Macbook stuck in control key

long story short my macbook air is stuck in the contol key causing the drop down menu to pop up everytime i click the trackpad, also meaning i cant type. now i found a work around where i just put the macbook in sleep then reboot but as soon as i try and type anything on the keyboard it activates the control key. so frustrating, ive never spilled anything on it, its always been in a case etc... anyone have his issue before? if so any solutions?

anyone?

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Problem with my macbook air brightness control key

i have a problem with my macbook air.my brightness control key ( F1 & F2 ) dont work.what can i do ?

If keys on your keyboard don't work:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203162

MacBook stuck with shift key enabled and numbers not working - even the keyboard app in languages wont type lowercase nor numbers?! Anyone know whats up? no spillage...cant understand why the keyboard app wont do anything.

Anyone have a clue? I can understand the keyboard being broke / shift key being stuck but why in the world would I not be able to type the numbers on the language keyboard app on the operating system? Numbers show up on the app but when I press them I still get the special characters like #^&#* and it wont type lower case. Nothing has ever been spilt, just stopped working one day. Rebooted from Time Capsule restore dated a month ago and its still doing it. (problem started two weeks ago). Only way to get lower case or numbers to actually show up is the copy and paste.
Any help would be amazing!
Details on computer: 13 inch MacBook6, 1 (Late 2009) / Intel Core 2 DUO / 2.26GHZ / 2GB / Memory running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

If you can afford it, I would recommend replacing the topcase and keyboard as Apple suggests. If like me, you can't afford it or are open to a hack fix, then read on.
The problem
Yesterday, a little water spilt on my 13" MBP keyboard. I turned it around immediately, drained out the water and used tissue to suck it all up but the keyboard was still acting funny. I turned it off and left it out in the sun for a couple of hours and turned it on again but problems remained. Like Rickdubya, my warranty had run out just a month ago and I knew Apple would not cover this under warranty. I tried to clean the shift keys and left it overnight with some rice on them with hopes that the moisture might get sucked out. Nothing worked. (The rice bit is an urban legend that seems to work with some electronics). Went to the Apple Store this morning and was told that they wouldn't even take out the key and clean it, and that the entire top case would have to be replaced. A total bill of 156 Euros which I cannot afford. I had a USB keyboard that would let me use the Mac for the moment so I decided to try to work out a fix.
Symptoms
- Boots in safe mode everytime (which I later found out was because the shift key is pressed)
- Cannot login because password is in lower case or has numbers
- Cannot boot in super user mode and try to disable keys or override password as some commands won't work in uppercase (I wouldn't recommend this anyway because its super user mode)
- All text is in caps and numbers are symbols as though shift key is always pressed
- Audio doesn't work
- Keyboard viewer would not always show the shift key pressed. The key seemed to get pressed at random
Fix
1. Hold the Option button down on boot to bypass the Safe Mode ensure a normal boot
2. At the login screen, plug in a USB keyboard and enter your password to login
3. Change your password to one that uses all caps and no numbers
4. Download and install KeyRemap4MacBook .
5. Use a combination of the functionalities of the Keyboard Viewer and KeyRemap4MacBook to figure out which shift key is the problem. In my case, I found out that it was only my left shift key.
6. Disable the left/right shift key on KeyRemap4MacBook and click on the 'Reload XML' button to make that take effect.
If only one shift key was the problem, then you are done. If both shift keys were shorted, then its likely other keys are too. In which case you should probably just replace the entire thing. If you think other keys are not affected, then you can use KeyRemap4MacBook itself to remap the shift functionality to a lesser used key like the Left Option key.
7. Under System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items , add KeyRemap4MacBook as an application that should start on login. This will ensure that your disable/remap of the shift key is active everytime you login.
Usage change/Things to remember
1. Remember to hold down the Option key everytime the computer boots or reboots to bypass safe mode. The fix above is at the software level. The key is physically still shorted at the hardware level and will affect boot.
2. Remember that at the login screen, the disable/remap is not active. So your password now has to be all caps and only letters.
As soon as I can save some money, I will get my topcase and keyboard replaced but until then this solution works great with minimal change. Hope this helps!

Control key doesn't stop skimming

I understand "skimming" means that when I hover over my clip, the play line will move along it. Often I don't want this, e.g. I need to reach the menu but now the play line will move all around. I've read in different places that holding down the Control key would pause this skimming, but that doesn't do anything for me.
I'm using Mac OS Lion with iMovie 11 on a MacBook, and the Control key does work in other programs, so it's not a broken keyboard.
Can anyone please help? Thanks!

