Weird Characters and Very Slow Keyboard When waking iMac From Sleep

Question

Level 1

8 points

Weird Characters and Very Slow Keyboard When waking iMac From Sleep

Back last year I think, someone posted the following question, which just about perfectly describes what has started happening with my late 2012 iMac, running Sierra 10.12.4

"When waking my Mac Mini late 2014 from sleep, I occasionally get odd input characters and slow response from the keyboard. Sometimes, I hit just one key and it goes crazy auto filling for about the next 10 to 15 characters. I have searched the web and I see many others having this issue as well (all seem to be with El Capitan). A hard power down is all that fixes it. Help!"

The answer to that post was to try these -- neither of which helped:

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac

Someone in a related post suggested removing and reinstalling the wireless keyboard. That did not help. It still seems that the only solution is to do a power down and restart.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Thank you in advance!

Pete

iBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on May 18, 2017 8:18 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,275 points

Sep 5, 2017 8:03 PM in response to leepj

Try running this program in your normal account, then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy Report” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

Reply

Answer 2

leepj Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 5, 2017 9:21 PM in response to Eric Root

EtreCheck version: 3.4.4 (448)

Report generated 2017-09-06 00:14:19

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 8:49

Performance: Below Average

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Clean up] link to delete unused files.

Problem: Other problem

Description:

When waking my iMac late 2012 from sleep, I occasionally get odd input characters and slow response from the keyboard. Sometimes, I hit just one key and it goes crazy auto filling for about the next 10 to 15 characters. I have searched the web and I see many others having this issue as well (all seem to be with El Capitan). A hard power down is all that fixes it. Help!"

Hardware Information: ⓘ

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

iMac - model: iMac13,2

1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-3470S) CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 0/DIMM1

Empty

BANK 1/DIMM1

Empty

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported

Wireless:
en1: Unknown

Video Information: ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M - VRAM: 512 MB

iMac 2560 x 1440

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE HDD WDC WD10EALX-408EA0 disk1: (1 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk1s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted>
[EFI]: 210 MB

(disk1s2) <not mounted>
[CoreStorage Container]: 999.35 GB

Recovery HD (disk1s3 - Journaled HFS+) <not mounted>
[Recovery]: 650 MB

APPLE SSD SM128E disk0: (121.33 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted>
[EFI]: 210 MB

(disk0s2) <not mounted>
[CoreStorage Container]: 120.99 GB

Boot OS X (disk0s3 - Journaled HFS+) <not mounted> : 134 MB

USB Information: ⓘ

USB20Bus

hub_device

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

USB20Bus

hub_device

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

USB30Bus

Western Digital My Book 1140

My Book 1140 disk3: (3 TB)

(disk3s1) <not mounted>
[EFI]: 315 MB

Backups (disk3s2 - Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/Backups : 3.00 TB (90.62 GB free)

composite_device

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Virtual disks: ⓘ

Macintosh HD (disk2 - Journaled HFS+) /
[Startup]: 1.11 TB (619.10 GB free)

Physical disk: disk0s2 120.99 GB Online

Physical disk: disk1s2 999.35 GB Online

System Software: ⓘ

macOS Sierra
10.12.6 (16G29) - Time since boot: about one hour

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Clean up: ⓘ

com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/MacOS/Updater/Adobe Reader Updater Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Reader Updater Helper semi-auto

Executable not found!

One orphan file found. [Clean up]

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Library/Application Support/Kaspersky Lab/KAV/Bases/Cache

[loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.kimul (46) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.mark.1.0.6 (1.0.6 - SDK 10.9) [Lookup]

/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver (3.9.3 - SDK 10.8) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver (1.3.3 - SDK 10.8) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.klif (3.5.1a7) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.kaspersky.nke (2.1.0) [Lookup]

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 6 Apple tasks

[loaded] 177 Apple tasks

[running] 99 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 37 Apple tasks

[loaded] 179 Apple tasks

[running] 102 Apple tasks

Launch Agents: ⓘ

[running] com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon.plist (Logitech Inc. - installed 2016-12-02) [Lookup]

[failed] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[running] com.brother.LOGINserver.plist (? a1772de2 41ad4933 - installed 2016-01-29) [Lookup]

[running] com.canon.MFManager.plist (? 8a8296d7 ec1bc3f3 - installed 2015-09-26) [Lookup]

[running] com.kaspersky.kav.gui.plist (? 6b215336 2ee1db3f - installed 2017-09-05) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (? 0 ? - installed (null)) [Lookup]

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 85012398 - installed 2017-07-24) [Lookup]

[running] com.kaspersky.kav.plist (Kaspersky Lab UK Limited - installed 2017-09-05) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-04-15) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e d17a0150 - installed 2015-01-16) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2016-01-09) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (? 0 ? - installed (null)) [Lookup]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[failed] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (? 560d19c8 0 - installed 2013-02-13) [Lookup] - /Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/MacOS/Updater/Adobe Reader Updater Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Reader Updater Helper: Executable not found!

