Aluminium keyboard problem

[letterfromegypt]

Hi, I'm new here. My name is Karen.

I have a problem and I know someone will know how to fix it.

The problem:

I have an iMac G5 Power Book and recently my white keyboard (the original keyboard that came with this model) started going heywire and the F keys didn't work so I bought one of the new sleek lightweight aluminium keyboards and installed the drivers and for weeks everything worked fine, then one day the numeric keypad stopped working and remains unresponsive.

I went into keyboard and mouse settings and hit reset to restore defaults and rebooted the computer but this hasn't fixed the problem and its beginning to annoy me. I also can't find the cd with the drivers for the aluminium keyboard to reinstall.

I need to get this resolved. I know someone here can help. My husband who is a Windows guy tried to look into the problem but he can't work it out and none of my friends use Macs so I'm really stuck. I would appreciate your help

Many thanks and Happy Valentine's Day!

Karen

 

[chscag]

I found a download site for the aluminum keyboard. You may be able to download and reinstall the drivers for it from here. However, your keyboard may also be malfunctioning which means that reinstalling the drivers won't help.

The keyboard should still be under warranty. You might be better off taking it back to Apple and let them look at it. If it's defective, they'll swap it out for a new one.

Regards.

 

[dtravis7]

The Number Keypad should work without the drivers so I have a feeling chscag is right and the keyboard is having issues.

Just a question, nothing is being spilled onto the keyboards by any chance? It just seems strange both the white one and now this one are having issues with a whole row of keys. Just curious.

 

[Chilbear]

Another simple solution is to download and apply the latest combo update. That should restore the basic settings also. How about gaming, any games run on the machine that may re map the keys by any chance and had them freeze up? Just a long shot guess.

 

[letterfromegypt]

Thanks for your suggestions.

Nothing has been spilt on the keyboard.

Thanks for the link chscag I downloaded the firmware from the link you provided but it said I already had this version installed.

I guess it looks like it may be a faulty keyboard. I hope Apple will swap it out for a new one, but I doubt I've still got the receipt. I guess I'll ring the store I bought it from and ask them about it first. I don't want to take it back to them and be told no they won't accept it.

These things aren't cheap so I really hope they'll swap it. At a push I can probably get the transaction off an old credit card statement (I think I paid for it with Visa) if they want proof.

I'll let you know what happens and thanks again for responding to my problem so promptly.

Thanks for your help and suggestions, much appreciated.

 

[letterfromegypt]

You're not going to believe this! I've just had my aluminium keyboard replaced and the numeric keypad is still not working!

I made sure my Mac was off. I put the connection into the appropriate USB socket. I turned on the Mac, opened my calculator and bang the Mac locks up! I have to turn it off and restart. I powered up the Mac and tried it all over again and nothing! Not a single number worked.

I don't understand, it worked fine for a while and then one day just adding up some figures it didn't work.

On windows keyboards you have a numeric keypad but it has a light to tell you its switched on, am I missing this type of button on the Mac?

I don't now if this is the problem but I have my mouse plugged into the right hand USB socket on my keyboard, (these are not wireless) devices so if your thinking maybe the battery is dead, no that's not the case.

It's just so frustrating. I just don't know what to do to get this fixed and it wasn't so much of a problem for a while but the more I can't use it, the more I get angry about it.

I appreciate the suggestions so far and now think that maybe the old keyboard wasn't faulty at all. If anyone has suggestions that haven't been suggested already, please post them here or PM because I'd really like to get this problem solved before I go insane LOL

 

[dtravis7]

This is on your iMac G5 correct? It has to be something with OSX. 2 keyboards can not be bad. I have an iMac G5 iSight. I have that new keyboard with a USB mouse plugged into the left hand port on the keyboard. I have never once had the number keypad not work. 10.5.6 Leopard. Not sure what to tell you but there is no key that I know of to turn off the number keypad.

Windows keyboards have a Num Lock. The newer Apple Keyboards do not. The only toggle on that keyboard is the Fn button that changes the F keys.

 

[letterfromegypt]

Thanks dtravis7

Yes it's on my iMac G5 and its running the most recent version of Leopard. I had a working numeric keypad on the white keyboard that came with the iMac but when that went kaput (last July) and buying the new slimline keyboard I could use the numeric keypad on that for a few weeks, then the next time I went to use it, it didn't work and I didn't bother about it but now that I'm budgeting I need to use it, and even after swapping the keyboard at Apple yesterday, the new one isn't working.

I mentioned the problem to the sales girl at Apple and she said she'd never heard of the numeric keypad not working but she didn't have a solution. I think she pretty much didn't care about my problem, she just wanted to swap the keyboard and get back out on the floor to make sales, she was friendly enough - maybe I should've pressed her to ask a colleague.

Just so you know I haven't changed any keyboard map settings!

This is a doozy.

 

[dtravis7]

I think she was being honest because as a computer tech I have never run into an Apple Keyboard even before the white one that did this with just the number keypad not working on the maybe 20 macs I have here and all I have repaired except when the keyboard was defective. That is why I am stumped also.

Can you try an Archive and Install and see if that fixes it? You will not loose any settings or data if you do.

Also have you tried making another user account and logging in to that? Same issues?

 

[letterfromegypt]

Thanks dtravis7 I hadn't thought of logging in with a different account and testing the numeric keyboard. I'll try your suggestion and let you know what happens.

 

[letterfromegypt]

Thanks, your suggestion worked!

I logged out of my account and logged in as admin and I was able to successfully use the numeric keypad in calculator and in textedit.

So I guess that means someone has changed keyboard mapping or some kind of setting which stops the numeric pad from working.

Any suggestions?

 

[letterfromegypt]

I'm still having the same problem, it works when I login as Admin but when I login as Karen it doesn't work. The Karen a/c has been setup to "Allow user access to Adminster this computer".

I met this very helpful guy on Twitter today named Andrew and he suggested:

Applicatins > Utilities > Disk Utility

Once there select hard drive and "Verify Disk Permissions", after the verification is finished, then select "Repair Disk Permissions" so I'm doing that now and it's been running for about almost 2 hours.

I really hope this works, if it doesn't fix the problem, I just don't know what else I can do but take the Mac into Apple but I really don't want to do that because I don't want to be without it, even if its just a few days and they'll try and sell me extra ram and stuff.

If this was happening with a PC I'd know what to do and I could fix it myself. I was one of the very first female technical support engineers @ Australia's Largest ISP so I know my way around computers - just not Macs (yet).

When it stops "Repair Disk Permissions" I'll let you know if it resolved the numeric keypad problem.

I'm pretty sure Andrew knows his stuff so I'm confident it'll fix the problem.

Karen

 

[letterfromegypt]

OK both of the pieces of advance give to me Saturday didn't work.

I decided to would backup everything and reinstall Leopard.

I started @ 2pm Saturday and I've only just got the Mac running again but I still haven't transferred the data from the external backup to my Mac, but decided not to re-install Safari 4 beta. The two bugs I ran into were the problem reading MSN/hotmail and with MSN messenger so I'll wait until they get those bugs fixed. I love the look and the ease-of-use with Safari 4.

I'm very happy to report the numeric keypad is finally working!

proof it works:

0123456789 / 9876543210

I can't believe the above palava was for such a small thing (getting the numeric keypad to work), but I hadn't done a backup since 2006 so I guess its a very good thing my Mac hadn't died.

Sheesh I'm glad its all over because I'm exhausted!

 

[chscag]

Hi Karen:

Thanks for posting back. Glad you're up and running - and, don't forget to make those backups!

Regards.