Keyboard stops working in Snow Leopard when using Spaces

I almost don't think apple knows what is causing it. I think it's a bug they don't know how to fix. That's my best guess at this point

I also have 10.6.2 - Combo update installed - and switching spaces still kills keyboard input. This bug us KILLING me and my work flow... 10.6.3 a possible fix?

I don't use Spaces and don't have it enabled, and I've had this problem three times since updating to Snow Leopard. I had the computer running Leopard for more than a year before that and never saw the problem, so I assumed it was a software bug with 10.6.

In my case, the built-in keyboard and the trackpad both stop responding, but external USB devices still work. Once the keyboard came back after sleeping and waking; the other two times, none of the workarounds I could find online worked and I had to restart.

I've also had keys start repeating for no apparent reason; my hand is off the keyboard and suddenly a letter types all the way across my document. If I press any key, it stops. This behavior also never occurred before Snow Leopard.

Maybe this is not the same issue since command keys do not work for me and they did for the original poster. If not, I can start a new thread.

Does this happen when you are using a particular app?

For me, I have noticed it only happens when using Firefox (3.5.5). I don't think it is a coincidence since I normally use Safari.

Thoughts?

Happened again today on 10.6.2, which I thought had fixed it until today.

Well I've found a workaround that has solved the problem for me, or at least the keyboard has remained responsive for two days, which is an unprecedented amount of time for me.

Here is what I did. I opened the Spaces settings page and disabled the keyboard shortcuts that let me use the keyboard to switch between Spaces. Now I use the little icon on the menu bar.

Haha, clever. That reminds me of the time I was living in campus housing and called the electrician to fix a broken outlet. He put a plate over the outlet. Viola, problem solved, no more broken outlet.

But seriously, we know this bug is related to the keyboard switching of spaces, and I need that to work, so unfortunately your plate doesn't let me plug anything in.

It happens with no applications open.

I rarely use Firefox and I believe that each time this has happened to me I was using BBEdit.

I don't use Spaces at all, but if those of you who do have definitely linked the issue to Spaces, then mine must be a different issue. In my case the internal keyboard and trackpad on my MacBook Pro become completely unresponsive (command keys don't work either) but external keyboards and mice still work via USB.

Same problem here. I use ctrl + 1 and 2 to switch between spaces and the icon overlay gets stuck on screen and all keyboard input stops working. Very irritating to have to kill it from activity monitor.

Nearly exact same problem here, though random loss of keyboard/trackpad not associated with any particular application. Have you found any solutions?

I have the same BBEdit problem as well; but its likely not related. I do however notice the mouse icon changes when it happens; however, this is because it is above a window in BBEdit and I use Control up/down to switch in Spaces so it thinks I'm about to right click. (I don't think this is related to the bug.)

The locking of the keyboard appears to me to be related to the unusual status of the Dock:
I can STILL use all Spaces keyboard combos because Dock is still "frontmost" (as much as it can be) during the transition / display of the spaces window. I can't use other Dock features with the keyboard because Dock is in Spaces mode and other apps don't get these "frontmost" events because Spaces is "frontmost".

Every time the spaces window is displayed and gets stuck on the screen, when the bug occurs. So I assume this means that Dock is still "frontmost" and capturing all keyboard input; playing with spaces can get the window to go away but the event capturing still occurs until I quit the Dock. I can use the Dock, so its out of Spaces mode (or threaded) the system will not switch events to another app while in this unusual state.

My guess is that its an event messaging bug caused by the Dock's unusual operation rather than a bug in the dock itself (changing apps has the system switch the event target but with the Dock, it must relinquish it.) If I implemented it, I'd say this bug in the window manager.

Wondering if any of the people posting here also use VMWare. I've had this problem ever since upgrading to Snow Leopard, and I've observed a correlation with both Spaces and VMWare. I can usually work fine for extended periods of time, switching among Spaces with no problem. But, as soon as I switch to the space where I run VMWare (and launching VMWare), when switching to another space, my keyboard will stop working. Seems to happen very regularly.

I've run into the problem with and without VMware, 2.0.X and 3.0 versions.