03-09-2006, 02:20 AM

OK, so I've posted about my keyboard acting weird before (mentioning as a part of another topic), but it's getting increasingly annoying now, so I'm here to ask people what they think I should do.
I very recently got an Intel iMac 20", and absolutely love it except for how my keyboard acts. Well, I'm not sure if it's the keyboard or any other defect that's causing this, but seeing how my mouse and any other USB peripheral never had problem, I'm guessing it's the keyboard. The problem is that, I would be using the keyboard for, say 30 minutes, an hour, who knows how long,,,, but all of a sudden, it stops responding. The timing of when the keyboard stops responding is very random, and sometimes, the volume control (down/up/mute/eject) keys on the top right corner are the only keys that do not respond, and sometimes the whole keyboard goes dead. Solution is very easy,,, all I do is disconnect and reconnect the keyboard whenever this happens. At first, I thought "hmm, did I accidently connect that USB port a little loosely?(doesn't make sense, but oh well,, I was trying to forgive anything because it's my brand new mac)" But this problem didn't go away for the 2 weeks I've had this machine. It's really annoying when I would be typing an essay or a report blindly and realize a few seconds later that I've typed a paragraph for nothing, or I would be in middle of a battle in World of Warcraft and my character freezes, reach to disconnect and reconnect my keyboard and my guy's dead.
The reason I'm really annoyed about this problem is that, I know I can't prove to the guys at Apple store that this is actually happening. The keyboard has been treated with care (washed my hands before every use) and it looks and smells brand new, no greece or nothing. And like I said, for the random duration of time, it works perfectly... I don't like to take my keyboard just so the guys at the store would connect to their computer and confirm that there's no problem, especially because I don't have a car and it takes me more than 30 minutes to get to Apple store by bus. Should I just tell myself that I was unlucky and get it over with this by buying a new keyboard? I don't know about your local Apple people, but the guys at my local Apple store are not the most friendly/professional people. (One guy I asked a question to a while ago about .Mac account, whether I could continue my membership when I move back to Japan, has told me that he doesn't know the answer to my question because, "When you're in a foreign country, your using whatever other country Internet they have there, so it's not something the US Apple store can help you with."... I tried my best rephrasing my question to get him to say what I didn't want to hear from an Apple employee, but he really meant Internet is different depending on what part of the world one's in)
Oops, I got a little off-topic, but anyway,,, customer support isn't their strength at this particular Apple store, so do you think I should just give up on this keyboard that came with my system? Thanks for any input.

03-09-2006, 02:50 AM

Actually, to be honest, I really don't care if the Apple store people would replace the keyboard for me or not, at this point. The amount of time I would be saving by just spending another $30 buying a new wired-keyboard is far more important to me than getting it replaced for free going through so much unguaranteed trouble and time. But I do want to know what you guys think of what the real problem is. Is there a possiblity of anything else that's causing this keyboard defect? Or does it sound pretty much like the keyboard is at fault? The last thing I want is to buy a new keyboard and get into the same problem, cuz then i would really have no excuse to return that 2nd keyboard.

03-09-2006, 05:24 AM

My mac keyboard died the other day but that was more to do with *ahem* me spilling water on it and frying the USB board!

I got a new generic keyboard from my local supermarket, its really incredibly good considering the price! (around $8 US)

