Keyboard stops working in Snow Leopard when using Spaces

I noticed this bug since 10.6.0 and can't believe it still exists in 10.6.2.

But as far as I can tell, this only affects my 2008 Mac Pro 2.8 8-core while my new 2009 Unibody MBP 13" 2.26 keyboard continues to work fine.

This exact same thing happens with me. I switch to another space using keyboard shortcut, the black thing stays on screen, and it will not type. Trackpad works fine. Light on Caps Lock changes fine.
But in addition, when I bring up the on screen keyboard, it will not work either (so not a hardware fault)? Sometimes if I leave it for a while, just using it without keyboard, it starts working again. This is very annoying and I hope it can be fixed.

Hi all. I'm new here, and this is not the perfect solution to this problem (which has been driving me nuts), but it works. If you are using Hyperspaces on your computer, or are willing to, what you can do is to uncheck all of the key combinations in Spaces preferences. Then, set up these same key combos in Hyperspaces. This way you will have all of the same shortcuts for Spaces, but will circumvent the bug in spaces... This has been working for me for two days now, and so far I have not had to kill the dock once!

Wow, thanks for the tip. Only using Hyperspaces for a few hours so far but it's working great when I have TextExpander and USB Overdrive enabled. No more double-sliding spaces when I use a USB Overdrive mapped mouse shortcut to switch spaces, and no more dying keyboard (yet).

I had this problem even without using spaces in 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6. This is ridiculous Apple.

Message was edited by: KyleC

same problem with my MBP 13". Still no solution.
Hope Apples fixes that soon!! Killing the dock is not the way to go...

I have a MBP and my keyboard stopped working after x hours of use, typically when I start using again the next morning. The trackpad still works and, if I plug in an external keyboard, I can type. I'm not using Spaces. At first I was trying to figure out which application might have caused this problem but after reading these comments it's seems more like a OS problem.

Hyperspaces fixed it! And it's free if you don't care about the extra features. Thank goodness! Boy was this ever a headache.

Feel like it's necessary to add my name to the list of folks experiencing this issue. I have the problem on 2 of my 3 macs. Going to try the killall -9 Dock automator application next time it happens.

Doug

I've also been experiencing this problem.

The thing is, I can't figure out what is causing it.

I didn't use to have it. It must be an update or some software.

I've also noticed that even if I quit the Dock, if I switch between Spaces using the option key, the Spaces window stays on, and the problem begins again.

This makes me think that the problem is not with the Dock itself, but that something else is causing Spaces to hang, mainly with the keyboard.

Could it be that the signal for the Option key is continuously sent to Finder, thus stopping everything else? That doesn't make much sense, because no commands using the option key except Spaces' seem to work.

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Edit:

I also have HyperSpaces, and thanks to their newer 'feature' (which is redundant because it does exactly what Spaces does, though I'm now happy it exists), I'm going to switch over and see if the problem persists. I'm assuming that HyperSpaces converts the the command into an Option+Number command, or as a signal for Spaces to activate. Whatever the case, it'll hopefully work.

Edit 2:

It seems that HyperSpaces 'Space Left' and 'Space Right' functions are not the same as Spaces. Using a three by three grid, moving 'Left' on Space 4 takes you to Space 6, not Space 3. This can be solved by setting the keys for Left/Right to the 'Previous' and 'Next' space functions, though.

Message was edited by: Kuro Rai

Message was edited by: Kuro Rai

the quick and dirty way of getting out of this sticky situation is to keep pressing keys until it goes away.

seriously, it gets me out of it every time, even pressing arrow keys.

I had this problem for a few days- it seemed to randomly appear, unrelated to the app running. I uninstalled the third-party utility Growl (growl.info) and it hasn't happened since. I can't confirm that there's a cause-and-effect relationship there, but if anyone else with this problem is running Growl, it may be worth trying.

Same problem with my MBP 15".

Here is my quick workaround:
- press Ctrl-Shift-Eject for puts display to sleep (this command works in locked state)
- touch the mouse for wake-up

The keyboard unlocks and I can use Ctrl-Arrow for Space switching without problem.

I'm having the same problems as you guys (not mousekeys-related). I can consistently reproduce the issue. I'm wondering if it's related to a weird interaction between Dashboard and Spaces. To whit:

~ The issue only crops up after I've pressed F12 to get to Dashboard for the first time. I can use keyboard shortcuts for Spaces fine until I launch Dashboard.
~ Pressing F12 for Dashboard works exactly once. After that, the keyboard shortcut simply dies. This is 100% reproducible, consistent behavior. Sometimes I can get the key re-enabled by launching Dashboard.app a couple of times.
~ Any time after the Dashboard has been launched, using Spaces keyboard shortcuts triggers the issue. 100% reproducible for me.

For the time being, I've simply disabled my Dashboard keyboard shortcuts and haven't been using it at all (not that much to miss, really). So far so good.

Hope this is helpful to someone more knowledgeable than me.

Has anyone had this issue after they updated to 10.6.3 yet?