ctrl key seems to be stuck

Thanks for your advice,

I am not yet at this point. Though I know it is a last resort and I wonder about the relatively affordable price.

Id like to add even more details. I still dont have an external keyboard to tinker with, but my father managed to find the two DVDs acommpanying the unit. I tried to boot from the install disc using the C key as well as the Apple Hardware Test using the D key. Both did not work. I also found the advice on the net to hit Alternate-C instead or Alternate-D respectively. However this tip was ment for somebody whose computer was stuck with the command key always on, not the control key as is the case here. No matter what, this did not work either.

I also tried a SMC reset to no avail. The combination Shift-Control-Power was not understood and the MacBook booted immediately when releasing the keys. Normally it should go off and need another pressing the Power Button to start again. Because the Control key is stuck I also tried with only Shift and Power which did not have any effect as well. Until I get a keyboard from the neighbourhood, I am off duty I guess.

Thanks for further suggestions what to try. I will contact my preferred AASP tomorrow but then I am not at my fathers place any longer and it will become a tedious task to check other things by calling my father and explaining him what to do exactly.

Bye, Christian

I have same problem

Hello,

my father has the same problem. Same machine. He pretends that nothing was spilled over. He has a tiny place where uses his laptop that has not even space to place a cup of beverage beside the computer.

A little more details: I tried to log out and log in as the admin user but cant give the password. Some keys provoke a chime while typing, others dont.

While rebooting, Command-Alternate-P-R doesnt seem to work. Pressing Alternate to get into the boot volume chooser does not work. Pressing Command-S to boot into single user mode works, however I cant type any command while in the shell, now fsck, no reboot, nothing. Pressing "R" makes the prompt change to something like "search backwards `´" for a very short moment. I cant reproduce this behaviour in Terminal on my own machine pressing Control-R, so I am not sure what it is.

The way I came to the conclusion that the machine behaves like the Control key being pressed all time was within Apple Mail typing Command-N to open a new Mail opened a new notice instead. I was not able to close the Window Typing Command-W. I opened the trash can using the mouse and tried to resize the window because there was so much in the trash can but I got a context menu instead when grabbing the title bar. Scrolling with two fingers zoomed the whole Screen instead.

My father allow my small nephew to install games while in vacation. He even gave him the admin password although I told him not to do so. So my first idea was that he had changed something with the input methods. But then, the strange behaviour would be gone during the boot sequence at least I guess. And I should be able to log in as another user (I always create a separate user for everyday use that has no admin rights).

I have no firewire cable at hand to reinstall in target mode and -gosh- the MacBook 2009 does not even support this essential function because it has not firewire port, it is a crippled machine. I dont have any idea who to analyze the problem further.

Please throw some wisdom from heaven.

Bye, Christian

One more thing: OS ist 10.6.8

Try making and efi restore cd on another computer and resetting your efi firmware.

I can't find one for my macbook4,1 if anyone can tell me which one to use that would be peachy keen.

Thanks for your suggestion. I hope it will help somebody else. However my father has had his topcase replace weeks ago at an AASP. This AASP should have checked the EFI Software before replacement Id expect. However, the report did not contain any hint to this direction.

While reading the thread again, I am astonished by the load of typos and plain wrong words in my own message. That is not they way I write, I am sorry for this, but I dont feel guilty. There has probably been a spelling corrector in place. I hate this kind of software. They always make things worse and I have deactived it everywhere I know of. Apple should remove this disfunctional piece of software as long as they cant provide anything that is at least on par with human beings.

I have the same problem, did any of u found a solution for his problem since the post is quite old? Thanks a lot

Got the same problem, did any of u guys get a solution for this??

I found a work-around that I've transformed into a wikiHow article: http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Fix-Macbook-Sticky-Control-Key