My best advice if you are working on a certain section is to select it by dragging so that a yellow border is around it. Then you can right click it or use the menu bar without changing what is in focus.

Control Key stuck ON

Dear HP, My wife and I both have had problems on our laptops where the keyboard gets stuck in a mode where it does wierd stuff.
I believe it has to do with resting our wrists on our laptops (our bad). And some how with our palms touching the keypad plus some key, we enter this mode.
Today, while replying to an email, I did it and realized that the Control Key was "stuck on". I press A and it would select all the text in the email. etc.
I tried updating the latest keypad driver and that created a whole differentset of problems. (I am not happy with the keypad driver sw!!!)
I read on the Microsoft forum that pressing both Ctrl keys would clear it. So next time it happens I will try it.
This is something that HP needs to post about defining the key stroke to get into this problem andthe key stroke to get out of it.
For us, it requires a reboot to clear this special model.
Thanks for listening,
Hank

Hello bruezzy,
You’re having a problem that the control key is sticking.
Go into device manager and uninstall the keyboard and restart the computer.
This will uninstall and reinstall the driver that controls the keyboard.
Here is a link that will show you how to get to and use device manager.
Also reset BIOS defaults.
This is what lets the software on the computer talk to the hardware.
Turn off the computer
As you turn it back on tap the F10 key. This will load BIOS setup utility.
Press F9 to load defaults
Press F10 to save and exit
When the computer boots back up, check to see if everything is working.
If everything was recently working correctly, you might try a system restore.
This will take the computer back to a time that everything was working correctly without affecting any of your files.
Here is link to a restore.
Clicking the White Kudos star on the left is a way to say Thanks!
Let me know how everything goes.
Have a good day.

Control Key Stuck At Times

A couple times a day my computer will act like the control key has been pushed and will open the shortcut that is with the letter I pushed. Sometimes it will cause the page to zoom in and out from scrolling the mouse. I had a L505 and it did this I replaced keyboard they replaced the system board and it still did it. I sold that computer and got a new L655-S5158 it is doing the same thing. This is really annoying because I never know when it is going to do it. Sometimes when I am typing a email or filling out an online forum it will reload the page and I will lose all my work. I thought it might be firefox so I switched back to Internet Explorer still does it. Does anyone know what is causing this.

Hello,
I can reproduce this bug (make Windows think the CTRL key is stuck down) at will, and I can unstick it too, on my Satellite L775.
To make the bug appear, I just hold down the CTRL key while using pinch-zoom.
To unstick the key, I just press both control keys simultaneously. This "unstick" method has always worked, except ONE time it did not and I had to reboot to unstick the CTRL key.
Obviously, the fact that the touch pad itself has a bug that frequently ignores the fact that I have it turned OFF and zooms or scrolls without warning when I get near it exacerbates this CTRL bug, but, anyway, I hope that being able to reproduce the bug reliably will help get it fixed.

Control key stuck

I recently purchased an X131E.
It's great but after an hour or so of being turned on it acts as if the control key is pressed, and makes it hard work using Office, IE etc...
A re-boot resolves it, but it just happens again soon after. I'm sure the key is not stuck, what could be causing this? How can I resolve it?
It's not the sticky keys as I have disabled that after trawling other forums
Any help appreciated.
Would this be covered under the warranty?

Hello Maido,
This could be a driver issue, try downloading the Update Retriever 5.00 tool, it will let you know if you have any driver updates, Its located half way down the site. With Update Retriever, you can manually initiate the search for update packages, or schedule an automatic search for new update packages at a specified time interval. Here is the System Update Solution Deployment Guide.
Update Retriever first time setup
When you launch Update Retriever the first time, you need to set up Update Retriever. To do the first
time setup of Update Retriever, do the following:
1. Launch Update Retriever.
2. On the Welcome screen, specify a repository folder and set the logon information by doing the following:
    a. Type or browse a repository path for the share drive used as the network share repository in the
        Repository path field.
    b. Type a user name and password for the share drive used as the network share repository in the
        user name and password fields.
3. In the Get new updates panel, click Add.
4. In the Add new systems window, set the triplet information for a system by doing the following:
    a. Type the applicable machine type. You can find the machine type on the bottom of a notebook
        computer or on the rear of a desktop computer.
    b. Select the applicable operating system.
    c. Select the applicable language.
    d. Click add and then click Save.
5. In the Get new updates panel, select the check box next to the applicable machine type you want to
    search for update packages.
6. Click Next and then click Finish to search for the applicable update packages. Update Retriever will
    place the update packages in the designated repository folder.
Thank you for being a part of the Lenovo Family,
Catie
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Pavillion dv9000, Control Key is stuck

