My wireless keyboard key "Z" does not work!

[Vortor]

Hi everyone. I bought a iMac 27" on April 2010. It came with the wireless aluminum small keyboard (no numeric pad). Current Mac OS X version is 10.6.8 and I don't have to download any additional updates.

Yesterday, everything was working fine. But today my "Z" key has stopped working. Not even Shift or Caps Lock helps.

This is what I tried and didn't work:

1.) System Preferences > Universal Access > Mouse > Turn off "Mouse Keys".

2.) System Preferences > Speech > Turn off "Speak selected text when the key is pressed".

3.) Restarted the computer using Mac OS X installation cd. Used the Terminal to check if the Z key was working. No success.

4.) Slammed my head several times against the keyboard.

5.) I don't eat or drink near the computer. Mechanically, the Z key seems in good shape and cleaned. Even when I turn the keyboard upside down and shake it, there aren't any sights of hair/crumbs/boogers/dust/etc on the desk.

6.) System Preferences > Languages & Text > Input Sources > Keyboard & Character Viewer. The Z key doesn't work. Everything else does.

7.) The 2009 Aluminum Wireless Keyboard Firmware is up to date.

8.) I have Windows 7 installed on Bootcamp but rarely use it. I opened a Notepad file to see if the key was working but had no luck. On the control panel it says the keyboard is working properly and the drivers are up do date.

What can I do?

Thanks.

 

[rkaufmann87]

You can reset the SMC and also restart in Safe Mode. The Safe Mode restart is easiest, when you hear the start up tone hold down the Shift key until you see a progress bar appear. This will clear some caches.

As SMC reset is done by:


SMC RESET

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
3. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
4. Release the power button.
5. Attach the computers power cable.
6. Press the power button to turn on the computer.

 

[Vortor]

Just tried that. It didn't work.

 

[joudbren]

I had a similar thing happen on mine with a key not working. Then I found a few others that weren't working. Finally realized that one of the other keys was in fact stuck down and it was affecting the operation of the other keys.

Once I popped up the stuck key everything was fine again. The edge of the key had just caught under the edge of the aluminum for some reason and it wasn't easy to spot at first as the keys are pretty shallow to start with. Didn't happen again once I popped it up.

If that is not the issue then the keyboard or key switch may simply be defective and needs to be replaced. Cheers!

James

 

[Vortor]

Saw nothing wrong when I removed the key. I don't know, maybe I'll need to get a new keyboard.