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onemacmini

macrumors 6502
Original poster
hi there, on my 15inch macbook pro the delete key and the space key no longer work? please help me as i find it really frustrating
 
Well in the uk Its sunday and apple lines are closed.... and i need desperatley to use my macbookpro and the keyboard "space" and "delete" key have stoped working!!! please help! as i really need to get some important school work done..
 
onemacmini said:
Well in the uk Its sunday and apple lines are closed.... and i need desperatley to use my macbookpro and the keyboard "space" and "delete" key have stoped working!!! please help! as i really need to get some important school work done..
Did you try a restart?
 
Do you have an external USB keyboard to hook up to your computer? It'll help you determine whether or not it's a issue with the MBP keyboard or a problem with the operating system.
 
Well just tried my bluetooth keyboard and it worked fine. the space key and delete key stopped working a while back but then was fine again...but now they wont work.... And yes i tried restarting and software updates.. aswell as the disk utility permissions
 
onemacmini said:
Well just tried my bluetooth keyboard and it worked fine. the space key and delete key stopped working a while back but then was fine again...but now they wont work.... And yes i tried restarting and software updates.. aswell as the disk utility permissions

I see lots of spaces between your words on your posts... So I assume it works 😕
 
well you could copy a space from some where and paste it in when you need it, and if you need to delete it just highlight it and cut it.
 
Keyboard diagnosis with built-in Keyboard Viewer app

Before opening up your chassis / lugging your computer to the Apple Store, do some diagnosis with MacOS's built-in Keyboard Viewer.

My issue was similar to those described here and elsewhere:
- delete key not working
- up/down arrow equivalent to page up/page down
- space bar not working intermittently

Use the Keyboard Viewer as follows:
1. Open System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard sub-tab -> check the "Show Keyboard and Character Viewer in menu bar" checkbox
2. Click the little window icon which appears top-right next to your battery meter, and select the "Show Keyboard Viewer" menu option
3. A small window will appear showing your Mac keyboard. Each key is highlighted with each keystroke.

Hey presto! Using the Keyboard Viewer, I could immediately see my problem - the Function ('fn' key) at the bottom left of my keyboard was sticking.

Since Macbook keyboards are really hard to get at (see Wired Gadgetlab), and what the hell - its an old computer - I just removed the function key and the keyboard is back to normal. Yay. Good luck!
 
Solution!

Here's the solution (worked for me):

Shut down the laptop, remove the battery completely and restart (without it).

The battery is the problem.
 
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