The system will boot up and run on any point & click. When I try to type anything in any program I get the message" you are holding the control key down, do you want to open the progeam in safe mode?" I open it in safe mode or regular mode and still get single ping and error message.

Have you checked both Ctrl keys to verify that they're not stuck? Have you ever spilled anything on your keyboard?

ThinkPad T540p Control key stuck

The control key of my ThinkPad T540p often got stuck. It is not physically stuck, but the computer often thinks it is pressed down. This happens from time to time, which is very annoying. When it happens, if I press Ctrl again, then everything is back to OK again.
I noticed that this problem seems to be pretty common in Lenovo computers. If you google search "Lenovo Control key stuck", you can find lots of similar reports!
Does anyone have any idea on how to solve it? Thanks!

Hi Nauhiuc,
Welcome to Lenovo Community!
Check uninstalling the keyboard adapter from “Device Manager” under Keyboards.
Run ThinkVantage system update utility to check for latest driver for your system.
ThinkVantage System Update
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Hemanth Kumar
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If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
Follow @LenovoForums on Twitter!

Has anyone else had a control key act stuck?

I couldn't type in my password the other day after some basic trouble shooting and calling Apple everyone was at their wits end. Then I saw it, in the lower left of safari in the grey boarder it said "display a menu" a quick search on my phone showed me it was the control key. After tapping this key a few times it went away. I currently have changed in the modifier keys section of the keyboard so caps lock is the control key and the control key functions are controlled by the caps lock. interesting thing is that caps lock isn't on all the time, i.e. just like how the control key was acting. I can't feel anything under the key, nothing has been spilled, the key works fine as CAPS LOCK, its just when the control is assigned to do control functions and only then, even assigning no action to it works. should i reinstall the last update? should I reinstall the OS? I did a time machine back up too, that didn't fix it.

Does it really matter whether anyone else has? If you have, that's a problem for you whether or not anyone else has experienced the same issue. Call Apple tech support or take the iPad to an Apple Store, if there's one in your area, and they'll replace the iPad unless it's determined that the problem was caused by some sort of accident rather than a factory defect.
Regards.

T440s Control key getting stuck

I have a T440s touch screen version running windows 8.1 64bit Pro and using the latest 2.26 firmware.
Most of the time I use the laptop on an Ultradock with no issue.
However on the odd occasion when I use the laptop standalone I use the trackpoint (not sure if this relevant) and have found the computer is acting as if control is being presed. I am certain I have not used the Shift or control key and sticky keys is not on. When this problem occurs no amount of pressing control or shift resolves the problem and the only way to recover is to reboot the computer.
Anyone seem this issue or know how to solve it.

OK
So I've been doing a little more research and the only thing I can find is on some old ASUS and Toshiba forums with people reporting similar issues.
The most promising solution seems to be to disable 'Pinch to Zoom' on the trackpad driver. I'll give that a go and see how things progress.
As a side note I've only had the laptop a couple of months and I am pretty sure I didn't have the issue when I bought it, although it has since been upgraded to Win 8.1 from 8.0 and all firmware/driver patches applied (firmware 2.25 mentions some shift/control key fixes...Hmmmm...).

Control key appear stuck but isnt

On my keyboard it is showing as though the control key is being pressed when it is not. Any form of tying brings up only symbols. It is not the keyboard I changed to a new keyboard and the error still occurs, cannot do anything with the unit. Cant boot in safe mode or reset smc because keys are appearing pressed. How to fix this

On my keyboard it is showing as though the control key is being pressed when it is not. Any form of tying brings up only symbols. It is not the keyboard I changed to a new keyboard and the error still occurs, cannot do anything with the unit. Cant boot in safe mode or reset smc because keys are appearing pressed. How to fix this

Why does my firefox intermittently (and seemingly randomly) behave as though my control key is stuck on, even though my keyboard behaves normally in every other program? AND it will also randomly change my keyboard mapping to an international one.

