sev-engel

Q: apple wireless keyboard   win 10/x64

I run a mid 2013 MBA plus cinema display plus apple wireless keyboard (model A1255). This constellation worked fine both under MacOS (currently 10.11.5) and bootcamp win 7-64. Recently, the system began to "forget" about the wireless keyboard, which could be re-connected, sometimes automatically (after deleting all the drivers and reinstalling them (which, incidentally, even resulted in a windows blue screen which was recoverable from by simple rebooting)) and sometimes manually by keying in the automatically generated code number.

 

In view of the availability of win 10/x64, I decided to upgrade. Everything runs fine now, but the wireless keyboard is not connectable at all any longer.

 

Right after installation of win 10 via the official bootcamp routines, I got a notification about a faulty driver. Still, the system offered me even a keycode to connect to the wireless keyboard, but did not give me enough time to key that code actually in. Thereafter, I got stuck at the point where the keyboard is reported as coupled, but upon trying to actually connect it the window for keying in a code pops up (with no code generated automatically) and at that point all attempts fail (i.e. "0000" "000000" etc.).

 

I uninstalled the keyboard drivers and put in those from earlier bootcamp versions - no change. The bootcamp I used is 6.0.6136. I also uninstalled the bluetooth drivers - no blue screen with win 10, but otherwise unsuccessful as before.

 

I wonder whether the keyboard driver is relevant here at all - perhaps this is the driver for the on-board-keyboard of the MBA? In any case there this just ONE keyboard driver in the device manager listed, not two, as one would expect. It also could be that the bluetooth drivers are not compatible although they work fine with the wireless magic mouse and other bluetooth items. I also note that a driver shows up under bluetooth drivers for that mouse - but there never was something like "Apple Wireless Keyboard Driver".

 

Help, Apple! I need that keyboard!

Posted on May 19, 2016 5:44 AM

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Q: apple wireless keyboard   win 10/x64

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  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel May 30, 2016 12:39 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    May 30, 2016 12:39 AM in response to Loner T

    Although both the SMC and the NVRAM really shouldn't interfere with hardware to be hooked up to bootcamp/win10 I reset those and not unexpectedly - absolutely no change with respect to the wireless keyboard connection problem!

     

    Windows continues to alert to an "unknown device" drivers for can't be found by internet search and a warning concerning the keyboard where a driver update gets me "actual driver installed" but no change with respect to the status of the keyboard (this information shown yb the device manager).

  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel May 31, 2016 2:24 AM in response to sev-engel
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    May 31, 2016 2:24 AM in response to sev-engel

    So this is my FINAL message regarding the keyboard driver issue.

     

    I got yet another MacBook Air (also from  Mid 2013) to install win 10/x64 on.

     

    This was - imho - the perfect "Clean" install:

     

    -- update the MBA (10.11.5 via the appstore)

    -- reset both smc and nvram on that machine (just be on the safe side, still I cannot imagine any relation between windows drivers and smc/nvram!)

    -- get a fresh win10prof64 iso file from Microsoft

    -- have a new SanDisk usb stick at hand

    -- start bootcamp, copy the iso file onto the stick via bootcamp (which erases the stick, reformats it and makes it bootable) and get the bootcamp drivers from the net automatically

    -- install and basic configure win10, let bootcamp run

    -- update win10

    -- run the Apple update program (which installs bootcamp wlan plus - presumably - the new "magic" keyboard

    -- check the system, everything running fine

    -- hook up the Apple magic mouse via the win10 bluetooth routine - smooth installation, mouse runs fine

    -- hook up the Apple wireless keyboard
    -- -- the keyboard is recognized, upon pairing the driver installation begins and immediately crashes the system which automatically reboots

    -- -- after reboot and retrying the pairing the process is stpped with the message "driver error".

     

    So there is nothing wrong here but a faulty driver!

     

    Corrections would be very much appreciated...

  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel Jun 1, 2016 6:24 AM in response to sev-engel
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Jun 1, 2016 6:24 AM in response to sev-engel

    One really never should say never (or final!) :-)

     

    win 10/wireless keyboard issue SOLVED - well, to (quite) some extent, at least.

     

    In view of the above observations I thought of getting rid of that single faulty Apple wireless keyboard driver und just revert to the default windows driver (which was shown to work before invoking bootcamp, cf. posts above). Deleting the device from the device manager and reinstalling it by trying an old (bootcamp 5) driver did not work, win10 automatically reverts to its original state. Preventing some drivers from becoming updated by fiddling around with the group rights also did not seem attractive, at least not to me. 