[loaded] com.bittorrent.BitTorrent.plist (BitTorrent, Inc - installed 2016-05-30) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-07-10) [Lookup]

[running] com.lastpass.LastPassHelper.plist (? ? ? - installed 2016-05-30) [Lookup]

[running] com.vladalexa.MagicPrefs.plist (Vlad Alexa - installed 2017-09-05) [Lookup]

User Login Items: ⓘ

iTunesHelper Application (? 0 - installed 2017-07-20)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Caffeine Application

(/Applications/Caffeine.app)

Android File Transfer Agent Application

(~/Library/Application Support/Google/Android File Transfer/Android File Transfer Agent.app)

Google Chrome Application

(/Applications/Google Chrome.app)

SpeechSynthesisServer Application

(/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app)

Parallels Toolbox Application

(/Applications/Parallels Toolbox.app)

Parallels Desktop Application

(/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app)

handyPrintUserDaemon Application (Bernard Maltais - installed 2016-11-23)

(/Applications/handyPrint.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/handyPrintUserDaemon.a pp)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

FlashPlayer-10.6: 26.0.0.151 (installed 2017-08-10) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-07-31)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 17.012.20098 (installed 2017-08-30) [Lookup]

AdobePDFViewer: 17.012.20098 (installed 2017-08-30) [Lookup]

Flash Player: 26.0.0.151 (installed 2017-08-10) [Lookup]

net.juniper.DSSafariExtensions: Unknown (installed 2014-04-16) [Lookup]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.7.2 (installed 2017-03-14) [Lookup]

nplastpass: 4.1.2 (installed 2016-05-30) [Lookup]

Silverlight: 5.1.40728.0 (installed 2015-09-26) [Lookup]

Safari Extensions: ⓘ

[disabled] AdBlock - Michael Gundlach - https://getadblock.com (installed 2015-09-02)

[disabled] autocomplete - Jeff Johnson - http://lapcatsoftware.com/ (installed 2010-06-10)

[disabled] Open in Internet Explorer - Parallels - http://www.parallels.com (installed 2013-04-14)

[disabled] LastPass - LastPass - https://lastpass.com (installed 2015-09-02)

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player (installed 2017-07-24) [Lookup]

Logitech Control Center (installed 2016-12-02) [Lookup]

MagicPrefs (installed 2016-01-20) [Lookup]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 1.11 TB Disk used: 492.72 GB

Destinations:

Backups [Local]

Total size: 3.00 TB

Total number of backups: 70

Oldest backup: 16-11-22, 1:18 PM

Last backup: 17-09-05, 11:38 PM

Size of backup disk: Adequate

Backup size 3.00 TB > (Disk used 492.72 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

4%
prl_vm_app

4%
mdworker

3%
mdworker

3%
WindowServer

2%
kernel_task

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

940 MB prl_vm_app

865 MB kernel_task

418 MB Google Chrome Helper

353 MB Google Chrome

266 MB Google Chrome Helper

Top Processes by Network Use: ⓘ

Input Output Process name

421 KB 197 KB mDNSResponder

348 KB 225 KB kav

16 KB 558 B netbiosd

10 KB 7 KB apsd

2 KB 2 KB ntpd

Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ

10.82 prl_vm_app

5.30 WindowServer

2.06 kav

1.02 Google Chrome Helper

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

1.23 GB
Available RAM

47 MB Free RAM

6.77 GB
Used RAM

1.19 GB
Cached files

0 B Swap Used

Software installs: ⓘ

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (17.012.20093):
(installed 2017-08-10)

Adobe Flash Player:
(installed 2017-08-10)

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (17.012.20095):
(installed 2017-08-13)

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (17.012.20098):
(installed 2017-08-30)

Install information may not be complete.

Reply

Answer 3

leepj Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 5, 2017 7:57 PM in response to brenden dv

Brenden

Over 3 months have gone by since I complied with your request to let you know if I was still having this problem. I sent my note saying that nothing had helped, on June 8/17. Has anyone done anything at all on this?

The problem is still there.

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 25, 2017 8:51 AM in response to leepj

With great trepidation I upgraded to macOS High Sierra - 10.13.1. My hope was that this upgrade would fix some of the big problems I had with v. 10.12. This did fix some bugs, for example my Mail blew up on March 5th and couldn't be fixed by any one at Apple. The new version (11.1) actually works. BUT, this bug is still in High Sierra. Seriously Apple, you released a new major upgrade with the same HORRIBLE bug?

