Keyboard trouble

[cheri]

This may be a simple question, but...I am only able to type when the Caps Lock and Number Lock is on, when they are off I am getting numbers for letters and nothing for numbers???

PowerBook G4

 

[Ric]

Hi cheri and welcome !

are you still having the same problem ?

Has any liquid got on your keyboard ?

What version of OS X have you got ?

regards

Ric

 

[cheri]

Hi Ric,
Actually everything is back to normal. To the best of my knowledge the keyboard has not been exposed to liquid. I did do some system updates last night, maybe that helped. It seemed that caps lock and num lock were doing the opposite of what they were supposed to do, but it did bring to the embedded keypad..which I know nothing about. I think maybe some keys may have been pressed in a sequence to cause the problem...not sure. But I am happy to report that it has returned to normal. Thanx.....Any thoughts???

 

[cheri]

hi ric..
I forgot...I have OS x 10.4.8

 

[Ric]

Hi cheri,

glad you got it working again !

regards

Ric

 

[Shawnm58]

I am having the exact same problem with my PowerBook G4 with OSX 10.4.11 installed and it just started today. I don't know what to do and I've never had this problem. I was geocaching today and using my laptop for notes. I put it in sleep mode frequently. The Caps Lock and Num Lock keys do the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do. I've had my laptop for 3 years and absolutely no problems until now. Thank you for any help you can give.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Check what Language has been selected by looking either to the far right of the menubar in Finder where there may be a Flag. The Flag should represent the country you are in. If there's no Flag then look in:

System Prefs ~> International ~> Input Menu​

Have a look which country has it's box checked. This may have been changed recently .... and can affect how the keyboard keys are represented if it's set to a different country.

 

[Shawnm58]

Check what Language has been selected by looking either to the far right of the menubar in Finder where there may be a Flag. The Flag should represent the country you are in. If there's no Flag then look in:

System Prefs ~> International ~> Input Menu​

Have a look which country has it's box checked. This may have been changed recently .... and can affect how the keyboard keys are represented if it's set to a different country.

Thank you for responding, Spawn! I did check the Input Menu and US was checked. Should US Extended be checked?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

US uses the Roman script whereas US Extended uses the Unicode script ... try checking the US Extended and reboot to see if the keys behave themselves again ... I had this very thing happen to a friends Mac, although the keys involved were different to yours, in the end it was because an Italian Keyboard was selected.

If there is no change, select US again and reboot. If still no joy then try the advice at these links:

How to perform fsck to resolve issues

Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM

Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU)




.

 

[Shawnm58]

Thank you again Spawn! I fired it up this morning and its fixed! Thanks so much for your help and I'll keep this thread bookmarked in case it happens again. This is a great website!

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

That's great news Shawnm58

 

[PHSchulman]

I have an older imac. The left side of the keyboard isn't working--doesn't print on the screen--but the right side does. Has anyone encountered a problem like this before?

 

[Kaveman]

Borrow a USB keyboard and see if the problem persists. If not replace the keyboard.

 

[PHSchulman]

Thanks. I'll arrange to do that