     

    So I just opened the "programs" directory from the system manager and deleted/uninstalled one of the two Apple keyboard drivers which showed up there. I forgot the number, but the other one of the two even was not deletable. The current state of affairs (with my mid 2013 MacBook Air, 10.11.5) is shown in this screenshot (despite the German language its meanings still should be intelligible):

    programs.png

     

    So there is now just ONE Windows driver package - Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard ...6200.

     

    The device manager now looks like this:

    device manager.png

    Under bluetooth, the Apple wireless keyboard shows up allright, under Human Interface Devices the keyboard does NOT show up any longer, but under keyboards (German: "Tastaturen") two devices show up, the first one is the BT (wireless) keyboard, and the second one is the on board keyboard (likely USB connected).

     

    Upon invoking the win 10 BT manager the keyboard now is recognized and can be paired smoothly (with keycode input).

     

    Naturally, the Apple "special" keys like dimming the screen and changing speaker volume do NOT work with this default driver, but that is not that important for me. I was delighted to see that the external wireless keyboard even can be used to select the boot partition upon booting and under win 10 immediately is recognized for logging in. Quite satisfying, so far.

     

    By using (the windows program) "key tweak" it even might be possible to get all those other keys to work, but I have not looked into that so far.

     

    Still, I would like to urge Apple to do something about their wireless keyboard driver for win10/x64. .

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jun 1, 2016 6:52 AM in response to sev-engel
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Jun 1, 2016 6:52 AM in response to sev-engel

    I tested a wireless keyboard on W10 on a 2012 MBP and it paired and works properly, including the special Apple Keys. I will post some screen shots later tonight.

  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel Jun 2, 2016 1:13 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Jun 2, 2016 1:13 AM in response to Loner T

    Even if that works for a MacBook Pro: I am using a MacBook Air and things certainly do not work out properly as I have proven here sufficiently, imho. Perhaps there are certain differences in hardware details, despite the fact that the bootcamp drivers (apparently) did not differ for MBP and MBA.

     

    Another issue might be (although I can hardly imagine this actually to be possible) that the MBA's I am working with are "descendants" of my very first Apple, which was the first Intel based MBP, followed by the early MBA model followed by the current mid 2013 MBA. Throughout these hardware generations the OS never was set up cleanly, but only upgraded from 10.6 to 10.7 and so on up to the current 10.11.5.

     

    I do not know whether this might affect, with time, hardware driver configurations or such - hopefully not. This very option (i.e. the possibility to transfer ALL your data PLUS programs) via a time machine backup to a new machine is perhaps the most valuable feature of MacOS as compared to say, Windows. And although the number of programs which only are available for Windows constantly has decreased through the last years, there remain a few which can't be run with wineskin/winery and this continues to call for double boot with Windows (talking NOT about games here, to be sure).

     

    Compatible drivers then shouldn't be a problem for Apple, especially, if they offer bootcamp as such. And the current (6136) wireless keyboard driver is NOT compatible - at least not with MBA (mid 2013, 13``/i7/8GB RAM/512SSD).

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jun 2, 2016 6:30 AM in response to sev-engel
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Jun 2, 2016 6:30 AM in response to sev-engel

    Do you have the ability to test this on a 2013 MBP?

  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel Jun 2, 2016 7:22 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Jun 2, 2016 7:22 AM in response to Loner T

    Unfortunately no, I could use a 2012 MBP (i5/8GB RAM/512 SSD). To be honest, though: what would this tell us? The Pro is a different Machine as compared to the Air, and drivers are right between hardware and OS. So, even if things do work nicely with a MacBookPro, they certainly do not so on a MacBook Air...

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jun 2, 2016 8:13 AM in response to sev-engel
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Jun 2, 2016 8:13 AM in response to sev-engel

    Before you pursue this, please check the BT hardware hardware from System Report. It can help decide if it is worth testing or not.

  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel Jun 3, 2016 12:32 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Jun 3, 2016 12:32 AM in response to Loner T

    There are several differences between the two machines: chip sets, firmware versions, ID, HCI, LMP and more.

     

    I'd rather refrain from trying out this - it's quite an effort and I basically do not want to know whether there are hardware configurations which do work with the current boot camp drivers, but rather to obtain drivers which work for my machine...

  • by BurningEye,

    BurningEye BurningEye Jun 16, 2016 7:41 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 16, 2016 7:41 AM in response to Loner T

    I' m facing the same problem. The wireless keyboard worked fine with Windows 8.1 but Windows 10 can't pair it!

