keyboard problem (u,j,m keys not working)

I have a macbook pro and in my keyboard "7,u,j,m" keys does not work. If i press them several times, a random looking set of characters or symbols are appearing instead of the character I was expecting.

I have been using a usb keyboard with my MBP. Could this have messed up any configurations?

dacoolest said:

I have a macbook pro and in my keyboard "7,u,j,m" keys does not work. If i press them several times, a random looking set of characters or symbols are appearing instead of the character I was expecting.

I have been using a usb keyboard with my MBP. Could this have messed up any configurations?

Click to expand...

Simply using a USB keyboard would not have resulted in damage to the built-in keyboard. I'm not quite certain what you mean by "random looking set of characters". Is this screenshot what you mean?



If this is the case, then this is expected behavior in Lion when you press and hold a key until you get that pop-up. It lets you easily pick an alternate character with the tilde and caret symbols used in many non-English alphabets.

If you mean something else, then you really need to elaborate or even post a screen cap. Of course… if a normal key press isn't giving you anything at all and requires repeatedly pressing it to get a response, then you either have a dirty keyboard or a defective keyboard.

lifeisabeach said:

Simply using a USB keyboard would not have resulted in damage to the built-in keyboard. I'm not quite certain what you mean by "random looking set of characters". Is this screenshot what you mean?

View attachment 16506

If this is the case, then this is expected behavior in Lion when you press and hold a key until you get that pop-up. It lets you easily pick an alternate character with the tilde and caret symbols used in many non-English alphabets.

If you mean something else, then you really need to elaborate or even post a screen cap. Of course… if a normal key press isn't giving you anything at all and requires repeatedly pressing it to get a response, then you either have a dirty keyboard or a defective keyboard.

Click to expand...

this is what comes after pressing the "j' key.

©˙∆˚¬

here is the result of pressing the "m" key

zbcvxz

I have to press it several times and suddenly this set of characters are appearing then.

Ok. Well pressing and holding the letter "J" in Lion doesn't give a pop-up, presumably because there are no accented variations in non-English languages. But… that and most other keys are used for the extended Unicode characters. For example, the character "∆" is normally produced by pressing "OPTION-J". And the character "¬" is produced by pressing "OPTION-L".

Since you are getting so many random Unicode characters that aren't even created using the "J" key, it really sounds like your keyboard is shorted out. Have you spilled any liquids on it in the past? Hopefully replacing the keyboard will be good enough to fix the problem entirely.

lifeisabeach said:

Ok. Well pressing and holding the letter "J" in Lion doesn't give a pop-up, presumably because there are no accented variations in non-English languages. But… that and most other keys are used for the extended Unicode characters. For example, the character "∆" is normally produced by pressing "OPTION-J". And the character "¬" is produced by pressing "OPTION-L".

Since you are getting so many random Unicode characters that aren't even created using the "J" key, it really sounds like your keyboard is shorted out. Have you spilled any liquids on it in the past? Hopefully replacing the keyboard will be good enough to fix the problem entirely.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I took it to the store yesterday. Anything didn't get spilled on it. Thats what they were also asking me.

Btw, the person who looked at my computer said that the "keyboard along with the entire section" is going to be replaced. He said that the touch pad is not going to be changed but then he pointed at the top surface (palm rest area) and said that "all of these are going to be replaced!".

Any idea what he was trying to say?

dacoolest said:

Thanks for the reply. I took it to the store yesterday. Anything didn't get spilled on it. Thats what they were also asking me.

Btw, the person who looked at my computer said that the "keyboard along with the entire section" is going to be replaced. He said that the touch pad is not going to be changed but then he pointed at the top surface (palm rest area) and said that "all of these are going to be replaced!".

Any idea what he was trying to say?

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I guess he meant the entire top portion of the casing, or perhaps more of the hardware that the keyboard is connected to. *shrug*

lifeisabeach said:

I guess he meant the entire top portion of the casing, or perhaps more of the hardware that the keyboard is connected to. *shrug*

Click to expand...

