Wired keyboard not working after startup

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Level 1

4 points

Wired keyboard not working after startup

We had a lightning storm today and my imac is plugged into a battery backup with surge protection, so when the lights started flickering didn't seem to affect anything, but I shut the computer down just to be safe. The power came back on and I started up again, everything looked normal, but my wireless mouse and wired keyboard are not working. It's not the USB ports because I can see 2 external hard drives showing on the desktop. I tried switching ports for the keyboard, but nothing. I forced a reboot and it started up normally again, but I still can't use any input devices. Any ideas?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 12, 2014 4:09 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

iCare

Level 4

2,490 points

May 12, 2014 4:24 PM in response to Shellyfish5

I find it odd that your wireless mouse and your USB keyboard both have an issue. Is it possible that your iMac booted to the dekstop then 'hung' for some reason?

If you press the caps lock key does the green LED light up? This would indicate to me that the keyboard is communicating with the iMac even though none of the keys respond.

What happens if you power on the system and immediately hold down and keep holding down the following four keys (command-option-p- r) in order to reset the PRAM? If the display goes black a few seconds after, and then you hear a chime this would indicate your keyboard is working because the iMac recognized the PRAM reset key sequence.

I also suggest trying to boot the system into safe mode to see if you can restore functionality. For more info visit OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? If the mouse and keyboard work in Safe Mode then you may have a software issue that needs to be isolated or you could reinstall the OS. Before proceeding with any troubleshooting you should make sure you have a backup of your data.

If you continue to have issues with your iMac please provide more detailed information about the model and version of Mac OS X that it is running. It would also be helpful to know how the system responded to each of the steps listed above.

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Answer 2

Shellyfish5 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 12, 2014 11:07 PM in response to iCare

Thanks for the suggestions. I had tried to boot in safe mode once before posting, and it didn't work, but after reading your response I tried it again and the third time it worked. I, too, thought it was strange that both the keyboard and mouse weren't working. I don't think the desktop was frozen, but I don't know for sure. I haven't added any software or anything or I'm still not sure what was causing the problem. Now my time machine backups are failing so I'm off to work on that. Thanks again!

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Answer 3

dmctom

Level 1

6 points

Mar 22, 2015 6:14 AM in response to Shellyfish5

I have the same issue with my iMac. All of a sudden keyboard is 100% dead. It works fine plugged into my Mac Book Pro. I've talked to a Genius and did the unplug and let sit... that worked once. Today, after a software update to Yosemite, the wired keyboard is dead again! No green light when hitting CAPS LOCK, no ability to do a PRAM reset....because KEYBOARD doesn't work.

This is an APPLE problem. There is no reason for a computer to work fine and all of a sudden have an issue that forces us to do all sort of nonsensical reboots, unplugs, resets etc... to fix a problem that is NOT the KEYBOARD! All the USB ports work fine as I have my backup drive and printer. I have unplugged them all, done the resets and still nothing. I've tried all the USB ports.

I bought the wired keyboard so I don't have to replace batteries and it has the numeric pad. Hey APPLE, fix this issue!!! I've got an iMac I can't use!! Bluetooth keyboard broke so I don't have it.

Running Yosemite 10.10.2

iMac 21.5 Mid 2010

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