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 8, 2017 6:05 PM in response to leepj

With 10.13.2 the problem is MUCH WORSE. It happens not only after awaking from sleep but also at random times in the middle of typing anything. It just did it to me while typing a response to a very important e-mail.

Reply

Answer 6

brenden dv

Community Specialist

May 19, 2017 12:02 PM in response to leepj

Hi there, Pete!

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. After reading your post, I understand that after waking up, your iMac does not take input from your wireless keyboard properly. Instead, you get incorrect character inputs and repeated input. The only thing that solves this is to force the computer to shut down, then to restart it. I'd be happy to help!

Resetting the SMC and NVRAM, as well as unpairing and repairing your keyboard, are great first steps to take. Since the issue continues, I would next suggest trying to replicate the issue in safe mode. Information on what safe mode does, and how to get into it, are found here: Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac .

I can also recommend testing the issue in a new user, as well. You can get instructions on setting up a new user account, and more information on why testing in another user can be helpful, here: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac .

If you still are having trouble with the keyboard input after doing the above two recommendations, don't hesitate to reply back.

Have a lovely day!

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 27, 2017 11:00 AM in response to leepj

This happened again today. This time my iMac didn't play the system error sound for the (very) delayed keystrokes. I had to restart my machine to fix this.

Reply

Answer 8

leepj Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 7, 2017 2:05 PM in response to Warrren Anderson

For the SMC and NVRAM, here is a link:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2881177/how-to-reset-your-macs-nvram-pram-and-sm c.html

For the keyboard:

Hold shift and option (only) when clicking on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar of the Mac
Select Disconnect, or Remove, or Factory Reset for each device you wish to reset (depending on what you need to accomplish)

Reply

Answer 9

May 31, 2017 11:34 AM in response to leepj

I've had this problem as well for several versions of OS X. It seems to happen after the computer wakes up and is triggered when I use the command key. As mentioned, there is no way to fix this except to restart the machine. Regarding "Resetting the SMC and NVRAM, as well as unpairing and repairing your keyboard...", instructions on how to do this would be helpful.

Reply

Answer 10

Jun 7, 2017 3:07 PM in response to leepj

Thanks. Resetting the SMC and NVRAM requires restarting the machine so it isn't any easier than just rebooting and it didn't fix this problem for me. Since communication with the keyboard looks like the problem, I'll try the bluetooth solution next. I suppose I should try disconnect and then reconnect, remove and then reconnect and then Factory Reset, in that order?

Reply

Answer 11

leepj Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 7, 2017 3:16 PM in response to Warrren Anderson

Sounds like sense to me. Try the lowest impact one first. If it doesn't work, move on to the next etc. I went back and tried the Factory Reset just a little while ago. Going to Safe Mode did not fix the keyboard problem for me either.

Reply

Answer 12

Jun 8, 2017 9:46 AM in response to leepj

You can't shift and option anything when your keyboard is not communicating correctly with your computer.

Disconnecting the keyboard and reconnecting it doesn't solve the problem. I still have to restart my machine.

This is a HORRIBLE bug that has existed for a long time in several versions of Mac OS X. Apple should fix this.

Reply

Answer 13

leepj Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2017 12:36 PM in response to Warrren Anderson

Warren, I agree. This apparently is not new to Apple, just to we who suffer from it suddenly popping up. I have disabled the iMac's eco settings for Sleep, so I don't get continually shafted by this bug. Nothing seems to fix it -- the SMC and VRAM things, Factory Resets etc with the keyboard, going into "Safe Mode" when the iMac REALLY started acting weird: screen filling from bottom to top in strips, cycling over and over with filling (in Chrome). Keyboard activity agan bringing up the little box with the strange character set displayed.

I am disappointed.

Reply

Answer 14

leepj Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2017 1:48 PM in response to brenden dv

Brenden,

Nothing I have done has helped. I also tried doing a Factory Reset on the keyboard in System Prefs, to no avail. The new user experienced the same thing as ever. And going to Safe Mode was really strange. It slowed the iMac away down. And when I opened Chrome to check email, it continually painted the screen in strips from bottom to top, cycle after cycle. Firefox at least could open my email without the cycling of the page over and over.

Anyway, I am still 'at square one' with this obvious bug (it has been reported numerous times before, and others are commenting here, too). In the meantime I have disabled the Sleep eco-option to avoid having to reboot every time it went to sleep.

What can I try next?

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 15

Jun 8, 2017 5:14 PM in response to leepj

In earlier versions of OS X this was an occasional nuisance. I was hopeful that in the "upgrade" to 10.12.5 this would be fixed. Now it happens EVERY TIME I wake up my computer. I was reading media coverage of WWDC. Apple admitted that the latest versions of OS X have been underwhelming. What an understatement!

Reply