[tether]

i've an imac g4 running OS 10.1.2

the disc-drive key doesnt work and neither do the three volume keys beside it. the disc drive opens if i restart holding down the mouse button, or eject through the dvd player, so i dont think it's the mechanism of the disc drive. changing the volume works going through system preferences. the keyboard is new and i had the same problem with an old keyboard. any ideas?

[discotronic]

I had this happen to me once while using 10.2 on an iMac G4. I went into Open Firmware and and reset the NVRAM which fixed it. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Shutdown your iMac. Turn the power on while holding down Option + Command + O + F keys and you will be taken to a command prompt
2. Type in "reset-nvram" and hit Return (Don't use quotes)
3. Type in "set-defaults" and hit Return (Don't use quotes)
4. Type in "reset-all" and hit Return (Don't use quotes)


5. Exit Open Firmware, type "bye" or "mac-boot" (Don't use quotes)


It might work then again it might now work. Have you tried updating to 10.1.5? That might also solve the problem. Let us know if you fix it or not.

[tether]

thanks for advice. i've finally got round to trying to sort this problem (i've been opening my disc drive by restarting and holding down the mouse)

i updated to 10.1.5 and that didnt sort the problem. i'm just about to try the method above, but i just wanted to check: when i go into System Profiler, it tells me i have SDRAM - does that mean i should type in "reset-sdram" rather than "reset-nvram" ?

want to check first because i'm not at all a techie, and don't want to do something that might cause me more probs..

[tether]

oh, yeh, i have a dumbo question too: is the command key the one with the apple pic on? and the option key hte one that says 'alt'

cheers

[kick52]

yes, the command is the apple sign.

SDRAM, is probably the video ram or ram.
it doesnt show the nvram in apple profiler.

do what distronic said about apple firmware

[tether]

i tried that - to no avail - any other ideas?

[tether]

i think the time the keys stopped working was around the time i switched from using OS9 to OSX - in case that might give any ideas.