[rytc]

Hi,
I have a 12" Powerbook running 10.3.5 with all the most recent updates installed. I have found that on occasion that the keys on the keyboard either have no effect or cause the wrong letter/number to be displayed. By this I mean that when I try to type in some text either nothing comes on the screen or the wrong letter is typed. This also occurs when trying to use key combinations in the Finder e.g. command-N does nothing. A restart often doesn't fix the issue, the login screen appears and the keys still aren't registered, a shutdown and restart fixes it and all is back to normal afterwards. I haven't noticed any similarity in the apps that I happen to have open when this occurs so am unsure whether it is an OS thing or a hardware prob. I've never read of this happening to anyone else on the forums and my old iBook never had this problem and neither does anyone else I know with iBooks running the same OS etc. This leads me to suspect that perhaps it is the PB itself at fault. However, it's not reproducible and in that sense I would be hard pressed to get Apple to find a solution to the problem. I have an unrelated issue with this laptop in that the hinge sticks and makes cracking noises when attempting to move the screen back and forth and will take it in to be fixed later this week so would like people's opinions on whether I should raise the keyboard issue at the same time.

Thanks for any help

Cheers Ry

[entrox]

Did you accidentally press the NumLock key? This actually happened to me on the first day after I purchased a PB: most keys didn't produce anything while others gave me numbers. I just wanted to pack up and return it when I noticed the NumLock light on...

Always check the simple things first

[JKT]

Also, if that isn't what has happened, you may have accidentally activated a different keyboard by pressing command-space (which can cycle between whichever keyboards you have activated in the System Preferences>International>Input Menu settings, if that is the option you have selected there).

[JKT]

Alternatively, other possibilities are - you are accidentally pressing a modifier key as you type (e.g. the fn or option/alt key) or one of those keys is getting stuck. The function (fn) key will make the keyboard act as if num lock is on (and the numerical keypad will become active instead of the default). The option key will cause the alternative symbols for each letter to be the input (use Keyboard viewer in the Input menu to see what those are).

[goMac]

Sounds like you hit your numlock key.

[rytc]

Originally posted by goMac:
Sounds like you hit your numlock key.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm of the opinion that it was the numberlock key - such a simple mistake but the last thing I'd think of!

Cheers Ry