Apple Wireless Keyboard acting weird on login screen

Question

Apple Wireless Keyboard acting weird on login screen

Every once in a while, when I go to login to my iMac and try to type in my password, I get lots of extra characters entered into the password field. The Delete key doesn't work, and I have to power off the keyboard, remove and reinsert the batteries, then restart the keyboard. This clears the problem, but it's very annoying!

It happens with new batters or older ones. I don't have any other devices nearby, so the keyboard isn't pairing with anything other than my Mac. The keyboard is only 2 years old, and has never been dropped or damaged. The problem has only ever happened on the login screen.

Has anyone had this problem? Any ideas? Is my keyboard just going bad?

Thanks!!

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Apr 15, 2016 10:26 AM

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Answer 1

ManSinha

Level 6

12,171 points

Apr 15, 2016 10:33 AM in response to Diana Woodward

it could be the keyboard going bad but I have also come across an incident when some particulate matter is causing a key to "stick" or does not allow contact to be broken

Can you upend the keyboard and gently shake it to try and dislodge anything extraneous?

The other idea would be to try an find a friend or relative with an external bluetooth keyboard to see if another piece works well - of course since your issue is intermittent - a solution trial may be difficult

Also for the most part Apple diagnostics in their Genius Bar are free

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Answer 2

Apr 15, 2016 10:34 AM in response to ManSinha

Good idea, and I do shake out the keyboard very often. Nothing stuck in the keys. What's so weird to me is that it's only ever happened on the login screen.

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Answer 3

Apr 16, 2016 3:49 PM in response to Diana Woodward

Try resetting the NVRAM - may help, cannot hurt.

Since it is only on the logon screen, it is unlikely the KB is failing.

Barry

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