New Aluminium Keyboard Problems.

[zami]

Due to recent problems with my old keyboard I ordered one of the new low profile keyboards, the wired extended model.

Keyboard arrived nice and fast and as a poor typist I prefer it but there are several problems despite using the latest software download for it:

The alt/option key cannot display the selection of drives when held down at start up like every other keyboard i have ever used.

Also the bightness, dashboard and expose' keys appear not to work either but volume, mute, eject and the play/pause, fast fwd and fast bwd work fine?

Any ideas as the option key failure is really p*ss*ng me off?

 

[kolax]

I'm curious to this option key thing - I've held mine down on my MBP to see if anything happens and nothing..?

 

[zami]

I'm curious to this option key thing - I've held mine down on my MBP to see if anything happens and nothing..?

If you are running a desktop with multiple drives or a laptop with an external holding down option at start-up lets you choose a drive without all the hassle of going to system preferences and setting the start-up drive. If at the next start up you press nothing it will return to the origina drive.

Hope that's clear?

 

[MikeyTree]

If you are running a desktop with multiple drives or a laptop with an external holding down option at start-up lets you choose a drive without all the hassle of going to system preferences and setting the start-up drive. If at the next start up you press nothing it will return to the origina drive.

It's also how you go into a different partition of your hard drive. It's how you go into Windows if you've installed it in a partition through boot camp.

 

[kolax]

Doh silly me. I skimmed through the post and missed the fact that it was during start up, thought he meant when the computer was booted - I'm aware of holding option during boot.

I thought I was missing out on something cool there.

Must learn to read posts fully before replying...

 

[zami]

It's also how you go into a different partition of your hard drive. It's how you go into Windows if you've installed it in a partition through boot camp.

Exactly. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[mrtuneup2]

New Aluminum Keyboard

I purchased a new 24 inch iMac Aug 8 2007. My fiancee loved the aluminum keyboard so much I had to order her one. It arrived today and installed it on her 20 iMac Intel . She is a medical transcriber and thought the new keyboard would be more comfortable. I did the update for the keyboard on the mac side. Installed the 1.4 Bootcamp drivers on the windows side. She needs F1 & F2 to control doctors recordings when she pushed those key It would control the Brightness up & down. I fixed that by going into control panel and opened Bootcamp in Bootcamp 1.3 it used to be the startup disk they changed it. There is a option to use F1 & F2 for there control instead of brightness. I still can't get the option/alt key to select Mac osx or Windows partition . Hope this helps someone.

 

[rhildinger]

Exactly. Anyone else having this problem?

I just purchased the new wired keyboard for my Mac Pro, and holding down the option key brings up the startup disk selection screen every time - no problems. Is it possible you have a defective keyboard?

 

[aswitcher]

My MBP recognises the music keys (F7-F9) and audio (F10-F12) on the different keyboards have different functions but does not recognise the F3 and F4 on thewired alu Keyboard.

Anyone tried this?

(Yes I have the firmware update.)

 

[zami]

I just purchased the new wired keyboard for my Mac Pro, and holding down the option key brings up the startup disk selection screen every time - no problems. Is it possible you have a defective keyboard?

I'm no expert but the option key must be sending the electrical signal to the computer as it works fine while typing accented letters or whatever for example. I presume this means there is software glitch somewhere. I'm running 10.4.10 with the keyboard software installed so the problem is probably Apple's, slack really and a bit "brutta figura".

 

[DaWickedBird]

Due to recent problems with my old keyboard I ordered one of the new low profile keyboards, the wired extended model.

Keyboard arrived nice and fast and as a poor typist I prefer it but there are several problems despite using the latest software download for it:

The alt/option key cannot display the selection of drives when held down at start up like every other keyboard i have ever used.

Also the bightness, dashboard and expose' keys appear not to work either but volume, mute, eject and the play/pause, fast fwd and fast bwd work fine?

Any ideas as the option key failure is really p*ss*ng me off?

are you using the keyboard with a Mac Mini? Because some folks on the discussion board on the apple website have discovered that it might be a firmware flaw with the Mac Mini.. so it wont be working until they resolve the problem.
Other than that can you connect your iPod if you own one through the keyboard to your Mac, because that doesn't seem to be working on my keyboard, aswell with the exposé and dashboard buttons, but that should get resolved with a Mac mini firmware update...
But the USB issue really bugs me, mostly because it was one of the main reasons i bought the keyboard instead of the wireless one. AND because its stated on the apple site that it should be possible to connect iPod, camera... thro the keyboard.
You guys heard any of the like?
-DaWickedBird

 

[bartelby]

Doh silly me. I skimmed through the post and missed the fact that it was during start up, thought he meant when the computer was booted - I'm aware of holding option during boot.

I thought I was missing out on something cool there.

Must learn to read posts fully before replying...

You mattscotted!

 

[kolax]

You mattscotted!

Ahahaha. Make me look even worse why don't you!

