Apple Bluetooth keyboard is "possessed"! Affects web-pages without typing....

[Fomalhaut]

I have a super-weird problem with my old A1314 Bluetooth keyboard.

It's been working fine for over 12 years...until today.

At first, the Return key stopped working. I tried the usual disconnection, remove device and re-pair, and rebooted, but no change. So I removed the key face and tried dusting and cleaning liberally with iso-propyl alcohol. At first I thought this fixed it, but then other keys started doing strange things. Some letters appeared as capitals, others inserted extra spaces or symbols.

By this stage I assumed that something serious had happened....maybe the alcohol cleaning wasn't a good idea.

The weirdest thing is that even without typing on the keyboard, web pages in Safari and Chrome started behaving oddly. Links would attempt to open in a new page or have an icon that "flew off" to the top left of the screen as though I was trying to drag and drop a page onto the desktop. Drop-downs in Google search results no longer opened, which implies an issue with the page scripts.

I thought I had a virus and did a thorough scan of the machine for malware - nothing. Turning off the keyboard, everything went back to normal. My guess is that the keyboard was sending some key-combination without any keys being pressed.

I assume the keyboard is toast, unless anyone has ever seen this kind of behaviour before?

Answers to Mulder & Scully please.....

 

[ElCidRo]

You can install Karabiner (it's free I think). It has an EventViewer and you can see all the key combos which are pressed. And if the keyboard has an issue you can disable keys.
For example my M1 MBP has a stuck key - the left-side opt key is phantom pressing. So I just disabled it completely.

 

[Slartibart]

did you check the batteries?

 

[Fomalhaut]

You can install Karabiner (it's free I think). It has an EventViewer and you can see all the key combos which are pressed. And if the keyboard has an issue you can disable keys.
For example my M1 MBP has a stuck key - the left-side opt key is phantom pressing. So I just disabled it completely.

thanks for the suggestion! I'll check it out before buying a new keyboard, although given the number of different keys that are showing issues (at different times), I think the issue may be beyond any software workaround.

 

[Fomalhaut]

did you check the batteries?

Batteries look OK, but definitely worth trying a fresh set - thanks!

One thought is that I'm currently travelling in the tropics where it is hot and humid - it's possible that the changed weather conditions have caused condensation, a loose cable connection, battery swelling or similar.