I will be using firefox, and for some reason, it behaves as though control key is being held down. If i use the mouse wheel, the page zooms. If I press the letter 'o', the "Open file..." dialog opens. But I'm not holding control. If, while this is happening, I switch to another application like Notepad, it behaves normally. But then I'll go back to firefox and the problem is still there. It seems to randomly start and stop.
Also, in a possibly related problem, my keyboard mapping will change from my default US to some other foreign mapping where shift-6 incorrectly outputs '?' instead of '^', for example.

I will be using firefox, and for some reason, it behaves as though control key is being held down. If i use the mouse wheel, the page zooms. If I press the letter 'o', the "Open file..." dialog opens. But I'm not holding control. If, while this is happening, I switch to another application like Notepad, it behaves normally. But then I'll go back to firefox and the problem is still there. It seems to randomly start and stop.
Also, in a possibly related problem, my keyboard mapping will change from my default US to some other foreign mapping where shift-6 incorrectly outputs '?' instead of '^', for example.

Something may be stuck under "ctrl" key

The right side of my ctrl key doesn't move when I press the key. If I press the left side, then that half goes down, but I get no response from the computer. I can only assume that there is something stuck under the key.
While this isn't exactly imperative - I use that key only as part of a hotkey combination to access other programs - I would prefer to have a fully functioning keyboard.
Can Macbook keys "lock up"; that is, have they been known to have a malfunction in the hinges beneath them?
Is there some way I can remove the key?
What are some suggestions for looking under or safely removing something stuck under there?
Thanks in advance.

It pains me even mentioning this, but take a look at this set of visuals on removing a key:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88106
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69631394@N00
Before that, however, I'd use a blower as a less invasive way of dealing with the troublesome key. Easily available, online and on the street. Hold down the keys surrounding the Control key, and shoot quick bursts on all sides. Do it upside-down, too, while a friend holds the keyboard steady.

What can I do to prevent the control key from not working in the future?

Background:
I bough an macbook pro about 1 year and 3 months ago and after 9 months of usage my control key stopped working for about an hour or two.This happened every time I turned on or awoke my mac from sleep (lid down).I sent it to an authorized apple service center and they replaced the keyboard.Everything was fine for about 4-5 months when the same thing happened again, ctrl key stopped working but this time not when turning on my mac but at random times and for random intervals.I sent it again to the service center but they told me that this time it won't be for free because my 1 year warranty has expired.I should mention that in European Union and Romania (the country where I am from and from which the mac was purchased) the law is that any electronics device sold has to come with at least 2 years of warranty.Apple seems to ingore this law.
Anyway, after long conversations with apple uk on the phone they agreed to pay for the keyboard but not for the labor which was 70 eur ($100).It's not much but my 2 year warranty should have covered it.The sad part is that I have no guarantee that it's indeed a keyboard error and not something else, this might happen again in 4 months and I doubt this time apple would agree paying for the keyboard (which is 150eur) ($215).
I should also mention that before calling apple uk I tried apple's romanian number (listed on their site) and it didn't work on the 3 phone networks that I've tried (2 fixed and one mobile) which led me to believe that apple support is in fact a big joke.
Suffice to say that I will no longer purchase any apple devices or software, I regret purchasing mac os x lion just a week ago, when I will no longer use it because I intend to sell all my apple gear (timecapsule, iphone4, macbook pro) and buy stuff from companies that value their customers and respect their contracts.
My questions are this:
1) why does apple ignore EU and Romanian law?
2) what can I do to prevent this from happening in the future
3) can I request that my macbook be more thoroughly inspected? I suspect the keyboard is not the main problem and it will soon happen again as it happened two times already.
4) can I do something for the repair labor charge to be waved? It is illegal in my country to ask for one in this scenario...

Everyone reading your posts here is just another MacBook Pro user. We're all volunteers, not Apple employees. No one here can speak for Apple.
In my personal opinion, buying Apple products in a country where Apple has no stores and no corporate presence is a risk that the buyer takes knowingly. I don't think it's a wise risk, and I don't recommend that anyone take it. A small percentage of the products sold anywhere are going to have problems, and it makes more sense to buy an inferior product that can at least be serviced locally than to buy a superior product that may have to be sent thousands of miles for repair if anything ever goes wrong with it.

Macbook stuck in control key

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