Wireless Keyboard buffering/repeating key problems?

Question

Wireless Keyboard buffering/repeating key problems?

I've got some problems with my old style Bluetooth Pro Keyboard (the white model from about 6 years ago). Ever since I got my new Mac mini, I have noticed I get a lot of characters scrambled. I type really fast, so I get a lot of "teh" instead of "the" and that sort of thing. But I noticed I get a LOT more scrambled characters now, whole words with all the letters out of order, like "word" becoming "rdow." I'm not that bad a typist, something in the buffer is being processed incorrectly.

Now with the upgrade to Mountain Lion, intermittently my keyboard will have a key "stick." Like when I hit Command-N for a new window in Safari, it keeps opening dozens of new windows, like I have the key held down. The only solution is to unpair the keyboard in Bluetooth prefs and then re-pair it.

What is going on here? Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestionssssssssssssssssssss?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 30" Cinema Display

Posted on Jul 29, 2012 1:15 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 29, 2012 1:20 PM in response to Charles Eicher

Charles, not sure if it will help your issue but in another thread on wireless keyboard problems a user hit on a possible fix...unpair the keyboard, turn it off, replace the batteries, and before turning it back on place your hand flat on the keys, just a lot of them, and press and hold a few seconds and repeat a couple times, then turn it back on and re-pair. Seems to help for some reason release latent charge in the keyboard.

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Answer 2

Jul 29, 2012 1:30 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

OK I tried it, but since this is an intermittent problem, it is hard to tell if this has fixed the problem. I will update this thread if I don't have a recurrence in a week or so. That solution sounds crazy, but I've heard crazier things that solved problems.

I should mention, the scrambled input seems to happen after a delay, the keyboard will not input for a couple of seconds, then the buffered text appears in the wrong order. It's like the CPU hangs for a moment. This makes me suspect it is an error on the computer side, not the keyboard side.

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Answer 3

Jul 29, 2012 1:38 PM in response to Charles Eicher

Sounded crazy to me until three or four users chimed in and said it worked for them...may not be the cpu, may be the age of the keyboard, can't always tell which piece of the system is acting up.

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Answer 4

Jul 29, 2012 1:45 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

Of course the proper solution would be for Apple to make a full size wireless keyboard with the number pad and other keys, instead of that dinky little thing they make now. If they made one, I would upgrade today. But the only full size keyboard is USB.

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Answer 5

Jul 29, 2012 1:49 PM in response to Charles Eicher

No argument here...getting a new iMac to replace the wife's G5 iMac...she was less than kind in the terminology used to describe the keyboard...a touch typist's worst nghtmare.

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Answer 6

Oct 13, 2012 5:21 AM in response to Ralph Landry1

Guys ... I have the full size (wired) keyboard USB thing and yup! mine is now doing the same as Charles's ...you can't win. 😢

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Answer 7

Oct 13, 2012 5:30 AM in response to ShirlyGurly

Hmm.. I forgot all about this discussion thread. Just to update, my keyboard is no longer having problems with the "stuck key" issue, perhaps that really was a stuck key due to dirt or something in the key switches. I still occasionally seem to have problems with scrambled keys, but that is also much reduced. I think there might have been software updates that addressed this issue, even if they didn't totally solve it.

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Answer 8

mmaglana

Level 1

4 points

Apr 12, 2013 3:46 PM in response to Charles Eicher

I get this error too every now and then and I'm not using an external keyboard! This happens on my 13" MacBook Pro (Mid 2010). I thought that a re-install would fix it but no dice.

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Answer 9

jquayle

Level 1

0 points

May 14, 2013 2:01 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

seems crazy, but that resolved the issue for me as well. I was using the keyboard exclusively with my iPad. Anytime I started typing after about a minute the first letter would show up 2-3 times with a single keystroke.

Works fine now

Thanks

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Answer 10

May 14, 2013 3:02 PM in response to jquayle

You are welcome, good to hear it worked for you.

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Answer 11

Rivanor

Level 1

5 points

Jul 27, 2013 10:42 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

Thank you. It did fix this problem for me. No more random, repeating keys. Btw, this behavior started right after I first replaced my keyboard batteries, since I bought it.

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Answer 12

Jul 28, 2013 5:47 AM in response to Rivanor

You're welcome, good to hear you, also, were successful in righting a problem. Points out that it is a good idea to discharge the keyboard everytime the batteries are changed as a proactive preventive.

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Answer 13

Sep 28, 2016 3:27 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

crazy and amazing at the same time!

it works perfectly for me!

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Answer 14

Apr 5, 2017 1:36 PM in response to Charles Eicher

Ralph's solution worked for me. Thanks!

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