Mac thinks keyboard key being held down

i have a mac pro 2,1 running 10.6.8. intermittently, it behaves as if a button is being held down on the keyboard. sometimes when i start up and reach the login screen there is immediately a string of password already typed in. as soon as i hit delete to clean i out and type my actual password, there is no problem. then when i arrive at my desktop, there will be the clicking sound like a key is being held down, and again, if i just hit a key, the clicking noise stops. all of this is no big deal, but the bummer is that when i put it to sleep, it often wakes back up immediately, or later on in the middle of the weekend and sits there waiting for me for days. ive tried resetting pram / smc. unplug/replug. no firmware updates for my aluminum keyboard are popping up in software updates. any ideas?

Turning off hardware acceleration worked in all cases.
With hardware acceleration enabled the menu flashing did not occur on the primary display, only the secondary display of a two-monitor system.
Windows 7, ATI Radeon 4800 series.

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Drawing Tools Acting As If Shift Key Being Held Down

Hey guys,
Small problem here with Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0.0. When drawing square, oval, etc., the shapes are coming up as if the Shift Key was being held down. This also happens when trying to draw a box to place a digital signature. Check my keyboard, and there was nothing stuck in it that might be pressing the Shift key. Tested out by using Microsoft Paint to draw lines and they seem to work fine, so I think the problem is only in Adobe. I couldnt find anything online regarding this issue, which was kinda hard to put into words anyways into a search engine. Ive tried running the repair installation of Adobe, but no result. Any idea what might be causing this?

Yes, that looks all like symptoms of a pressed Shift button.
If you want to uninstall and reinstall Firefox then make sure to delete the Firefox program folder to make sure that there aren't any leftover files in it.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
You can find the latest Firefox release in all languages and for all Operating Systems here:
*Firefox 16.0.x: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Creating a profile":
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.
*http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-startup-options-including-safe-mode
*http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Advanced-startup-options-including-safe-mode

Firefox 4.0 The menus flash like a keyboard key is held down. Can't access them even with all plugins turned off. Same issue on multiple machines with different versions of Windows. How can this be resolved?

FF 4.0. The menus flash like a key is being held down making them inaccessible. The problem persists with all plugin's turned off. Firefox box in top left corner not showing. The old FF logo show there instead.

Turning off hardware acceleration worked in all cases.
With hardware acceleration enabled the menu flashing did not occur on the primary display, only the secondary display of a two-monitor system.
Windows 7, ATI Radeon 4800 series.

Flash player in Firefox acts as if keyboard buttons are being held down during games

I am running Flash Player version 11.5.502.146 for Firefox. While playing flash games online, I often notice that the game thinks that a button is being held down on the keyboard. I have not noticed a patten as to which games are affected or which buttons are being "pressed", but a game that is affected will always act as if the same button is being pressed. For example, one game will always be pressing "Left" (the A key), even when I shut down all processes or restart the browser or computer. Another game will always behave as if the Pause button is being pressed, causing the pause menu to constantly appear and disappear. I have opened these games in Internet Explorer and did not have the same problem. Anyone else having these problems, or have any suggestions?

Flash Player Plug-in (All other browsers)
THAT'S a full offline installer.
Save it.
CLose your browser.
Run it.
You're good to go.

P35 Neo Combo behaves as though the escape key is being held down

When I try to boot my computer, after it gives the initial few beeps it begins to emit a rapid clicking/beeping sound, which I recognize as the "keyboard buffer full" beep that you get when you hold down a key. As the computer goes through its POST, it becomes apparent that the computer is acting like the escape key is held down. This doesn't go away even after the OS comes up (I use Ubuntu Linux) and it prevents me from being able to use my computer.
I tried loading the default bios settings (which is hard when the BIOS keeps asking you if you want to discard changes and reboot the computer). I have tried clearing the CMOS. None of this has worked.
I have tested the motherboard with several known-working USB and PS/2 keyboards, and the behavior remains.
This happened once before, and I had to RMA the motherboard. This is my work computer and I can't afford to wait 2 weeks for it to be fixed, especially if it's going to break again. If anyone has any suggestions or has encountered this problem before, I would appreciate your help.