I thought it was just the keyboard to be replaced. Thanks for helping me.

dacoolest said:

I have a macbook pro and in my keyboard "7,u,j,m" keys does not work. If i press them several times, a random looking set of characters or symbols are appearing instead of the character I was expecting.

I have been using a usb keyboard with my MBP. Could this have messed up any configurations?

Click to expand...

This same thing just happened to me and the J is in my password
I am also new to MACs Would a usb keyboard help get around this or am I going to be asked for my password? or would the usb keyboard be affected as well?


Thx

OmegaXS01 said:

This same thing just happened to me and the J is in my password
I am also new to MACs Would a usb keyboard help get around this or am I going to be asked for my password? or would the usb keyboard be affected as well?

Click to expand...

Not knowing EXACTLY why it is causing you problems, I can't say for sure. Far more likely than not, the USB keyboard shouldn't have the same problem.

lifeisabeach said:

Not knowing EXACTLY why it is causing you problems, I can't say for sure. Far more likely than not, the USB keyboard shouldn't have the same problem.

Click to expand...

Niice. Thanks for replying

i have a similar problem, except its with snow leopard and its the 5, t, g, b keys that give similar random letters and unicode when repeatedly pushed.
odd thing is that when in caps lock (not holding shift) they all work perfectly. so its not the physical key.
do you think replacing the keyboard would do it? its an old 98' c2d model
thanks
nick

iwannatitan said:

i have a similar problem, except its with snow leopard and its the 5, t, g, b keys that give similar random letters and unicode when repeatedly pushed.
odd thing is that when in caps lock (not holding shift) they all work perfectly. so its not the physical key.
do you think replacing the keyboard would do it? its an old 98' c2d model
thanks

Click to expand...

You won't know until you try it.

"Matrix Scan Line Failure"

If you look at this thread, someone has an explanation involving "Matrix Scan Line Failure", though he says the only solution is probably keyboard replacement.
Macbook keyboard problem - CNET Mac laptops Forums

He says that the diagonal pattern of the keys that don't work are the tell tale sign. For me it was the "3" "e" "d" "c" keys. It started for me when my cat slept on my keyboard and left those keys either dead or spitting out weird characters like §ˆ¶ˍ©ƒ-. That made using the computer very difficult. I found that I could use those keys if I hit the key right next to them right before, so I could type "we" really quickly and then erase the "w" to get an e, but that was really awful! Might work for you though.

The problem was fixed for me when I left my laptop open again and my cat slept on it again. Not a great strategy I know... but it seems like it was something about having a bunch of keys depressed at the same time for a long time that messed things up, and then un-messed them up.

That may be useful if you just get a brick and leave it on your keyboard overnight... but actually that sounds like an terrible idea so you didn't hear it from me.

Best of Luck!

Hi, thanks for all replies and I'm sorry for not updating this thread. I took the computer to the store and they said that the keyboard is damaged and this could happen specially if theres any water spilled (my table is under the A/C, maybe the A/C could have spilled some water i guess) and they replaced the top case.

There was an issue with the keyboard lights after they replaced the top case and i had to take it back to the store. They fixed it also (probably some lose connector) and then everything has been fine till now

dacoolest said:

Hi, thanks for all replies and I'm sorry for not updating this thread. I took the computer to the store and they said that the keyboard is damaged and this could happen specially if theres any water spilled (my table is under the A/C, maybe the A/C could have spilled some water i guess) and they replaced the top case.

There was an issue with the keyboard lights after they replaced the top case and i had to take it back to the store. They fixed it also (probably some lose connector) and then everything has been fine till now

Click to expand...

Congrats on getting things fixed.

Did you have Applecare on it? If so...did they replace things for free?...or not (if there was a water spill problem...which they then usually won't replace for free).

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Congrats on getting things fixed.

Did you have Applecare on it? If so...did they replace things for free?...or not (if there was a water spill problem...which they then usually won't replace for free).

- Nick

Click to expand...

I had Applecare during the time this happened. But now it is expired after the one year period. They didn't charge for the top case replacement.