[skarim]

Hi,

I've had a 12 inch rev b powerbook with 10.3.4 for about 2 months now. My first mac, and enjoying it quite a bit.

I've had this funny problem with the keyboard that has happened 3 times now.

Pretty much all the keys on my keyboard will suddenly stop working, with some having wrong mappings. The function keys all work okay (contrast, volume, expose, etc) . The computer seems to be otherwise running fine, and I can use my mouse. Even if I try to logout, I can't even log back in because the keyboard doesn't work.

However, if I shutdown and restart, everything is back to normal. This has happened about 3 times in 6 weeks, and 2 times in 2 days. Nothing has ever been spilled on the keyboard. I am running Logitech Control Center for a wired mx mouse.

Anybody else have similiar problems? I suspect it is some kind of software or driver problem, not hardware,but any ideas are appreciated.
- spk

[ibook_steve]

Try resetting the PRAM (command-option-p-r at startup until you hear the second boot chime). That would most likely fix this. When the keyboard is dead, do the caps locks and num lock LEDs still light?

Steve

[Javahead]

a similar problem has been occurring on my TiBook recently as well.

Periodically, I lose the ability to enter data in applications, but some keyboard functions still work (Cmd-Tab for switching apps, Caps lock, brightness keys, volume keys, etc.) It appears that anything involving a letter, number or spacebar is not working (e.g. actions like Cmd-T won't work in Safari)

It's almost like something other than the active application is capturing my input.

The only way I can fix it is to switch to my terminal app (iTerm) and start typing randomly. Eventually, it starts to echo what I've typed. Once that happens, all the other apps work fine.

[- - e r i k - -]

Any idea on what causes this? My PowerBook 17" rev. a. has recently started experiencing this problem more and more, especially when waking from sleep. I've had to keep up the Keyboard-viewer to use input.

Usually it's full rows of keys that will be gone, ie the number keys, the q-p keys, a-l keys, z-, keys or any combination of these. I can usually kick-start them by typing randomly as mentioned above. But this takes longer and longer time these days. It would seem that the USB-bus isn't giving the keyboard enough power to power all the keys. Could resetting the PMU help this, if so...how?

Oh, and this problem usually persists between restarts and even shut downs now! Right now I can't use my number keys

[- - e r i k - -]

OK, so resetting the PMU didn't help. Anyone have any idea before I pry open my powerbook and try to re-fit the keyboard cable?

[JKT]

One possibility - have you accidentally turned on the Number Lock (by pressing F6 or fn-F6 depending on your preferences for the F keys)?

When you do this, the keyboard only responds to the pseudo-number keypad (all the little numbers and characters at the bottom right of the keys toward the right centre of your keyboard), plus command-tab etc.

[- - e r i k - -]

Not that stupid (Heh, but I have been confuddled about it once or twice before).

Definitely a hardware-problem seeing as it persists through restarts, longer shut-downs, PMU - resets etc.