Quote from: Frankenputer on 07-August-08, 02:58:21
You are basing an opinion about a company from one board? All manufacturers, yes, even Intel, has sold a board that had to have an RMA. Many times it's a user error rather than the board, but also it's boards that are defective. Basing an opinion based on the experience with one board is not a sound strategy.
False. I've had a variety of bad experiences with MSI products. Out of 4 MSI products I've bought and used over the past 2 years, all but 1 have needed repair or replacement. The one good item is a video card.
Quote from: Frankenputer on 07-August-08, 02:58:21
In the USA, where I am, MSI MOBOs carry a 3 year warranty(as do VGAs)). So, your statement that your new board has a 3 year warranty which reads as implying that the MSI one does not is false.
http://www.msicomputer.com/support/sup_genwar.asp
The MSI warranty only covers labor for up to 2 years. The Intel warranty maintains the same terms for all 3 years.
Quote from: Frankenputer on 07-August-08, 02:58:21
Your statements after "I'm going to RMA this MSI unit" are unnecessary and bashing. There's no need to bash.
It's not bashing, it's a fact. It's not unnecessary, it's cautionary.
This motherboard has failed in this manner twice now. This failure makes it totally unusable, and causes a severe disruption in my productivity. As a software developer, I need my computer to work for more than 4 weeks at a time. In addition, the network chipset failed a few weeks ago and I've been using a 3com card since.
The last time I RMAd this unit for this same error, it was returned in working order but with no indication of what had gone wrong. MSI has arranged their company to discourage customer interaction on any meaningful level, so there's no way for me to find out from MSI what they did to fix my board so that I could conceivably avoid another 2-week RMA ordeal.
If you want a cheap motherboard for a non-critical application, MSI is probably fine. For a mission-critical workstation, look elsewhere.

Machine mistakenly thinks mouse button is held down while dragging

I have a bizarre, intermittent problem. Very occasionally, when I'm dragging files between folders, my computer thinks that the mouse button is still being held down even after I release it. As a result, I am constantly "carrying" the files around the screen with the mouse and I'm completely incapable of doing anything else since the machine thinks I'm mid-drag. As far as I can figure out, the only way to fix this is to reboot the machine. Extreme, I know, but I can't figure out any other way to get out of this state. This typically happens to me once or twice a week and I use my computer fairly heavily.
So, has anyone else heard reports of this bizarre behavior before? Any solutions?
I don't know if this matters, but I'm using a wireless mouse. However, plugging in a wired mouse while this is happening doesn't seem to be a solution.

Have you checked your System Preferences? If not...
Open System Preferences from your Application folder. Click: Keyboard&Mouse, and select the Mouse tab. At the bottom of that window change your Tracking, Scrolling and double clicking to see if that makes a difference.
If the wireless is a Mighty Mouse, try cleaning it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1537
Mice need cleaning periodically. Fingerprints, lotions, dust, and lint can cause problems.
Clean the USB mouse as well.
Carolyn

IMac acting like space bar being held down

My iMac is acting like the space bar is being held down, even when keyboard and mouse are disconnected. How do I fix this problem?

Well, some info, maybe more than you nedd, but...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Utility for repeating a key while held down for gameing?

Hey guys,
I've recently started playing a MMO game again that requires a lot of keyboard button spamming.
When I played this game on windows I used the AutoHotKey utility to write a script to repeat the key while I had it held down. Are there any utilities out there that I could use that would allow me to repeatedly send keyup/keydown events while I hold down a key? Preferably one that allows me to configure it to only do this when a specific window is focused.
If nothing already exists like this, I was planning on writing a very small utility in C that would do this.

xdotool would certainly work for sending keyup / keydown. But Is there a way I can make the script only do this when I'm holding down a key?
I suppose it may look something like this:
while true
do
# Do something to block while key isn't down
xdotool keydown --window $winid "x"
xdotool keyup --window $winid "x"
done

Touch Events: How can I check for a button being pressed while another button is being held down?

