weird powerbook g4 12" issues

[originaldotexe]

hello friends, my pbg4 12" 1.33ghz which i recently got has a couple of weird issues:

1. the system will not respond to any keyboard shortcuts at boot - can't enter open firmware, boot picker, target disk mode, etc. i can still boot target disk by using startup disk prefpane in osx though
2. back slash key does not work, but if i lightly press it (not all the way down) it will start to spam backslash after around 300-500ms

does anyone know about these issues and how to go about fixing them? thank you!

 

[Pedro Passamani]

hello friends, my pbg4 12" 1.33ghz which i recently got has a couple of weird issues:

1. the system will not respond to any keyboard shortcuts at boot - can't enter open firmware, boot picker, target disk mode, etc. i can still boot target disk by using startup disk prefpane in osx though
2. back slash key does not work, but if i lightly press it (not all the way down) it will start to spam backslash after around 300-500ms

does anyone know about these issues and how to go about fixing them? thank you!

I had the same problem on my 12 (1.33 GHz as well), and it was a faulty keyboard. I'm 99% sure your keyboard is randomly registering key presses (issue 2), so when you try the shortcuts when booting they fail to work (issue 1) because more keys are being detected (option and backlash instead of just option when trying to boot into the boot picker, for example). A quick test would be to unplug the keyboard (not as easy like the iBooks, but not too hard either) and try the shortcuts using an external USB one. I ended up replacing the keyboard, but maybe just cleaning it can fix this problem.

 

[originaldotexe]

I had the same problem on my 12 (1.33 GHz as well), and it was a faulty keyboard. I'm 99% sure your keyboard is randomly registering key presses (issue 2), so when you try the shortcuts when booting they fail to work (issue 1) because more keys are being detected (option and backlash instead of just option when trying to boot into the boot picker, for example). A quick test would be to unplug the keyboard (not as easy like the iBooks, but not too hard either) and try the shortcuts using an external USB one. I ended up replacing the keyboard, but maybe just cleaning it can fix this problem.

i had planned to get a new keyboard anyways as many of the keys are super worn on mine, so ill definitely pick one up soon and see. thank you!

 

[Pedro Passamani]

i had planned to get a new keyboard anyways as many of the keys are super worn on mine, so ill definitely pick one up soon and see. thank you!

You're welcome! Enjoy tour PowerBook!