 

[zami]

are you using the keyboard with a Mac Mini? Because some folks on the discussion board on the apple website have discovered that it might be a firmware flaw with the Mac Mini.. so it wont be working until they resolve the problem.
Other than that can you connect your iPod if you own one through the keyboard to your Mac, because that doesn't seem to be working on my keyboard, aswell with the exposé and dashboard buttons, but that should get resolved with a Mac mini firmware update...
But the USB issue really bugs me, mostly because it was one of the main reasons i bought the keyboard instead of the wireless one. AND because its stated on the apple site that it should be possible to connect iPod, camera... thro the keyboard.
You guys heard any of the like?
-DaWickedBird

Thanks for that, Yes I am using an oldish 1.66 Mac Mini. After reading about there being no problems with the Mac Pro I too began to have my suspicions.

Let's see when and if Apple can be bothered to sort it.

 

[FrancisSawyer]

Option key on the aluminum keyboard is definitely a problem.

Same problem here. The Option key is not seen at boot-up on the Mini, so you can't select your startup disk. If your last-used OS was Windows, you have no way to get back to Mac OS until you plug in a different kind of keyboard.

On the Mac Pro, the keyboard is dysfunctional out of the box: The "volume up" button performs an "eject", and yet so does the "eject" button right next to it. Brightness, volume down, and mute don't work. I'm currently downloading the 32MB driver to patch this. And I assume that the keyboard's accessory functions (volume, eject) are broken under Windows for the foreseeable future.

It's mystifying why they'd break keyboard protocol that has worked perfectly (even on Windows) from the get-go for years.

 

[kolax]

Same problem here. The Option key is not seen at boot-up on the Mini, so you can't select your startup disk. If your last-used OS was Windows, you have no way to get back to Mac OS until you plug in a different kind of keyboard.

You can select the Start Up disc in Windows - go to Control Panel and select Macintosh HD.

 

[RaNdOm]

I have an intel Core Duo 17" iMac and I bought the new keyboard because I hated the previous one. It was almost impossible for me to type on without getting all kinds of misspells.
So I installed the new keyboard and ran the update. After that I could get the Brightness up/down, Volume Up/down/mute, Eject, Play/Pause/etc. to work, but the Expose and the Dashboard keys will not work. I've tried playing around with the keyboard settings and the Expose/Dashboard settings, but nothing seems to get them to work without using a modifier key press (fn key plus the F3 or F4 key). I haven't tried the bootcamp option key yet. As a side note to those people with the bootcamp problem you can use the apple remote as a selection option upon booting the same way you used the Option key. Just push the Menu button; I think.

Ok, so I justed tried to do the Boot Camp thing, and I did not have keyboard functionality at all. I use a app called rEFIT to show the two options ( OS X and Windows XP ) automatically whenever I reboot. This app allows you to use the keyboard to select the OS you want as well as a few other options, configuration, etc. When I rebooted the rEFIT screen came up with the OS options available, but when I tried selecting them with the arrow keys nothing happened. I don't think the keyboard is being seen at all after a reboot, which would explain many of the problems seen here; option OS,Seeing available HDs.

Let me know what you find.

 

[millerrh]

I've got another problem to add to the list and I have no idea how this is happening.

My expose/dashboard buttons also do not work. But I can get them to work by holding the fn key and then doing the fn buttons like I have done in the past.

Once I do my dashboard widgets for the first time, they don't want to go away for a few clicks or pushes of the button. After I get them to go away, my dock now becomes unresponsive and I can't make it appear by hovering my mouse where it is.

Kind of surprised Apple released this keyboard that has so many problems. The option button not working and it not working in Windows is ridiculous considering they are supporting Boot Camp.

 

[patseguin]

They keyboard doesn't wake my Mac Pro from sleep. Kinda weird...

 

[devman]

I've got another problem to add to the list and I have no idea how this is happening.

My expose/dashboard buttons also do not work. But I can get them to work by holding the fn key and then doing the fn buttons like I have done in the past.

System Preferences->Keyboard&Mouse->Keyboard

 

[millerrh]

System Preferences->Keyboard&Mouse->Keyboard

That is unchecked. It is only the dashboard and expose buttons that don't work. The volume and brightness work fine. Others have reported this too.

The real issue of mine is how now I can't get my dock to work unless I reboot.

 

[TBi]

Have you installed this?

 

[millerrh]

Have you installed this?

first thing i did. i think that update is what makes the function keys work at all. at first the volume and brightness keys didn't work, but now those do after that update.

 

[Shotgun OS]

Have you installed this?

first thing i did. i think that update is what makes the function keys work at all. at first the volume and brightness keys didn't work, but now those do after that update.

I have the exact same problem. I called Apple Support yesterday, and after going through all the regular tests (restarting, unplugging, etc.) the rep told me take the keyboard back to the Apple Store and get it replaced. :/ I believe it's just a problem with software, seeing as how many people are having this problem. ( I searched the problem in google.)

To clarify, I have a G5 iMac with the software update and my expose and dashboard buttons do not work.

 

[e12a]

its the type of keyboard. Some keyboards are software programmed, IE you need the software to do certain functions.

My wired Logitech Elite Keyboard (one of the best imo) will also not let me select hard drives during bootup. But i have mine on my MBP so i use the built in keyboard.