Hello,
I'm trying to check for a button being pressed while another is down through Touch. In my case, I' m making a game and I need for a button to make the character jump. However, when I hold down right, I notice that the jump button becomes somewhat unresponsive and I have to press it twice or more to get it to trigger, as opposed to just pressing the jump button by itself with nothing held down which works fine. I'm testing this on my Motorola Droid 2.
Here is some of my code that demonstrates text instead of my character moving around:
package {
     import flash.events.TouchEvent;
     import flash.ui.Multitouch;
     import flash.ui.MultitouchInputMode;
     public class Document extends MovieClip {
           Multitouch.inputMode = MultitouchInputMode.TOUCH_POINT;
           private var controls:BottomBar;
           private var debugText:String;
           public function Document() {
                addIngameGUI();
           private function addIngameGUI(){
                controls = new BottomBar();
                controls.y = stage.stageHeight - controls.height;
                addChild(controls);
                controls.aBtn.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
                controls.bBtn.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
                controls.leftArrow.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
                controls.rightArrow.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
         private function testBtns(event:TouchEvent){
               debugText.text = event.target.name;
What am I doing wrong? Is there a better approach?
Thank you in advance.

Hello,
I'm trying to check for a button being pressed while another is down through Touch. In my case, I' m making a game and I need for a button to make the character jump. However, when I hold down right, I notice that the jump button becomes somewhat unresponsive and I have to press it twice or more to get it to trigger, as opposed to just pressing the jump button by itself with nothing held down which works fine. I'm testing this on my Motorola Droid 2.
Here is some of my code that demonstrates text instead of my character moving around:
package {
     import flash.events.TouchEvent;
     import flash.ui.Multitouch;
     import flash.ui.MultitouchInputMode;
     public class Document extends MovieClip {
           Multitouch.inputMode = MultitouchInputMode.TOUCH_POINT;
           private var controls:BottomBar;
           private var debugText:String;
           public function Document() {
                addIngameGUI();
           private function addIngameGUI(){
                controls = new BottomBar();
                controls.y = stage.stageHeight - controls.height;
                addChild(controls);
                controls.aBtn.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
                controls.bBtn.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
                controls.leftArrow.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
                controls.rightArrow.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH_BEGIN, testBtns);
         private function testBtns(event:TouchEvent){
               debugText.text = event.target.name;
What am I doing wrong? Is there a better approach?
Thank you in advance.

My Iphone5 power button seems to be permanently pressed. It will think that it is being held down even though I am not touching it and also turn the screen on when I am not touching it. Very hard to use the phone. Any ideas?

There is no rhyme or reason to when it does this. Sometimes, it will be fine for a few hours. Sometimes, I can't use the phone as it exists out of apps automatically and consistently comes up with the "slide to power off" screen. It's draining the battery. Apple replaced my screen a few months ago and the problems have only occured since then but they have got progressivly worse. Any ideas before I take it to the genuis bar and get told it's going to cost me an obsence amount of money to fix a problem I haven't caused? No water damage or droppage on the device either and I have a thick case on it. Case doesn't affect/help the problem as well.

Hi jemerrifield,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
From your post I understand that your external display being used with your Mac Pro is flickering along the top of the screen. I completely understand how this can be frustrating, especially for being a new computer. I would however like you to follow some troubleshooting steps that will also help determine if the issue is with the display you are using, cables, or the Mac Pro.
Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays
Take care,
Alex H.

