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Pismo's keymapping totally messed up

Submitted by john8520 on October 30, 2006 - 5:22pm. PowerPC Macs

Yesterday my dad booted up his pismo to do some writing when he found out a huge problem. Many of the keys on the keyboard are mapped in really weird places.

The frist row comes out as - `12345789/== DELETE (6 just makes the "thunk" noise)
The second as - TAB qwerty456*[]\
The third as - CAPS LOCK asdfgh123-' RETURN
The fourth as - SHIFT zxcvbn),.+ SHIFT

At firt I just thought I could push Fn-F5 to get the keyboard back, but nothing happes when I do it.

As for function keys, F1, G2, F3, F4, F6, F7, F8, and F12 dont do anything, when they should raise/lower the brightness, volume, eject the CD, etc... Whats odd is that F9, F10, and F11 work fine. F9 does exposé, F10 does exposé for the current application, and F10 hids all windows and shows the desktop.

The bottom row of keys is the weirdest. Fn, Control, and Option do nothing, but the apple key brings up the power down window (as if I have pushed the power button). The spacebar works, but the other Option, the Enter, and the arrowkeys are totally useless.

I have connected an external USB keyboard, and it works fine, all around. I have booted to Open Firmware and done reset-nvram and reset-all, which did nothing. I've also disconnected and reconnected the keyboard several times, and inspected the keys for damage. Everything appears fine.

This is really freaking me out. Anyone have any ideas?

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Oelmuvun's picture

Well, if an external keyboard

Submitted by Oelmuvun on October 30, 2006 - 11:51pm.

Well, if an external keyboard works you should first replace the internal keyboard. If that does not work it would probably be a logicboard issue.

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protocol6v's picture

Make sure your keyboard setti

Submitted by protocol6v on October 31, 2006 - 12:58am.

Make sure your keyboard settings are set for an english/U.S. keyboard.

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They are. I'm thinking I may

Submitted by john8520 on October 31, 2006 - 1:21am.

They are. I'm thinking I may just need to buy a new keyboard...

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Tiger G5 Kid's picture

Function Key Stuck?

Submitted by Tiger G5 Kid on October 31, 2006 - 2:22am.

From the looks of it (not official, just a hunch) your function key may be stuck. I think that Fn-  used to bring up the power down menu (my wallstreet died years ago), and it definirely sounds like the numeric keypad mapping (ie; when you hold down function, "uiojklm,." all turn into "123456789").

Again, just a hunch, but IMHO, don't rip out the keyboard till you've used up all your other leads.

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coius's picture

actually, that might be it!

Submitted by coius on October 31, 2006 - 3:18am.

from the mapping you described, you would get the same thing if you were to hold down the function key and hitting those keys. I am looking at the layout on my iBook, and to get those key combos, all I would have to do is hold down the function key.
IMHO, i would try to pull up the membrane and see if I could clean the contact on the board, then try to make sure nothing is between the membrane and the board. If that's not the case, then it is most likely a connection in the keyboard, or the wires from the keyboard to the Logic board is broken, and/or permantantly stuck. A new keyboard would most likely fix that.
Also, take the keyboard line off of the logicboard, and check the connector of the board to see if there is anything in it (most likely that the logicboard's connector is male) but just check to make sure. if it is male, check inside the connector on the ribbon, try to clean it out even.

I sure hope you get it worked out. t'would be bad to waste a perfect keyboard if it's just a dirty connection...

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