Keyboard typing weird characters (Option key always held down) please help!
So I consider myself pretty computer literate, but this one has got me totally stumped. My mother's keyboard is only typing strange characters, such as ƒ©∆œ∑¨ˆty´®∆˚¬...
I've been trying to troubleshoot it over Screensharing in iChat, and this is how far I've got:
At first I figured she must have somehow enabled some weird international keyboard or strange font-mapping, so I scoured Keyboard system prefs, as well as International system prefs, and even Universal Access. Everything is in order. So then I figured it must be something to do with the keyboard (When I type through screen-sharing all characters appear fine). I had her un-pair and repair the bluetooth keyboard, but the problem persisted.
I then thought, ok, the keyboard must be defective and since she really needed to type an email I decided to show her the Keyboard Viewer (from the Input Source menu), I then discovered that it appeared the option key was perpetually being held down, thus typing all the weird chars... When she clicks the option key on the keyboard viewer it becomes depressed again. What is really weird is that I now know it's not the keyboard, because even when the keyboard is disconnected, as soon as she clicks on a letter in the keyboard viewer the option key is pressed again. So she can't even type using that method.
The only thing I can think to do at this point is an archive and install. Do you guys have any other ideas?
I've been trying to troubleshoot it over Screensharing in iChat, and this is how far I've got:
At first I figured she must have somehow enabled some weird international keyboard or strange font-mapping, so I scoured Keyboard system prefs, as well as International system prefs, and even Universal Access. Everything is in order. So then I figured it must be something to do with the keyboard (When I type through screen-sharing all characters appear fine). I had her un-pair and repair the bluetooth keyboard, but the problem persisted.
I then thought, ok, the keyboard must be defective and since she really needed to type an email I decided to show her the Keyboard Viewer (from the Input Source menu), I then discovered that it appeared the option key was perpetually being held down, thus typing all the weird chars... When she clicks the option key on the keyboard viewer it becomes depressed again. What is really weird is that I now know it's not the keyboard, because even when the keyboard is disconnected, as soon as she clicks on a letter in the keyboard viewer the option key is pressed again. So she can't even type using that method.
The only thing I can think to do at this point is an archive and install. Do you guys have any other ideas?
iMac (Intel), Mac OS X (10.5.6)