Windows 8 (Stream 7) reacts like power button is being held down

So I just got home from work and sat down to browse some web sites and eat. When I was done I hit the sleep button but shortly after the screen went out, windows came back with the slide down to shut down slider.
It just sat there waiting for input, I would slide it up (no) and then hit the sleep button again only for it to wake up again asking me if I want to shut down. At first I thought the power button broke, I even shut down the tablet and started it again and it still did it. I would put it to sleep and it would wake up asking me to slide the lock screen to shut down.
Now the thing is... if the power button really WAS stuck.. 3 things would happen;
#1 as per Bios software these days, holding the power button for more then 10 seconds is a universal "power down" command. Especialy on devices like these where the battery can't be disconnected. This power down command is almost allways part of the hardware so that it works incase of software failure.
#2 pressing the stuck power button when the tablet was on wouldn't put it to sleep.
#3 the tablet would be powering back on when powered off.
Now the thing is, this issue is NOT HAPPENING NOW! As if related some how, during the 15 or so minutes this happened, when I booted the tablet up holding it in portrait orientation the HP logo was correct but the windows lock and password screen were stuck in landscape mode. If I rotated the tablet to landscape and back at the lock screen it would fix itself, but during this issue it seemed like the orientation of the tablet was not being acknowledged correctly during the boot sequence and the lock screen would be oriented wrong. I some how fixed it by telling the tablet to reboot from the logon screen at which point it got stuck on the shutting down screen and I had to do a hard power down. After booting up once more all was well.
So.. as much as it seemed like a button failure, it really looks like there was a software glitch somewhere, either the bios or windows. I was unable to find anyone having a simular issue with windows tablets.

Didn't find a cause, but found the solution. It has nothing to do with diagnostics or anything, but rather doing a hard reboot. You see by default the tablet is configured to fast boot. What this means is when we shut down, a small hibernation file is written for the drivers and kernal (but not the user logon and data). So we never actually shut down, we log out and then hybernate.
So when the glitch pops up, even if we shut down, we arn't shutting down. We don't truly reset windows unless we RESTART, or do a hard shut down by holding the power switch which doesn't allow the computer to hybrnate. Both instances force windows to load from scratch.

TS3048 troubleshoot wireless mouse. It is acting as if a button is being held down - sending multiple signals when one will do.

It does not appear dirty, the battery is fine, the connections are fine but it is haywire to the point of being useless. Any advice?

Hello BDAqua, thanx for the suggestions. Before I saw this reply I tried to first quit the finder and then to relaunch the Finder but that resulted was a blank gray screen.
In the end I ended up having to power down the iMac.
Fortunately the RAID array that was "active" seems to be fine and also has a firewire 800 connection so I can use it_ just not with thunderbolt until this issue is solved.
I'm going to check in the Applications>Utilities>system log to see if any clues are evident_ thank you for the suggestion.
PS: Nothing of note was obvious as a root cause in the Activity Monitor though.
hmmm....I was told that the Helios and seritek card were compatable and that the Helios didn't require any drivers..it will be a drag if there isn't an easy fix for this since this new PCIe card from seritek is the first to offer port multiplier compatibility for eSATA to thunderbolt...since they are both new I'm hoping that an OS upgrade will be the fix (presently7.2)...we shall see.

Mac acting as if the apple key is stuck down+ pram reset not working

My Mac pro has started acting as if the apple key is held down! Menus and cursers are all wrong or not working at all. Rebooting cures it for a few hours but sometimes only a few minutes, I've tried swapping keyboards ( twice ) and using diffrent usb sockets without any joy so I'm starting to think it's a system problem. One suggestion I read was to reset the pram but even that won't work. Holding down the command / option / P / R combo at start up doesn't do anything.
HELP! PLEASE

Boot off your *original* Install Disk while holding down the *d key*, (not c key), then run the extended Apple Hardware Test. Some disks require you to use the Option key at bootup to select AHT. Some Discs have it inexplicably on Disc #2. Some models have a separate AHT CD.
The Memory test can really only be trusted if it finds a problem, not if it doesn't find a problem.
Memtest OS X...
http://www.memtestosx.org/joomla/index.php
Rember is a freeware GUI for the memtest ...
http://tech.kateva.org/2005/10/rember-freeware-memory-test-utility.html
Have you blown the dust out lately?
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
iStat Menus...
http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/
And/or iStat Pro...
http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

Satellite A300 thinks button is held down and won't start up (long)

