[nuggetman]

Well, I came home today to find my rev C powerbook 12", which was siting idle all day has had some keyboard failure

it worked his morning
then i put in some new ram from crucial, did it with the battery out and not plugged in
the F5, 5 t g b - [ and ' keys now don't work
i even tried uninsalling the ram and still no luck

is there anything i can do without sending it to apple?

[kafoochy]

The only suggestion would be to reset the PRAM. Restart and hold down the Apple, Option, P and R keys. Keep holding them until the computer gives the startup chime two or three times. This takes a little while on my 15".

The only interesting thing that I could think of trying is starting up in verbose mode. Start up the computer by holding Apple and the S key. You'll start up in a unix-command mode and eventually a command prompt will appear (you can tell because the computer won't add any more lines of startup text). Trying typing some of the keys, specifically the keys that aren't normally running in OS X, and see if the characters appear on the screen. If you write jibberish, you can press return and the computer will tell you that the command is invalid. The type "EXIT" and press enter. This will allow you to start OS X. Similar black text will appear the first time you shutdown, but the next restart will be visually normal. If you're not comfortable doing this, don't do it. It really isn't necessary and I can't see why it would be a problem related to the finder, kernel, etc, but it would be interesting to see if the keys will work early in the startup process. Goodluck and otherwise take it in the the Apple Store!

[nuggetman]

i tried resetting the pram and the open firmware, and the keys still dont work

this majorly sucks

this machine is ****ing 3 weeks old and i've babied it since day 1

can this be repaired "while u wait" in an apple store? i called compusa and they said they have to send it in for repairs, and the other place they (apple) suggested wasn't open at the time i called, so i'm going to see if they can do it. id rather not mail it if i dont have to.

[kafoochy]

Originally posted by nuggetman:
i tried resetting the pram and the open firmware, and the keys still dont work

this majorly sucks

this machine is ****ing 3 weeks old and i've babied it since day 1

can this be repaired "while u wait" in an apple store? i called compusa and they said they have to send it in for repairs, and the other place they (apple) suggested wasn't open at the time i called, so i'm going to see if they can do it. id rather not mail it if i dont have to.

I'm sorry about the keyboard problem. I had problems with my keyboard, but thankfully it was never disabled. With my previous 15" I had the keyboard replaced four times! Twice in the fall and winter it had to be sent off to an Apple repair center to have the keyboard and top cover replaced (this happened very quickly btw). In the spring, my local Apple store (Chestnut Hill, MA) was trained/authorized to perform some repairs on Powerbooks, including replacement of the keyboard.
I was never able have it replaced "while I wait". I think they could have done it same day, if I dropped it off in the morning and came back before closing. I could only stop by at night before they closed, so it only took one day to have repaired. Maybe if you had the Apple ProCare, they would do it faster, but who knows. Goodluck and know that things will be much better when you get it back. There are worse parts to fail. As much as I had many problems with my first 1.25Ghz 15" G4, which Apple replaced with a 1.5Ghz G4, there was never a day when the computer was in my posession when I wasn't able to use it to complete work. They're great machines, just get it fixed and things will be better. Oh and I suggest getting AppleCare if you haven't yet!

[nuggetman]

well i took the memory out again and pressed on the circuit board a little... and the keys randomly work again

but if i press T B G - [ and ' it also includes the 5 for some reason...

pressing 5 T G - [ ' makes the F5 and B also register

funky connector?

[Lancer409]

no idea but good luck. hope u get it fixed