WIreless keyboard shift key problem

Question

Level 1

16 points

WIreless keyboard shift key problem

I have an Apple wireless keyboard which was working fine for the past 10 months, until this morning. Now, when I press the shift key, it types an "I" and whatever other key I hit. Also, there are occasional random capital letters when I type without pressing the shift key. I've tried things like resetting the PRAM, going into keyboard preferences and resetting to the defaults, and unpairing/repairing the keyboard to my iMac. It is definitely the keyboard, as I plugged in the USB keyboard from my daughter's iMac, and that works fine. Also, I've tried to get support, but can't get past Apple telling me my serial number is invalid (Thanks so much to srodney for a VERY clear explanation of how to find that miniscule serial number!)

Thanks for any help you can give!

iMac, MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11), MacBook is 10.5

Posted on Jul 5, 2009 7:20 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jul 5, 2009 7:30 AM in response to ShariPotter

HI and Welcome to Apple Discussions...

Since this is a wireless keyboard, have you tried fresh batteries?

Try turning off the keyboard, shut down your Mac. Restart the Mac, turn the keyboard back on and see if that helps.

Try using a can of compressed air on that key and see if that helps.

*"It is definitely the keyboard, as I plugged in the USB keyboard from my daughter's iMac, and that works fine."*

The technology of USB and Bluetooth are totally different.

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Reply

Answer 2

ShariPotter Author

Level 1

16 points

Jul 5, 2009 9:51 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks for your suggestions. I tried them, but the problem persists. I've also noticed that the left shift key does the capital "I" but the right doesn't. The right shift key starts iTunes and turns it off! And the "I" key will not print in lower case. Any other ideas?

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 18, 2009 7:02 PM in response to ShariPotter

Keyboard: lower case letter or letters stop working.
Friends, I have solved this problem and used it several times successfully. In my case, it was the lower case “a”, the only letter that would not register and because my password contains an “a” I could not even restart and log in without a work-around. Tried numerous keyboards, cables, and all the rest. A safe boot fixed the problem so I knew it was a corruption glitch. Short version: I just did this two hours ago - July 18, 2009 - only the second or so time in a year, although it took me a lot of preference experimentation the first time to sniff it out.
In my case, went to my “user/library/preferences” folder and dragged onto the desktop the preference “loginwindow.plist” (not the one that starts "com.apple", at least in my case I didn’t need to get rid of that one). Restart and voila! Problem solved. Trash the old "loginwindow.plist" as a new one is created when you restart and you lose no data. To their credit, Apple was very helpful back when it happened the first time, and it was a real conundrum to them as well. I got lucky that it was not too obscure a problem so I didn't have to go through all the preferences and remove them one by one for hours. I found the guilty party fast. Now ya know! Maybe it'll work for you. And a general thanks to all the good people who write these notes and have saved my sanity many, many times. Finally a chance to pay it forward.

Reply

Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

239,465 points

Jul 18, 2009 8:05 PM in response to RF Winans

Great post, thanks for the Report! 🙂

Reply

Answer 5

ShariPotter Author

Level 1

16 points

Jul 19, 2009 5:01 AM in response to RF Winans

WOW! Thanks so much! It worked! Pay it forward you did. I really appreciate your help. You have made my day!

Reply

Answer 6

ShariPotter Author

Level 1

16 points

Aug 18, 2009 12:36 PM in response to ShariPotter

Well, I thought it was fixed, but the problem keeps recurring! Is there any way to figure out how to stop corrupting that plist? Trashing the plist requires resetting a few things, so doing this every few days is getting tiring.

Reply

Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

239,465 points

Aug 18, 2009 12:58 PM in response to ShariPotter

Assuming it's not RAM or other Hardware problems, this may preent future occurrences.

I think you should get Applejack...

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596

After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...

applejack AUTO

Then let it do all 5 of it's things.

At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.

The 5 things it does are...

Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.

Reply

Answer 8

Aug 29, 2009 9:43 AM in response to ShariPotter

Hi,

I have exactly the same symptoms as the OP. I tried the solution later in the thread involving trashing the "loginwindow.plist" file -- no luck. A new loginwindow.plist file was created on startup but the keyboard issue remains. I am using this keyboard at a business with several machines so I was able to do some sleuthing to try to figure out what's wrong.

I have two different Mac Minis and one 13" MacBook unibody (late 2008) all running OSX 10.5.8. I have a wired USB Apple Keyboard which functions normally on all 3 machines. The Apple Wireless Keyboard works perfectly when paired with my MacBook, but displays the symptoms when paired with either one of the Mac Minis. Battery level is 66% on the wireless keyboard.

Any ideas?

Reply