Thank you to all for the support and help. This posting is for those
who are interested in the solution to my previous problems.
To everyone else. Sorry for the long post.
I have had a lot of drama and great deal of hair pulling over the last
few weeks, but the problems turned out to be similar and operating
system related.
1. The Keyboard problem;
My first posting.
Good Morning
Can someone help me with this problem please.
Macintosh G4 400 MHz (PCI graphics), 1 Gig RAM, OS10.3.5,
10 Gig 20 Gig internal HD's,120 Gig external HD,
SCSI card, Netgear RP 614 Router,
When OS 10.3.4 first came out I dutifully updated. At about the same
time I purchased a cordless Logitech mouse.
About the same time I also started having intermittent problems with my
keyboard entries. It is a standard Apple keyboard, that came with the
G4.
The e, d, c and enter keys would hang and sometimes not work at all.
This happens in Finder, Mail, Safari and Appleworks (possibly others)
but not all of the time.
I waited until O S 10.3.5 came out, then undated again, but with no
change.
The problem occurs at some stage every day but not every time I use
those apps. (for instance it is not happening right now thank goodness.
It can be a real pain when your on line or trying to communicate with
the bank).
I do regular back ups and maintenance checks and have tried the
following at various times;
Reboot almost every day
Run Diskwarrior (every month)
Run Yasu (every week)
Repair permissions using disk utility (even though Yasu does that
anyway)
Re fitted the original Puk mouse
Changed the Logitech mouse batteries
Changed the keyboard settings
Sometimes if I disconnect and re connect the USB mouse port on the
keyboard the problem disappears for a while.
The only other USB devise is a Sarotech external HD connected to the
Tower USB port. (this is usually switched off).
The problem only occurs during a particular session. The next time I
use the app it may be normal. This happens even if I leave the app
running in the background.
If the problem was mechanical and related to the keyboard itself, the
pattern of intermittence would be different (I think). When the fault
occurs, it consistently occurs (if that makes sense).
I recently fitted some second hand, but genuine Apple RAM, but that was
working perfectly before the problem started.
Thank you for your attention
Regards
Greg Manzie
Selected answers;
I have a user here with a standard corded G4 keyboard - at some stage
around upgrading to 10.3 he lost the volume up / volume down and eject
buttons on the keypad. The fault is certainly not mechanical and posts
to other lists to date have been fruitless...
Cheers, Antony.
Thanks for providing such a complete description of your situation.
However, unless there is something special going on, the first thing
you should suspect is a hardware problem within the keyboard (which is
never going to be resolved by a software upgrade). Depending on the
model of keyboard, and its physical environment, you could suspect
either a mechanical issue or an electrical issue. Sometimes, built-up
grime is enough to jam the mechanical response of keys, and this can be
resolved easily. If it were a software problem, it would normally be
deliberately caused by special input methods (e.g. non-Roman writing
systems or 'accessibility' features), and would have a consistent
trigger pattern, and would not affect such a peculiar assortment of
keys.
If you are in a physically clean environment (e.g. you do not spill
drinks into your keyboard), it is probably a bit hard to explain why so
many keys have failed, but for all I know it might be a consequence of
the arrangement of electrical conductors in the keyboard. Things like
cracks in electrical conductors can cause intermittent problems that
resolve themselves if you physically handle the keyboard. It is also
possible that there's a permanent degradation of a discrete component
or integrated circuit (in the keyboard) that is causing these problems.
If you suspect a software problem, one approach might be to borrow a
second keyboard for a while. Whenever your current keyboard misbehaves,
try pressing the equivalent keys on the second keyboard. If the second
keyboard always works, then replace your current keyboard. You could
also simply try unplugging (and then replugging) your keyboard each time
this happens, to effect a power cycle. If the problem applies to both
keyboards, however...um...
from James.
Actually: note that 'e', 'd' and 'c' all form a column on the keyboard.
Generally, the natural arrangement of buttons in keyboards and keypads
is as a 'matrix'. While I don't know about Apple keyboards, a
traditional construction and operation of matrices is based around a
row/column design. Therefore, failures affecting a column or failures
affecting a row would be a veritable 'calling card' of hardware failure.
again from me;
Thank you
