Wireless keyboard won't turn on after changing battery

I ran into a similar issue tonight. My keyboard is pretty much left on all of the time. Tonight I came home and it was not working and new batteries did not help either. On closer inspection of the contacts in the battery compartment I noticed a slight dis-colorization. A little scraping with a razor knife and the light comes on again. The problem in my case appears to have been a little oxidization of the battery contacts.

BTW - my keyboard is well out of warranty and no longer under AppleCare.

Well my issue with this is still ongoing. First, I called about 3 wks ago and they sent me a replacement, which came to me and it was the wrong keyboard (it was the plastic wireless with the numeric pad) 2 x's. Finally they sent the right one, and wouldn't pair at all, so I called and worked with a Tech Support person for 3 days, and had to archive and install everything, which didn't work. Finally, we concluded it was my Bluetooth card was shot, and needed to be replaced. Sent it in, and got it back, and still would not pair. They didn't "replace" my bluetooth card, just updated the software, which I could have done. Called Apple Care the next morning, and was told it wasn't the keyboard, but my computer! Duh! That's what I had been trying to tell them. I asked if upgrading to Leopard would possibly fix the problem, which did not - which by the way, they sent me Leopard for Free b/c I had been on the phone so much with Apple. If feels like I am back at square 1 with them over this issue. Will this problem ever get resolved?? I asked if they could possibly exchange my computer for a new one, but was told that this WASN'T A HARDWARE ISSUE, so they COULD NOT DO IT. I truly believe it is, b/c as I was looking at my information, IS BLUETOOTH NOT LISTED UNDER HARDWARE, or what? This is ridiculous.

Same thing today. Low battery warning on the wireless keyboard (model A1255). Replacing them resulted in a keyboard that would not power on (no green light on power button press). One of the posts indicated it was a bad battery contact on the + terminal (thanks for the clue!). Looking down the tube, there is indeed a plastic ring that the battery rests on. I took a paper clip and created a small spiral of metal and snipped off the remainder. I dropped it down the tube and rattled it around to fall into the hole. Dropped in the fresh batteries and voila... it works. YMMV.

In general Apple stuff is pretty well built. I'm surprised that something so trivial is happening.

Same problem as many others, got a message that batteries were low, I swopped in a new set and the keyboard would not power on again. Not a pairing issue, it was just deadsville. I spent a good hour poking around and holding in power button and gently tapping (at first) on each side. No good. Then having founf & read most of this thread, I removed the batteries, got a half inch square piece of 'tinfoil' aluminium foil, sqeezed it into a quarter of an inch ball shape, not too solid, dropped it into the tube, put the batteries back in.... bingo! Typing this on the revived keyboard!

Can you please elaborate a bit on how you formed the spring? I have a wireless aluminum apple keyboard, and after about two weeks of it being turned off, it no longer turns on even with fresh batteries.

Thank you!

Hello everyone... I woke up this morning and experienced the same problem with my wireless key board. Then I connected the wired key board that came with my iMac and googled into this topic. Glad to say that the aluminum foil solution that was suggested worked perfectly, so thank you very much for that suggestion.

Had similar problem like all of you. Tried the aluminum foil suggestion. It works! Must be something to do with the contacts. So I am guessing it must be a design fault. Well done, you folks for fixing the problem D.I.Y style!

Had my Apple wireless keyboard for only 6 months, whilst this was a fantastic device when it was working, I started seeing the fault above. No little green LED, even with new batteries. Tried a piece of aluminium....and hey presto it worked again. Clearly this is a design defect, and needs to be rectified by Apple.

Fortunately I'm still under warranty, so I'm taking mine back tomorrow!

+1 on the aluminum foil ball solution for the A1255. Brilliant! I used a ball about the size of a small pea.

Same original issue for me -- this was the second or third set of replacement batteries over the keyboard's life, with no issues previous. This time, no LED. Nothing appeared wrong. Thanks for this thread and the great solution! Definitely a design problem here.

ok. After a week of going absolutely crazy trying to press the keyboard on / off switch, change batteries, go into bluetooth settings, etc...I find this Aluminum Foil post & I decided to try it. Low & behold, it worked. Unbelievable. So basically the Keyboards are manufactured poorly. Apple really does need to get a handle on Product Control. I thank the person who discovered the Aluminum foil trick. You saved the day. Why we should have to "Jimmy Rig" a brand new high tech product, is beyond me ?

Oh WOW, this is sad. Just had the same problem happen to me 5 min ago and got here with a little bit of googling. I tried the aluminum ball trick and it worked on the first shot. GG Apple.

I bought this in 2007 so it's not in warranty anymore.

Adi

Quite sad IMO. I cannot believe a brand new Product from Apple could have these type of almost silly issues. And clever Users are coming up with these easy fixes. Something like the Plus Terminal not making contact is just so ridiculous. Especially in a new Product. How does that wear out? I only put Batteries in it ONCE. I guess we have to depend on Creative Users to find fixes for our Apple Products. My problem is, doesn't Apple read this stuff ? If they don't, they should. I got a Tech on the phone about the KB and it took him 20 Minutes to find what KB I was referring to. I kept telling him. Your newest Bluetooth KB. It did not help. He could not find Model Number. True Story !

On a different note, I just updated iTunes & it wouldn't synch with my Apple TV, Something about Port 3689 needed to be Opened. I did a factory restore & then did the update on the ATV. I hope it works and STAYS working. When you do nothing but an Update, it should make things better, not worse.

These are symptoms I'm having:

This seems to be a widespread problem. I get this issue (((((((((wireless keyboard <— those extra parens were from the keyboard dying… ), as well Logitech, Kensington and Mighty Mouse erratic behavior. I've reset PRAM, reset the power manager, changed wireless channels, speeds; ADDED another Airport WDS access point, and yes, even REINSTALLED THE OS. Nothing.

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I found the solution to my problem!!! I had the same problem as you guys.....tried to change batteries, restart, usb and call Apple Support without any solutions. Then I went to MAC store to change my keyboard and mouse to a new one. When I got home, the problem still continued.... So tried for more 2 days! And nothing.....until I decided to do everything again step by step.....And finally I got the keyboard paired with my computer!!!
1. Disconect all USB devices I had attached to my computer.
2. Took the Iphone away from the computer (just in case.... 🙂
3. Turned the computer off and the keyboard off too.
4. Turned the computer on.
5. Put new batteries on the keyboard and turned it on.
6. It poped-up a window about the bloototh device (as I deleted previously the bluetooth keyboard device....Was only the mouse one).
7. I chose "keyboard" device and clicked "continue".
8. It was saying that my computer was trying to find the keyboard.
9. My computer found the keyboard. I clicked continue.
10. My computer was trying to pair, but appeard the password number. Then I thought: "how the ** am I going to type a password if there's no box to type and keyboard is not working???". Then I tried to do something tha I thought wouldn't work.......
11. I typed the password numbers as showned. Without any password box to type, anywhere! Just type! Just like they said..... and presse ENTER key!!! It worked!!!! The solution was the ENTER key I wasn't typing after the numbers. I couldn't belive my keyboard is working now! Very simple but I didn't know, and neither the Apple support didn't know....(as they asked me to change the keyboard). To confirm my theory, I unistalled the keyboard again and then I did the same steps to pair again. It worked perfectly!

Cheers Dino great tip, had the same problem keyboard not starting, tried your tin foil fix worked like a charm! Apple really need to address these issues people fork out good money for this gear, we shouldn't need to be fixing this stuff with tinfoil!!!