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jun 18, 2016 11:47 AM in response to BurningEye
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Jun 18, 2016 11:47 AM in response to BurningEye

    Have you tried un-pairing the BT Keyboard/Mouse from OS X side, and then pairing it first to Windows? Please ensure that you have a USB K/M connected so you can control the Mac.

  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel Jun 19, 2016 3:22 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Jun 19, 2016 3:22 AM in response to Loner T

    As stated repeatedly before, unpairing/repairing (and observing certain orders of pairing) IN NO WAY is involved in the issue discussed here. The problem clearly resides in a faulty driver which for reasons unknown is incompatible with win10/x64 - apparently it worked with win 8.1 and certainly with win 7, but since the win 10 drivers have been issued more recently I can't tell whether there have been substantial changes as compared to the earlier versions or not or whether such changes even are required in view of the altered OS (win10 is not identical to 7 or 8!). 

     

    Apart from this, I do have tried this playing around with pairing/unpairing/pairing first etc., to absolutely no avail.

     

    And this is not surprising since, IF the drivers work ok (as, e.g., for the wireless magic mouse) you can use that mouse with windows, MacOS etc. without problems: Just pair it at some point to some machine and it is recognized smoothly by all OS, at least up to, say, five or so different "partners".

     

    I also wonder about that suggestion regarding connecting a usb keyboard/mouse: With a laptop, you always have access to the in built trackpad  and keyboard. If you kill the respective driver (under win 10) you just reboot and everything is back there (along with the error message regarding the faulty wireless keyboard driver...).

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jun 19, 2016 7:38 AM in response to sev-engel
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Jun 19, 2016 7:38 AM in response to sev-engel

    I have seen BT-LE features cause problems in Win10. Power Management is another issue, once the devices are paired. RF interference also plays role, once pairing is successful. The driver may not handle some use-cases properly.

     

    W10 also does not help it's own case with forced updates and replacing drivers without the user's knowledge. I have stayed away from W10, apart from some experimentation, because of stability or lack thereof.

  • by sev-engel,

    sev-engel sev-engel Jun 19, 2016 11:45 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Windows Software
    Jun 19, 2016 11:45 PM in response to Loner T

    Now these claims are just plain rubbish, sorry. BT pairing, WLAN connections and USB connections are definitively handled better than ever before under bootcamp win10, perhaps also under "native" win 10 pc's. All Apple device runs fine under win10 but for the wireless keyboard - as stated by many more usrers in this forum.

     

    I have 100% clearly proven that the problem lies in the faulty driver provided by Apple - perhaps things are complicated by the fact that MS undoubtedly is peculiar about some hardware. But in any case the out of the box win10 driver runs like a charm with the BT Apple keyboard except naturally, that it does not support the special keys of the Apple BT keyboard. This is not a real huge issue with one execption, namely the missing backspace/delete button. You must use the mouse menu for deleting items. Well, ok. Twisting the keyboard layout by the respective (windows) programs does not help here, btw. I've tried it. They all do not support special key assignments.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Jun 20, 2016 2:34 AM in response to sev-engel
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Jun 20, 2016 2:34 AM in response to sev-engel

    sev-engel wrote:

     

    Now these claims are just plain rubbish, sorry. BT pairing, WLAN connections and USB connections are definitively handled better than ever before under bootcamp win10, perhaps also under "native" win 10 pc's. All Apple device runs fine under win10 but for the wireless keyboard - as stated by many more usrers in this forum.

    Please see Re: Windows 10 Magic mouse + Keyboard disconnects randomly as an example of W10 issues. Frequent driver crashes have been reported in some cases.

    sev-engel wrote:

     

    I have 100% clearly proven that the problem lies in the faulty driver provided by Apple - perhaps things are complicated by the fact that MS undoubtedly is peculiar about some hardware. But in any case the out of the box win10 driver runs like a charm with the BT Apple keyboard except naturally, that it does not support the special keys of the Apple BT keyboard. This is not a real huge issue with one execption, namely the missing backspace/delete button. You must use the mouse menu for deleting items. Well, ok. Twisting the keyboard layout by the respective (windows) programs does not help here, btw. I've tried it. They all do not support special key assignments.

    I have W10+BC6 on a 2012 MBP with Apple BT driver in a very noisy RF environment running without any issues. There is no "100%" proof, but just your experiences. If the W10-provided driver works without any issues, but lacks some functions, you should use this driver, since the BC driver is not working in your situation. Can you connect a USB keyboard and get the same functions to work properly using the same Keyboard driver?

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