Magic Keyboard arrow and volume keys abnormal

[Fantastic_Duck]

Hi there. Very strange issue Bluetooth Keyboard lets are screwed in some instances. The left arrow produces a semi colon, right arrow key produces a forward slash. Up volume does the opposite. The Question mark key produces "+?" Ive tried restarting, Safe Mode, turning the Bluetooth on and off, turning the keyboard on and off, attaching the keyboard to lightning cable via USB, zapping the PRAM, restring the SMC....nothing helps.

Any ideas

 

[DeltaMac]

What is the history with this keyboard?
Did the odd key response just start recently?
Or, is this a new keyboard, and did this out of the box?
How long have you had the keyboard?

I would be curious to know what response you see in your Keyboard Viewer. (Go to the Keyboard pref pane, and turn the keyboard & emoji viewers. You will get a new menu for that in your top menubar. Choose Keyboard viewer from that menu, and then press the various keys on your Magic Keyboard, which will respond on the Keyboard Viewer. You will probably see other keys respond, in addition to those that you press.

 

[Fantastic_Duck]

What is the history with this keyboard?
Did the odd key response just start recently?
Or, is this a new keyboard, and did this out of the box?
How long have you had the keyboard?

I would be curious to know what response you see in your Keyboard Viewer. (Go to the Keyboard pref pane, and turn the keyboard & emoji viewers. You will get a new menu for that in your top menubar. Choose Keyboard viewer from that menu, and then press the various keys on your Magic Keyboard, which will respond on the Keyboard Viewer. You will probably see other keys respond, in addition to those that you press.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. This only started today. Nothing happened to it, or my computer far as I can tell. The keyboard came with the iMac, 2 (Wow now the "zero" button does not work, nor does the right parenthesis button. I had to copy the "zero"and ")" symbols from a webpage to type this sentence.)
Anyway its a 2019 iMac with original Magic Keyboard and mouse.

I did try your suggestion and by golly you are right. Here is are some screenshots.

Screenshot 1 .....You can see the 2 keys highlighted and I am not even pressing them, or any keys at all.
Screenshot 2......this is what is shown then the 'zero' key is pressed.
Screenshot 3......this is what is shown when the left arrow key is pressed
Screenshot 4......this is what is shown when the right arrow key is pressed

This is absolutely baffling.

 

[salamanderjuice]

My guess is there's some sort of electrical problem or debris messing with the matrix of your keyboard. Basically the way these kinds of keyboards work is there is essentially a grid of traces (X,Y) and pressing down a key completes the circuit and the keyboard decides what key is pressed based on the X,Y position. Something seems to be interfering with yours so that things are slightly thrown off so it's thinking when you hit left arrow you also hit ;.

Just to be double sure you may want to test on another device to rule out something with your computer. If you're lucky taking it apart and giving it a good clean might fix it up but looking at iFixit that may be too difficult to do.

 

[haruhiko]

Probably some unknown liquid damage or something jammed inside your keyboard.

 

[DeltaMac]

I expect that if you try your keyboard on another computer (does not have to be a Mac) that you will find the same keys have a problem.
In that case, there is a keyboard encoder problem (the feature that detects which keys are pressed). Very often, that problem will be seen in more-or-less vertical rows (ex. comma - k - i - 8), but yours looks a bit worse. I have tried taking apart to clean, without much luck. I think you will find out that it's probably not worth the effort. Shop for a replacement keyboard.

 

[Fantastic_Duck]

My guess is there's some sort of electrical problem or debris messing with the matrix of your keyboard. Basically the way these kinds of keyboards work is there is essentially a grid of traces (X,Y) and pressing down a key completes the circuit and the keyboard decides what key is pressed based on the X,Y position. Something seems to be interfering with yours so that things are slightly thrown off so it's thinking when you hit left arrow you also hit ;.

Just to be double sure you may want to test on another device to rule out something with your computer. If you're lucky taking it apart and giving it a good clean might fix it up but looking at iFixit that may be too difficult to do.

Welp..... I turned it over and gently gave ny keyboard a spanking. Lot's of fine dust. Mostly a lot of cat dander?
In any case it's back to normal. Left and right arrows back to normal. Volume up bottom too. Thanks for your suggestions guys!

 

[NoBoMac]

Mostly a lot of cat dander?

And people dander. Crumbs. List is endless.

With external keyboards, always a good idea to shake out the crud every now and then (set a reminder for once a week or two).

In the case of laptop keyboards (and external), spray some canned air to jar the crud out.

 

[Fantastic_Duck]

And people dander. Crumbs. List is endless.

With external keyboards, always a good idea to shake out the crud every now and then (set a reminder for once a week or two).

In the case of laptop keyboards (and external), spray some canned air to jar the crud out.

Thanks. I just ordered a can from Amazon. ?

 

[Npt]

Hi there. Very strange issue Bluetooth Keyboard lets are screwed in some instances. The left arrow produces a semi colon, right arrow key produces a forward slash. Up volume does the opposite. The Question mark key produces "+?" Ive tried restarting, Safe Mode, turning the Bluetooth on and off, turning the keyboard on and off, attaching the keyboard to lightning cable via USB, zapping the PRAM, restring the SMC....nothing helps.

Any ideas

fixed?

 

[DeltaMac]

OP says that a little banging on the keyboard fixed it...
Read post #7 again...