarted. I think the battery may be getting tired, as the clock is losing a little time, but otherwise the computer works fine using a Gyration wireless USB keyboard. Any ideas about the ADB keyboard problem, please?
PM9600/233 (OS 8.6;9.1); G3 white iBook (OS X 10.4.10); G4 MacMini (10.4.10),
Performa 6320 (OS 8.1); MacPlus (OS 6.0.8)
Under 8 or 9, Pull up the key caps desk accessory and see if there is a stuck key, and that the shift, control, and apple keys (on each side) do as expected.
Good idea, Grant, which I tried, but unfortunately it yielded no useful information. I can make the Key Caps execute using the USB wireless mouse, but the wired keyboard itself when keys are depressed makes no resolution on the Key Caps DA as they normally would do. There is only the odd beep sound from the Mac when the keys are depressed. Any other ideas?
And the mystery deepens...
I removed the wired keyboard from the PM9600's ADB port and replaced it with a stock ADB wired mouse...and the mouse works: the cursor moves on the screen and activates what a mouse can on the screen. However, the ADB keyboard continues to "beep." Could this be just accumulation of dust in the keyboard which simple vacuuming is not enough to remove? Is it time to put the keyboard in the dishwasher, as I've read elsewhere on line is something to do (although I've never understood exactly before why one might need so to do)?
Unless you had spilled a liquid into the keyboard, I wouldn't try something as drastic as the dishwasher. The heated domestic water that the dishwasher uses contains chemicals that could be corrosive. If I were to try cleaning a keyboard after a spill, I'd immerse it in a tray of distilled water and have a compressor at hand (not a can of compressed air) to blow out the moisture after draining. I'd still want to disassemble it and completely dry it out. If there are any thrift stores in your area, I'd suggest buying a used ADB keyboard to try. If it works, then you'd know whether you should bother opening up the old one, to look for obvious damage. If it beeps like the original keyboard, then the problem lies elsewhere. At the risk of asking the obvious, are all 4 pins present in the end of the keyboard cable's plug? Does the ADB keyboard make the beeping sound when the wireless keyboard's transceiver is unplugged from the USB port?
Apparently there is nothing wrong with either of my wired ADB keyboards, as they both function properly on my Performa 6320. There is also apparently nothing wrong with my wired ADB mice, as they both work on my Performa AND they also both work on the ADB port of my PM9600, the port which is NOT working properly with the two ADB keyboards. This situation thus begs the question as to whether the signals from wired ADB mouse through the ADB port go to a different part of the PM9600 to be processed than to where the signals from the ADB keyboard go to in the PM9600 to be processed? Two different wired ADB mice both work on the PM9600's ADB port. Two different wired ADB keyboards both do NOT work (cause beeps from the PM9600) on the ADB port. Both these keyboards and both these mice function perfectly on the ADB port of the Performa 6320.
It also makes no difference as to whether or not the transmitters for the wireless USB mouse and keyboard are unplugged from the USB port; the keyboard still causes beeps and doesn't work; the ADB mice still work.
Thus, this seems to isolate the problem to the processing in the PM9600 of the signals coming through its ADB port from the wired ADB keyboard. Thus, what could be the problem in the PM9600 and what could be causing that? Do any preferences need to be trashed? Would running DiskWarrior help (I haven't done that yet)? Any other ideas, please? (Obviously, there appears to be no need to wash the keyboards! However, I'm curious about your making a distinction, Jeff, between air from a compressor and air from a can of compressed air and why not to use the latter?) Also, nothing has ever been spilled into the keyboards; only thing is the normal accumulation of grime on the keys from years of "dirty" fingers and house dust settling between the keys, which has been regularly vacuumed out. Also, all the pins are pristine on the keyboard's cable plugs.
From the results of your troubleshooting, I'm beginning to think that the ADB port has electrical issues. The ADB port should supply 5 volts, with a maximum current draw of 500 mA. An ADB mouse uses much less current than the keyboard, so your 9600's ADB port may be providing too little voltage or too little power. Using a voltmeter, you'd need to check pins 3 and 4. Looking at the back of the 8600/9600 chassis with its vertically-oriented motherboard, the ADB port has (2) pairs of vertically-aligned holes. The pair of vertically-aligned holes to the right (closest to the A/V module mounting recess) are pins 3 & 4. The upper hole corresponds to pin 4 (ground) and the lower hole corresponds to pin 3 (+5 volts). I'd check that first, before looking elsewhere for the cause(s).
I referred to using a compressor, because I have one and know that it would provide a significantly stronger blast of air, to force out the residual moisture in the keyboard shell.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Mea culpa. I hadn't done the first thing I usually do with any trouble: run DiskWarrior! That god-like program, as usual, fixed what was wrong!! The beeping stopped. I also booted into the OS 9 partition and the keyboard worked under OS 9, so I think something on the OS 8.6 partition must have become corrupted, as DW took a very long time rebuilding. I also haven't yet rebooted to the 8.6 partition to see what the post-DW situation is.
I'm still going to check on the voltage thing, too, and post back. It was getting late last night and I bailed for bed!
The keyboard is still beeping on the OS 8.6 partition, even after DiskWarrior. Can anyone think of something on OS 8.6 which would cause the keyboard to beep and not work (except for the forced restart cmd.cntrl.power keys) but still have the mouse work on the ADB port?
