arrow keys don't work in macbook

anonimo7

1. When did the keys stop working properly?
   1. Can you think of anything that immediately preceded the misbehavior?
   2. Software added or updated
2. have you tried 'Safe Boot' with the User that is experiencing this?
3. What instructions from Apple site? paste link, please.
4. Is this global?
   1. Scroll bars?
   2. Text cursor?

await results

regards

CCC

A7

To summarize

1. Yesterday, your University's VPN magically came back to life and you had done no install/updates immediately prior to onset
2. Safe Boot with this user brings joy
3. You followed all the steps in One or more keys on the keyboard do not respond - in particular ALL in the section
   
   " Some keys don't work as expected
   1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
   2. From the View menu, choose Speech.
   3. Click the Text to Speech tab.
   4. If "Speak selected text when the key...SNIP "
   
4. My question was a bit unclear... I get it that it is only arrow key functionality
   1. Does this affect ONLY scrolling as if you were using the arrows in the scroll bar?
   2. Does this affect ONLY movement of the TEXT cursor in the body of some text document or compose pane?
   3. Both?

Anyway, we have enough to get started - in the right forum! I will ask the Hosts to move this (intact) to Snow Leopard or possibly MacBook Pro.

regards

CCC

anonimo

there apparently is a curse upon this thread from my perspective - not your problem so I will work-around

because when I login here, I cannot see your last post to which I would reply, I will paste the text from the email

1. Yes the VPN started working, as you said, magically

2. safe boot works fine

3. Yes I have followed ALL steps, even more than once.

4. Sorry, I really didn't understand the question, but it affects both the scrolling as in scroll bar and also the text cursor. It's quite anoying specially in excell, because I cannot move from cell to cell, unless I use the trackpad.

clarifying #4 - all arrow functions = check

Misbehave in ALL applications?

I have search the communities pretty thoroughly. This or something very similar has been reported for several years. The only solution offered was whatyou tried before coming here. I cannot imagine how the magical resurrection of the VPN could cause this misbehavior, but in my experience, there is always a triggering event for bad doings.

In Safe Mode, is the VPN active?

If no, in normal boot, you need to try to get back to the state before the sadness. Turn OFF the VPN in software. Test. Disconnect from your network. Test. i.e., systematically and progressively remove the VPN from the equation.

awaiting... while I try to figure out my glitch du jour

CCC

A7

Running summary ( clarify #3 )

1. VPN appearance magically unrelated - even though it was an immediate predecessor
2. Safe Boot with this user brings joy
   
3. Other User Accounts = Joy <<== were these existing OR created in troubleshooting? <<=========
   
4. You followed all the steps in One or more keys on the keyboard do not respond <- FYI, Last Modified: Jan 8, 2014
   - in particular ALL in the section " Some keys don't work as expected"
5. All arrow key functions FAIL in all applications

In your last post, you said

"... I realized that the solution*s* on apple support didn't work ..." <- ( *'s are my emphasis = PLURAL )

Is this a mere typo, or have you tried other solutions as well? If so which ones? LINKS!!

I have done JiveSearch and Google SiteSearch (in both discussions.apple.com and support.apple.com) on the subject with various combinations of keywords... a lot of results - BUT - all that I found left the issue unresolved in the threads AND the "More like this" threads at the bottom left of the pages.

I know it is beating a dead horse, but you absolutely did this from the aforementioned KB document? If yes, what were the results of the 'Keyboard Viewer' tests?

Emphasis is mine

9. If the issue persists, use Keyboard Viewer to help isolate the issue:

SNIP

4. From the Input (flag) menu, choose Show Keyboard Viewer.

5. If the keyboard is connected and detected by OS X, the keys you type will highlight in the Keyboard Viewer window. Open TextEdit (or any text application), and try to type something using the keys that were previously not responding to see if they highlight in Keyboard Viewer.

SNIP

Also, just to verify, you absolutely did these two things ( [ A ] & [ B ] below )? If yes, RESULTS?

SNIP

10. Start from the Mac OS X Install Disc, choose [ A ] Terminal from the Utilities menu and test the keys which were previously not working. If the keys work while started from the Install disc, then the keyboard itself is working correctly. [ B ] Use How to troubleshoot a software issue to isolate the software issue that may be causing the keys to not respond.

SNIP

If you indeed did [ B ], and in particular THIS:

If the issue occurs in various applications, or in Mac OS X

1. For example, if no applications can be opened.

Tip: If the issue began right after you performed a Mac OS X re-installation (excluding erase-installation), see Applications don't work after reinstalling Mac OS X.

The first and easiest test to try is to see if the issue affects a different user account on your Mac. Each user account has customized preferences and other items stored in its home directory. You'll first need to create an additional user if one does not already exist (follow steps a-h below). Then, log out of the current user and test the issue in the new user account.

If this resolves the issue, there may be ==>> an issue with a file in the home directory <<== of the original user account.

SNIP

Unfortunately, there is no instruction if that last is the case - or even how to tell for sure!! It would seem that the silence on the subject would indicate a terminally ill User Account !! You probably know what that means... delete it and start over anew.😢

In that same article, same section:

4. If the issue persists, there may be an issue with a third-party font file in your home folder. See this article for information about using Font Book to enable or disable fonts in Mac OS X v10.3 or later. The title of said article is - oddly - Archived - Mac OS X 10.5: Fonts list - totally skips Tiger!

When we go to this article for information, it details how to disable Fonts - Since the other User Accounts are joyful. ALL fonts are NOT shared by all Users... so when CREATING a User, it is likely that only Apple fonts are 'accessed'.

It could be a Font-Gone-Wild - tedious and tasteless process to find out.

Bad news is that it may be some other file ( see reference to Super BIG bold sentence above )

You seem to have two choices, one simple = abandon your old trusty User Account, one tedious = Find-A-Funky-Font

best of luck

CCC

CCC

a7

before you get discouraged, let me see if I can track down one or two of our colleagues here that are expert in deep level doings of the OS. Wait a little and see if one or more show up.

CCC

Since you've tried different troubleshooting tips and nothing has helped, I'd suggest that you book an appointment at your nearest Genius Bar; the troubleshooting/diagnosis is free there and it'll be much easier when someone can look/touch and see the problem. You can then post back with their recommendations and/or fixes.

A7 -- Congratulations! and you're Welcome! Award yourself a 'Helpie' AND and 'Answerie' ! !

"Do you have any idea why this worked. It's just curiosity because my problem is solved."

Absolutely NOT! Curious in that something or somebody must have been responsible for whatever modification was made to the "select keyboard....For each modifier key...." pref - wouldn't necessarily need to be click and type by a person... some gremlin (read that some software, benign or malicious) could have simply rewritten that value in the plist file. You may never know.

best regards, and come back soon!

CCC

I have this problem also but it comes and goes randomly it will work for a while and then the next page I'm on and try to scroll it won't work and I go back into the keyboard and reset and then it will work for a while again. HELP this is ridiculous