wired keyboard not working

Question

wired keyboard not working

I first noticed this a couple of days ago. I have a late 2010 iMac Quad Core i7 and I've started to have problems with the wired keyboard I have connected to it. When I wake it up, or start it up, the cursor appears in the password field, but when I try to enter my password, nothing appears on the field. I've tried power cycling it and still no luck. If it were a wireless keyboard, I'd just change batteries, but this one is wired into the USB port on the back of the iMac.

I've never had a problem until the last few days.

Any thoughts on what might be going on and how to resolve it?

Thanks,

Mike King

Dublin, OH

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1), Late 2010 Quad Core i7 iMac

Posted on Sep 4, 2011 7:21 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,094 points

Sep 4, 2011 7:51 AM in response to Michael King3

Mike,

You can try doing a couple of SMC resets, if that doesn't work reset the PRAM. Report back with the results please.

SMC RESET

Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

PRAM RESET

Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

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Answer 2

Sep 4, 2011 8:16 AM in response to rkaufmann87

The SMC reset worked. Any idea on what caused this in the first place?

Thanks for the help.

Mike

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,094 points

Sep 4, 2011 8:20 AM in response to Michael King3

Your welcome. Very tough to say and probably not really worth diving into. If you are intested in reading about SMC resets please read Apple's article:

SMC Reset

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Answer 4

S2

Level 1

40 points

Mar 27, 2015 3:09 PM in response to Michael King3

I am having the same problem. I have a wired keyboard connected to my 2010 iMac and a month ago it started to stop working. At first, changing USB ports solved the problem, but now it doesn't matter which of the four USB ports I plug it into, I can't get it to type.

I have tried both the SMC and the PRAM reset. Neither solves the problem now.

Other things work when I plug them into the USB ports (external hard drive, super drive, scanner, printer).

The keyboard works fine when I plug it into my MacBook Air.

Any ideas how to fix this? Or is my computer too old?

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Answer 5

Jun 3, 2015 4:52 AM in response to S2

Same problem here, only with wired keyboards. Will try the SMC reset now; hopefully this helps.

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Answer 6

Jun 3, 2015 6:09 AM in response to rogierlommers

Well, have tried resetting SMS as described above. Unfortunately after a complete shutdown of the system, the Mac USB keyboard is still not recognised. After I unplug the keyboard and plug it into another port, it get's recognised. Anyone some ideas how to fix this?

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