09-25-2006, 05:40 AM

Originally Posted by Emuleem22

OK, so I've posted about my keyboard acting weird before (mentioning as a part of another topic), but it's getting increasingly annoying now, so I'm here to ask people what they think I should do.
I very recently got an Intel iMac 20", and absolutely love it except for how my keyboard acts. Well, I'm not sure if it's the keyboard or any other defect that's causing this, but seeing how my mouse and any other USB peripheral never had problem, I'm guessing it's the keyboard. The problem is that, I would be using the keyboard for, say 30 minutes, an hour, who knows how long,,,, but all of a sudden, it stops responding. The timing of when the keyboard stops responding is very random, and sometimes, the volume control (down/up/mute/eject) keys on the top right corner are the only keys that do not respond, and sometimes the whole keyboard goes dead. Solution is very easy,,, all I do is disconnect and reconnect the keyboard whenever this happens. At first, I thought "hmm, did I accidently connect that USB port a little loosely?(doesn't make sense, but oh well,, I was trying to forgive anything because it's my brand new mac)" But this problem didn't go away for the 2 weeks I've had this machine. It's really annoying when I would be typing an essay or a report blindly and realize a few seconds later that I've typed a paragraph for nothing, or I would be in middle of a battle in World of Warcraft and my character freezes, reach to disconnect and reconnect my keyboard and my guy's dead.
The reason I'm really annoyed about this problem is that, I know I can't prove to the guys at Apple store that this is actually happening. The keyboard has been treated with care (washed my hands before every use) and it looks and smells brand new, no greece or nothing. And like I said, for the random duration of time, it works perfectly... I don't like to take my keyboard just so the guys at the store would connect to their computer and confirm that there's no problem, especially because I don't have a car and it takes me more than 30 minutes to get to Apple store by bus. Should I just tell myself that I was unlucky and get it over with this by buying a new keyboard? I don't know about your local Apple people, but the guys at my local Apple store are not the most friendly/professional people. (One guy I asked a question to a while ago about .Mac account, whether I could continue my membership when I move back to Japan, has told me that he doesn't know the answer to my question because, "When you're in a foreign country, your using whatever other country Internet they have there, so it's not something the US Apple store can help you with."... I tried my best rephrasing my question to get him to say what I didn't want to hear from an Apple employee, but he really meant Internet is different depending on what part of the world one's in)
Oops, I got a little off-topic, but anyway,,, customer support isn't their strength at this particular Apple store, so do you think I should just give up on this keyboard that came with my system? Thanks for any input.

This might be a simplistic reply but just maybe helpful...I can relate to the typing situation. Only to find you typed NOTHING! somettimes I accidentaly hit the number lock key. COuld that be it?

09-25-2006, 06:22 AM

This is a common fault. Have you got the latest version of Tiger? Upgrading to 10.4.6 and above solves the problem.

Still don't know how they managed to sell IMacs for a couple of months, but forgot to make the keyboard work properly?!

09-25-2006, 07:48 AM

Originally Posted by Emuleem22

OK, so I've posted about my keyboard acting weird before (mentioning as a part of another topic), but it's getting increasingly annoying now, so I'm here to ask people what they think I should do.
I very recently got an Intel iMac 20", and absolutely love it except for how my keyboard acts. Well, I'm not sure if it's the keyboard or any other defect that's causing this, but seeing how my mouse and any other USB peripheral never had problem, I'm guessing it's the keyboard. The problem is that, I would be using the keyboard for, say 30 minutes, an hour, who knows how long,,,, but all of a sudden, it stops responding. The timing of when the keyboard stops responding is very random, and sometimes, the volume control (down/up/mute/eject) keys on the top right corner are the only keys that do not respond, and sometimes the whole keyboard goes dead. Solution is very easy,,, all I do is disconnect and reconnect the keyboard whenever this happens.

Hi, would you mind trying something for me and reporting if it works:

Reboot into "Safe Boot":

by rebooting from a complete shutdown, holding down the shift key after the Mac reboots then just do nothing. Reboot again as normal and see if this changes anything...

09-25-2006, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Jabjabs

I got a new generic keyboard from my local supermarket, its really incredibly good considering the price! (around $8 US)

Can you be more specific? Do you mean a PC USB keyboard? Or is there a Mac style keyboard made by a generic manufacturer?

Getting back to a real keyboard with a delete key, page up/page down, number pad etc would be a real bonus for me and my Macbook Pro.

ZB

09-25-2006, 09:34 PM

call, complain to apple and get a new one.