Q: Yosemite keyboard not working

I just read somewhere on here to plug a USB hub into the back of your iMac, then plug the wired keyboard into that. Worked for me! Thank goodness.

yes - it worked for me too.

I tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM, plugging in my iPhone, plugging in a USB drive, unplugging the iMac power cord for 15 seconds and then plugging it back and waiting 5 seconds, and a USB extension cord.  I tried everything mentioned here and the num lock still does not work. I even tried changing the output in the sound preference.  I have 3 apple wired keyboards that work on my PowerMac G4 (running Debian/Linux).  The num lock led lights up when I plug the keyboard into the G4 but not on the Intel iMac. 

When I boot the iMac from recovery partition the numbers on the number pad all work.  When I boot back into OS X 10.10.2 only the =/*-+ and enter keys work from the number pad.  If I hit the num lock/clear button an alert sound goes off but nothing happens as the numbers are still inactive. 

Right, I used to have the problem where every-so-often on Mavericks I'd have to disconnect the keyboard USB cable from the back of the monitor and then plug it into the Mac Pro tower. However, since updating to Yosemite all seemed to be well. That is until a few days ago when the problem returned when I updated to the most recent OS X 10.10.2.

I am again having to disconnect the USB cable from the monitor and have now left it permanently left it connected to the tower. Not the end of the world, but also not what you'd have to expect to do to such high end products!

At the same time of the update, Safari is also playing up where by, even though I have set it to auto start when I turn on the computer, it doesn't full start up. It loads up, but the home page (or any page) do not show. I have to go in and either load up Reopen from last session, or start a new page!

Frustrating!

As fate would have it the number pad on one of my two keyboards started to work suddenly this morning.  I changed the USB extension cord (the third one I tried since yesterday) for a completely unrelated reason this morning and the num pad was working.  Then I connected the keyboard straight to the iMac without the USB extension cable and the number pad still works.  However the led on the num lock/clear button does not light up either way.  The keyboard was plugged into my MacPro tower (running Maverick) overnight for the most part before I reconnected it to the Intel iMac at least 5 hours before I moved it.  As I stated before it seems to be related to something in Yosemite that is not present in the Yosemite Recovery partition. 

The only other change is that I completely unplugged all of the USB cables that I had connected to the iMac.  Not sure if I tried that last time.  I have not tried the other keyboard yet but will update if and when I do. 

BTW:  The working keyboard is an Apple Pro Keyboard

Product ID: 0x0204

Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)

Version:1.22

Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec

Manufacturer:  Mitsumi Electric

I hope the little I have contributed to this helps out. 

  Product ID: 0x0204

  Vendor ID: 0x05ac 

Thanks George.

I tried your solution of disconnecting all other USBs from my tower, but that didn't work.

Odd thing is, sometimes the keyboard works when connected to the monitor. Then sometimes it doesn't!

Since when has Apple started to become unreliable?

I have this problem too. MacBook Pro Retina 13" bought in December 2013. Brand new Apple Wired keyboard with numeric pad will not work with this computer  running Yosemite. I did get it to respond on occasion by plugging the keyboard into my 27" Apple display, but it's too unreliable to be a solution. I've tried every solution in this thread without any luck. I am able to use the keyboard with 3 other macs not running Yosemite without any problems at all. Older keyboards work fine too. This seems to be an issue with newer Apple hardware being incompatible with each other.

Has anyone had any kind of reply from Apple regarding this?

It's obviously not a hardware problem so something must be done about it.

I'm having the same problem with my iMac: it zapped out an Apple USB keyboard and now another generic USB keyboard. Plus, without a keyboard I can't enter the password so I'm locked out of MY computer. It's really frustrating. I've tried all the proposed solutions but none worked, and honestly I don't want to spend more money for another keyboard just to have it zapped out again.

For me, 10.10.3 seems to have put things to right. How long this lasts remains TBD, but for now, perhaps it's worth your effort to give 10.10.3 a go.

Good luck! And please post back your results so that others may share your success (or whatever).

The Apple USB keyboard was "half-working" (all keys worked except for Esc, Tab and Caps Lock); I updated to 10.10.3 as you suggested and...it's not working at all now. C'mon...seriously?!

Indeed you are correct. My earlier results proved in error & preemptive. Sometime it works, but it so unreliable and unpredictable as to be of no value. Arrgh!

Sorry for getting your hopes up.

While it cost US $9.99, I find that iShortcuts (http://nulana.com/shortcuts/) works as well, if not better, than the non-working efforts by Apple, ergo, well worth the cost (at least to me)

I assigned to Shortcuts the (presently ) non-working shortcuts that Apple uses; and all is again right with the world.

I have used Shortcuts for about 18 months and had no problems. Still, it is probably best to verify things, especially when using third party apps.

FWIW, works eagerly well with launching scripts, web pages, apps, System functions, etc.

Maybe the 15 day free trial is worthwhile?

I am having some intermittent success after removing Box.com Sync from my Mac. However that may be a coincidence. I've now upgraded to 10.10.3 and still having the issue with the Apple Pro Keyboard not working at all on Yosemite (but fine with all other computers). The built in keyboard on the laptop I've now notice often doesn't work after waking. Highly frustrating. I've also had bluetooth mouse fail to connect without going through System preferences and setting it up like new again. It's like this MBP with Yosemite wants no input from me!

Using usb extension worked for me. Thanks for pointers.