Hey sorry this is so long but I would really love some help,
Ok so I was just wondering if there is a way to fix this...
I was on my Satellite A300 (just over a year old) last night playing the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo using the Stream network and all of a sudden in Online Co-op the Camera Assistant Window opened minamising Left 4 Dead 2.
I thought this strange because I had closed the side popup bar for Camera Assistant on startup so that it wouldn't popup and do exactly what it did....
So after being confused I just clicked back onto Left 4 Dead 2 and thought "I'll deal with that in a sec"... When Left 4 Dead 2 did maximise again, (it took a few moments where there was a black screen and about 1 second of audio looping), I couldn't physically play but I could watch the game in a special mode that lets you take a break and let AI take over for a while. Also the in game chat box was up.
I was at first just trying to click the button to turn off AI control but the game wouldn't respond. Then my chat box's typing section started filling up with 'u's so I tried to get rid of them. All I could do was high-light them with my mouse and then more 'u's would replace them.
After trying Alt+F4 for a while and Ctrl+Alt+Del with no responce except for the 'u's I decided the poor computer must be strained with Left 4 Dead open and Stream, Illistratror and the Camera open in the background so I pressed the power button (set to shut down on my computer) and waited...
Left 4 Dead 2 closed, as did Camera Assistant I think... and then it kind of froze so I just held down the power button (sorry I know that probably wasn't the best move) and my laptop turned off...
Well when I tried to turn it back on the Black "Toshiba Leading Innovation" screen pops up along with the little footer explaining what F2 and F12 do. After that the screen switches to the little blinking text bar thing (sorry I don't know what it's actually called...) but the bar flashes on and remains there for about 4-5 seconds and then flashes off and on again, although it seems slightly duller in colour) and then a single tone plays (from the computer even if earphones are plugged in) and yeah... I have to turn it back off...
Remembering about the 'u's I assumed the computer was not happy that the 'u' button was being held down on startup so remembering that the fron of the keys are actually removable I (very carefully) removed the 'u' faceplate.It all looked 'normal' underneath... (I compared it to the 'y' button) and so pressed it a few times and re-placed the faceplate. Turned on the compter... Same thing happened...
I then tried taking out the battery and then putting it back in to see if that would help... Again, the tone played... I took unpluged my iPod, Took out the CD, and removed the Memory Card to see if that would help... It didn't unfortunately.
So next I tried turning on the computer whist pressing 3 keys (I thought it might cancel out the 'u' key) abd held down 'b+n+m'. The first time I did this Windows Boot Manager opened instead of the beeping. I only have Windows Vista so when I tried to continue by pressing 'enter' nothing happened... So I turned off the computer and tried again (this time with q+w+e as I thought maybe holding b+m starts Boot Manager). This time Windows Error Recovery displayed with the options; Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt and Start Windows Normally. Again Enter wouldn't work... And thats my sistuation so far...
Please help if you can >: I'm scared if I take it to a Japanese Compute Person they'll wipe everything...
Thankyou,
Rochelle
(again I am sorry this is so long but I thought people might wan't specifics...)

hi Ellehcore,
sure it is always the hardware.... nope!
deinstall the webcam software and/or shutdown the webcam service
this will prevent the software to show up in your game...
but with this extended problems you should ask a servicepartner for assistance....
or simply recover the system...

Sending keystrokes with keys held down

Hello,
I am trying to develop a program which will allow me to send keystrokes to another application (possibly not Java) based on a programmatically produced script. Similar to a macro program.
Ideally, I would like to be able to send keystroke combinations including periods where 1 or more keys are held down (other than normal control keys such as SHIFT and ALT). For example, I would like to be able to send keystrokes to another program to mimic this script:
KEY "a": hold down for 10 seconds, do nothing for 5 seconds, tap once.
KEY "b": do nothing for 12 seconds, tap, wait one second, tap, tap.
KEY "c": hold down for 5 seconds, pause 10, hold down for 5 seconds
Key "d": pause 5 seconds, hold down for 10 seconds, pause for 5
etc
...where each key's script is run simultaneously, ie, the 3rd second of the script will see key "a" being held down, and key "c" held down. The 12th second will see the "b" key tapped once while the "d" key was held down.
My intention is to use such a program to drive others which use the keyboard for input, but not as typed keys, but rather as buttons.
Does anyone have any ideas on how this could be done?

I'm not sure, but could the Robot class work for you?
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/awt/Robot.html

Mac thinks keyboard key being held down

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