Issues with Apple Extended Keyboard II

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Level 1

70 points

Issues with Apple Extended Keyboard II

Hi,

I just obtained an Apple Extended Keyboard II from eBay, and I'm trying to use it with my late-2008 MacBook via a Griffin iMate ADB-to-USB adapter. Unfortunately, it's been giving me a bit of trouble. At first, the letter "q" would be randomly inserted, even if my fingers had gone nowhere near it. When I tapped "q" itself, it would repeat 10 or 20 times and then stop, even though I was not holding down the key. Thinking that I perhaps hooked the keyboard up incorrectly, I switched ends of the ABD cable. Then some keystrokes began to not register. For example, when I tried to type "this" at speed I only got "thi", and would have to repeat the "s" for it to register. Typing it slowly produced better results.

I do not believe that it is software-related. I tried the keyboard with a friend's year-old white MacBook and encountered the same difficulties.

As this is the first mechanical keyboard I've owned, I'm not quite sure how to go about figuring out what's wrong. Might a good internal cleaning help?

2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook (aluminum), Mac OS X (10.5.6), 4 GB RAM, 250 GB 5400 rpm HD

Posted on Feb 4, 2009 6:30 PM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

428,165 points

Feb 4, 2009 10:00 PM in response to Larry V.

[Clean and Repair your Mac keyboard: How-To Guide|http://lancej.blogspot.com/2008/04/clean-and-repair-your-mac-keyboard-how .html]

Vacuum up dust between the keys, or blow out with compressed air designed for electronics. Actually my first action is just to turn the keyboard upside down and shake out the crumbs. If necessary you can pry off the key covers with a screwdriver. If you're lucky one of those will have become misaligned and it's an easy fix to reseat it correctly. If you're unlucky one of the contacts is faulty.

You can probably find more detailed instructions for that particular model if you search the web for, "Apple Extended Keyboard II clean repair"

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Answer 2

Feb 6, 2009 6:53 AM in response to Larry V.

Larry,

I am not sure what you mean by "As this is the first mechanical keyboard I've owned".

We let kids tear apart hundreds of keyboards and they are all mechanical in some way. The fact that the key is depressed and returns to a non-depressed position gives it a mechanical component.

The real issue is if the contact is sticky/faulty or the return mechanism is sticky. Of all the different styles of keyboard we have disassembled, only a rare few are easily damaged by being carefully disassembled and reassembled. It is usually a plastic tab that breaks because it is brittle.

Take your keyboard apart and clean it. I have forgotten if that keyboard has screws hidden under serial number stickers or some other sort of concealment. I can check. Also, you mentioned reversing the ADB cable so you do not have the Apple Design keyboard which came with the cable built in.

Is there some reason you did not stick with a USB keyboard? I like the tactile characteristics of the Kensington keyboard and the key cups are like the IBM Selectric keyboard that I learned to type on so I can see a reason for selecting a specific keyboard feel. Having to rely on a Griffin adapter for something as easy to replace as a keyboard means that you have one more component to trouble shoot. You can not rule out the adapter without more comparison tests.

Jim

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Answer 3

Larry V. Author

Level 1

70 points

Feb 6, 2009 9:16 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man

I apologize for being unclear; I meant that I've only previously used keyboards that employ rubber membrane contacts under the keys, as opposed to the switch mechanisms used by keyboards like this one and the old IBM Model M keyboard. I assumed that the difference might demand a different way of thinking about malfunctions.

I switched to this keyboard for the feel, basically. It's just one of those things 🙂

In any case, the keyboard has mysteriously begun to function perfectly normally, with no further attempts at repair by me. I suspect that the problem might have been with the OS X ADB drivers. I read somewhere that OS X does not load these drivers unless the ADB device is connected at boot time, or something to that effect. I'm not really sure about the details, but it seemed to have something to do with the fact that ADB is not hot-swappable. Anyway, I did reboot the machine with the keyboard attached at some point, and it works just fine now, so I think that might have solved the problem.

Thanks for your help, though. I'll be cleaning the keyboard soon, as it needs a good cleaning anyhow.

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