Wireless keyboard won't turn on after changing battery

Not necessarily. Most of the problems related here occur because the design of the battery terminal has changed over the years and is now shorter than it used to be. Consequently, when the terminal seats itself into the female end of the keyboard terminal it is no long enough to make contact at the base of the keyboard terminal. The use of the aluminium ball solves the problem by filling up the space between the keyboard terminal and the shorter battery terminal.

Whether Apple has changed the design of the keyboard terminal yet to solve this problem I don't know.

Brilliant, this worked for me with the 2007 (3 Battery) model. I have recharged batteries, tried new batteries...

Was just about top go buy a new keyboard...

But no need to, just put a peice of tinfoil down the tube and the problem is fixed!

Now to replace my car radio ariel with a wire coat hanger.......

Same here. 2007 3-battery wireless keyboard. Worked fine. Replaced batteries. No power. Did the aluminum foil pea-size bit. Works perfectly.

Samphire is correct: the battery terminal moves over time. No corrosion on mine, but could see the positive terminal visibly not straight.

Not sure how tbiss got a scissors to the terminal; must be a different keyboard. You certainly can't reach the terminal with scissors on mine. A bit of emory cloth on the end of a pencil works though. Still needed the aluminum foil.

Solution: There's a Gray Plastic part that gets turned around in there. You have to take the batteries out and Tap the Keyboard on something to make the Plastic part come out enough to turn it around, then carefully put the batteries back in and try it again.

The FLAT part of the Plastic has to be against the battery. It has a hole in it, therefore the battery will make contact. If this plastic is turned the wrong way the battery doesn't make contact.

How the heck it gets turned around just by taking the batteries out is a mystery. I guess it sticks to the battery after a while.

Hope this helps, it certainly worked for me. There's a lot of post here, so to be clear, this is the fix if you don't get the Green Light (Power) after replacing the Batteries.

PhilW

PhilW3995 wrote:

Solution: There's a Gray Plastic part that gets turned around in there. You have to take the batteries out and Tap the Keyboard on something to make the Plastic part come out enough to turn it around, then carefully put the batteries back in and try it again.

The FLAT part of the Plastic has to be against the battery. It has a hole in it, therefore the battery will make contact. If this plastic is turned the wrong way the battery doesn't make contact.

How the heck it gets turned around just by taking the batteries out is a mystery. I guess it sticks to the battery after a while.

Hope this helps, it certainly worked for me. There's a lot of post here, so to be clear, this is the fix if you don't get the Green Light (Power) after replacing the Batteries.

PhilW

Phil hits the nail on the head here. I have two of these keyboards (both are the 3-battery A1255) and one exhibits the issue while the other does not. The one that works flawlessly has the flat face of the grey spacer facing the battery. Unfortunately, this bit is not only capable of fliping around, but getting locked into place facing the wrong direction. I've tried pulling mine out with an automotive pick but can't get it to release from the contact which just moves with it as far as the spring behind it will allow.

I've even gone so far as to disassemble the electonics portion of the keyboard and although I could get everything else out, that darned battery contact assembly looks to be held in (or together) with a circlip. It's well out of reach from the recess where the brains are housed so I'm sure it requires a special tool to remove if it's not held in with a permanent one-way locking mechanism. Unfortunately, it looks like the best solution for me remains a 1.5mm ball of aluminum foil and a strip of scotch tape along the sides of the batteries. (The latter allows you to insert them as a single mass that doesn't bounce the aluminum out of place.)

Folks, I had the same problem, and later discovered - the positive side of the battery goes inwards into the "tunnel". Its kinda non obvious - at least to me, and i struggled for few hours.

Hope this helps.... positive button inside, negative flat portion outside.

That fixed it! Thanks for sharing PhilW3995! By the way, after turning the plastic piece around, dropping the batteries in flipped it again. I had to redo and then tilt the keyboard to let the batteries slide in slowly to keep the plastic piece in place.

Used the aluminum foil suggestion and keyboard is now functioning again, Thank You to the original Poster for this resolve, my wireless keyboard works like a champ again. This post was typed on the previously malfunctioning keyboard.

I had the same problem this morning and the aluminum foil suggested has helped me to save the keyboard. I am so surprised that the Apple quality has become this. This doesn't sound like the same Apple I loved for years.

Same thing happened to me - but then I realized that my keyboard was not "turned on" - I didn't even know that the sliver button on the opposite end of where you load the batteries is a "power" button for the keyboard. While I was loading the batteries, I must have accidentally pushed it and turned it off (or it turned off automatically). Eitherway, after pushing the button in, my keyboard was recognized.

Had the same problem didn't touch my mac wireless keyboard for 3 months, try to use it again today with fresh batteries and the green light didn't turn on. Tried the tin foil trick and it worked perfectly! Thanks mate!

I also rolled a ball of foil and it also worked! After trying so many new batteries and nearly throwing my keyboard across the room, it worked. I agree though with others' views, this should not happen Apple, this is not the quality I expect, was both shocked and disappointed.

The alumnium ball (piece) in the battery tube worked.🙂

I am reposting this solution, but I did not discover it.😉

Instructions:

1. Open the battery tube and remove the batteries.

2. Place a small pea sized ball of alumnium in the battery tube.

3. Install the batteries. (Make sure batteries are in the right direction)

4. Close and lock.

5. Turn on Keyboard.

Thanks everyone on this thread for this solution!😀 Really dissappointed that I have to do this with an Apple product!

Thank you for the aluminum ball suggestion. I was about to order another keyboard, but this simple tip saved me from having to do so. If your keyboard has a green light when you try to pair it, this is not the solution for you; but if you can't get the keyboard to light up at all when trying to pair it to your computer, give this a try.

I had this same problem on an older model (3 batteries) aluminum keyboard.

The Aluminum Foil trick worked for me. Here it is again (not my idea, just reposting):

Instructions:

1. Open the battery tube and remove the batteries.

2. Place a small pea sized ball of alumnium in the battery tube.

3. Install the batteries. (Make sure batteries are in the right direction)

4. Close and lock.

5. Turn on Keyboard.