Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard 'h' and 'i' keys are swapped, and 'a' key doesn't work

I have been using a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic with my MacBook Pro for years without problems. Aside from no Karabiner support, upgrading to macOS Sierra was fine too for this keyboard. However, I used it again today and noticed some weird behavior. First of all, the Option and Command keys were not swapped in System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys. I normally have them swapped, so I changed it back to swapped. But then I noticed that the 'h' and 'i' keys are swapped, and the 'a' key doesn't work at all. I opened the onscreen Keyboard Viewer and saw that nothing is highlighted when I press the ‘a’ button. The ‘i’ button is highlighted when I press ‘h’, and vice versa. These keys function as expected when I plug the keyboard into my Windows PC. If I launch my Mac in safe mode, these problems are still there. I read somewhere that an issue like this might be caused by a stuck function key, so I pressed all of the keys on the keyboard to try to ‘unstick’ them, to no avail. The only time the keys work correctly is when I am at the login screen. My password includes the problematic characters, and entering it with the Sculpt keyboard works just fine. I guess it must be some sort of software issue, but restarting in safe mode should have fixed it.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 2, 2016 8:05 AM

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4 replies

Oct 15, 2016 7:44 AM in response to ld3mb

This is a production issue, I had this same problem on 10.12 release and an MS Sculpt, pretty clearly a Sierra bug.


When changing the modifier keys the first time something triggers the command and option keys to stick, you will hear error sounds from the key repeatedly pressing and then the keyboard will lock up. This is a new keyboard so before I switched the modifier keys it was working fine.


Work Around:


  1. Go back into System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys
  2. Select "Restore Defaults".
  3. Click OK to save the change.
  4. Go back into System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys
  5. Swap the Option and Command keys again.
  6. Click OK to save.
  7. Problem should go away and no longer persist.


–Guy

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Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard 'h' and 'i' keys are swapped, and 'a' key doesn't work

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