Keyboard stops working in Snow Leopard when using Spaces

2x4. I don't think this is related. My trial version of Things expired, so maybe you want to try on your own (see one of my earlier posts) if you can reproduce this reliably with only 2x2 or whatever number of spaces.

I have the same Problem, I'm using 3x3 spaces.
I had it on my white MacBook, and after migrating to a new MacBook Pro still having the same Problem.

it occurs when switching between spaces.

Hope Apple fixes it soon...

Same problem, happens very often when having a video conversation in iChat or Skype, though I don't think it's related (I tend to switch spaces pretty frequently at those times, going between the conversation and Safari).

Thought contributing with another case could perhaps urge the lovely engineers at Apple to do something about it!

I have the same problem since I have upgraded to Snow Leopard.

Isn't this possible to fix???

I read the other day that Apple has the latest update pretty much ready. The article indicated that there was no known issues.

Does that mean that this problem will finally be fixed? I don't know, we can only hope... In the meantime, I continue to use the "HyperSpaces" work-around.

I just disabled "When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application" and haven't been able to get Spaces to lock access to the keyboard since, hopefully it works for others.

Nope- that doesn't work for me. I unticked the box and could still provoke the issue.

Am happily using the CTRL-SHIFT-EJECT workaround for now tho.

Hello,

I just bought my 2.53Ghz 15 inch Macbook Pro 3 days ago and I've had this problem too. But, for me at least, the problem does not happen after switching Spaces... It'll often do it randomly 2 or 3 times a day when I'm not even running any significantly hefty applications and have not switched spaces for probably 2 to 3 hours. And although it's not happening immediately after switching Spaces, the problem did begin to happen when I enabled Spaces 2 days ago, not sure if I have the same problem as everyone else or not, because my system becomes slow, laggy, and borderline unresponsive, one time resulting in a forced hard reset.

And I did just try what the gentleman on the former page said about downloading Things then hitting Ctrl AltSpace, click cancel on the pop up then switch spaces, and the keyboard did become unresponsive.

I just switched over from PC and I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable and capable computer user but with my little prior experience of OSX I'm sort of helpless.


I just went ahead and disabled spaces altogether, I just did it so I don't know if it'll help or not.

Here are a list of programs that are pretty much always running on my Mac, I don't think it's 3rd party app related, but just for kicks and giggles I'll go ahead and throw it in there.

Mozilla Thunderbird,
Safari,
iTunes
Growl (Growltunes, Growlsafari etc)
Bowtie
Quicksilver
Cinch (Couldn't live without my Windows 7 Snap to full screen perk)
Last.fm scrobbler
Avast (Antivirus on a Mac... That's the old PC user coming out in me 😉 haha)

I hope this gets fixed soon! I haven't had any other complaints about my switch to Mac other than this one problem.. Well that and you Mac users are HUGE fans of insanely complex keyboard shortcuts, but I guess I'll have to get used to it. 🙂

Hmm.. the fact that you have somewhat more serious symptoms and this issue occurring at times other than just when you switch spaces makes me suspicious you have a more fundamental problem.

Everyone else on this thread has the issue appearing at the same time as the popup showing which space you are in. If you are just getting your keyboard not responding that sounds like a different issue (our issue looks like it's Spaces not letting go of the keyboard input- as system keyboard shortcuts still work OK).

If no-one here can help and you can reliably reproduce your problem I recommend you think about making a Genius Bar appointment at your nearest Apple store (if you are near one).

I was hoping for a different response. haha.

My nearest Apple store is about 4 hours away. :/ It hasn't done it since I disabled Spaces, but then again it's only been about 16 hours since I disabled it.

If it continues to do it I know I have a bigger issue and then I'll probably just exchange it for another at the Best Buy I got it at.

Chalk me up as someone who is also affected by this. I discovered this bug while using Things; submitted a support question to Cultured Code. They responded promptly with a link to this thread.

This bug is just one of many that I've found with Spaces in Snow Leopard, and I hope that the 10.6.4 update will address some of these issues, but esp this issue with the keyboard crapping out when switching spaces. That seems to be a no-brainer...

Here's what Cultured Code responded to me:


Hi (...),

Thank you for your inquiry.

This seems to be a bug in Spaces, although Things seems to provoke it more often than others.
There is a thread on Apple's boards that describes the issue and most of the people aren't even
using Things. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2161076

We will see if we can find a workaround there, but it seems as if the ball is in Apple's park.

Kind regards,
(...)

So, not sure what happened or changed, but after I disabled Spaces for a few days, I don't remember reenabling it, but I checked and it's enabled, and now I can switch Spaces as often as I'd like with no problems and my system has not slowed down and I have not had to restart at all.

Don't know what happened, but I"m not gonna question it.

just upgraded to 10.6.4. anybody having the problem? it's intermittent for me anyway, but i can't see anything. according to apple "-resolves an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive"

giggity.

nevermind. it's not fixed.

**** it, apple! my happiness level for my Mac has gone from about a 9 to a 6. Get it fixed!

on another note, even when keyboard shortcuts exhibit the problem, using jitouch gestures to switch between spaces don't. So i guess i'll be using those.

Before i discovered jitouch two days ago, i put Spaces into one of the hot corners.