Shift key 'hangs' randomly

Hi!
For a few weeks my keyboard shows some strange behaviour: When using the shift key, it sometimes doesn't get released again. Then I can write caps only, which is very annoying... After a few seconds up to one minute, everything works fine again.
I used showkey to have a look at the keycodes, sent by my keyboard. Result: My keyboard works perfectly, pressing shift does the following: "keycode 42 press, keycode 42 release". It seems that X doesn't respect the key release.
Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be?
I'm using Gnome 2.30.0 with xorg-server 1.7.6-3 on x86_64. xorg.conf only contains configuration for my nvidia-card, so keyboard should be configured automatically. It's configured as evdev-device in gnome.
Thanks,
Michael
Last edited by Bevan (2010-05-18 21:52:24)

No, it's not a Gnome's bug, I have expirienced this problem too (check that out: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=87880 ) with just wmii window manager, plus with kde and having two different keyboards tested (USB Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000, Logitech Access PS/2 kbd) I've now installed Ubuntu 10 TLS, and the problem remains, but I don't remember having it with Ubuntu 9 (I think it's... karmic koala? ). So, it's not a distrubution problem, neither a keyboard problem, neither a Desktop Manager/Window manager problem...
What could it be?!
Last edited by thetrojan01 (2010-05-27 21:15:57)

Similar Messages

Odd glitch causing shift key to be randomly activated

Hi... I seem to be having some sort of glitch with my keyboard. On various programs (IM, Word, various Internet browsers) I will have times where my letters are being randomly capitalized (aNd wiLl apPeaR lIke ThIs). This is a great annoyance, and earlier an instance such as this prevented me from starting up my computer because I could not enter my password correctly with the randomly capitalized characters. It appears that when this happens, it is as if my shift key is randomly being activated (numbers will appear as symbols, such as @ instead of 2, and Internet pages will open in new windows when I do not want them to). Hopefully someone can help me out here- Thanks!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
It's hard to say what the cause is here, but I'm wondering if the unwanted shift is associated with one or both shift keys. You can go to Systems Preferences>International>Input Menu and check the box that says "Keyboard Viewer". This will install a little flag in the menu bar. You can click on it and get the keyboard viewer, which will highlight the keys as you type. It should also highlight the random shift that occurs when you don't strike a key. If this turns out to be confined to just one shift key, it might be that something has gotten into it or under the keycap that is making it malfunction. You can pull the keyboard out and look at the shift keys from the edges. You can look for foreign objects and also check the action of both to see if they are equally crisp or if one seems to be sticky. Has anything ever been spilled on the keyboard? If so, that could be related to this problem. If so, it's possible that cleaning that shift key will help:
http://mij.oltrelinux.com/ibook/cleaning_keyboard/
This looks like lot of trouble, but it might be worth trying for one or two keys.
At the moment, I am assuming some sort of physical glitch that has a physical fix. But I don't know if it could possibly be a software glitch. But it's probably worth trying to find something simple first.
Good luck!

Shift key randomly gets locked without being pressed (mbp 13" retina, late 2012)

I've been looking everywhere for answers for this problem, with no success (although many people raise similar questions on older models).
My MBP 13" retina 10.8.2 is new, clean, nothing spilled on it.
Ocassionally I connect it to external keyboard and mouse (USB or BT).
Regardless of that, sometimes the SHIFT key gets randomly locked - Without being pressed (whether the native keyboard, or when connected to external).
I could just be browsing the internet or be viewing a document in Word or GDocs, and suddenly - while mouse-scrolling - things will get selected, and the mouse-click becomes SHIFT-Click only.
When it happens, disconnecting/reconnecting the external keyboard or mouse has no effect - the problem persists.
The only workaround I found is to put it to SLEEP when it happens, and immediately wake it up.
The problem started a few weeks ago, and the behavior is completely random (it can happen twice in 10 minutes, or once a week).
Any ideas anyone?
PS - Apple Discussion Board - How come you forgot to put "Keyboard" as a Category for posts?

I've been looking everywhere for answers for this problem, with no success (although many people raise similar questions on older models).
My MBP 13" retina 10.8.2 is new, clean, nothing spilled on it.
Ocassionally I connect it to external keyboard and mouse (USB or BT).
Regardless of that, sometimes the SHIFT key gets randomly locked - Without being pressed (whether the native keyboard, or when connected to external).
I could just be browsing the internet or be viewing a document in Word or GDocs, and suddenly - while mouse-scrolling - things will get selected, and the mouse-click becomes SHIFT-Click only.
When it happens, disconnecting/reconnecting the external keyboard or mouse has no effect - the problem persists.
The only workaround I found is to put it to SLEEP when it happens, and immediately wake it up.
The problem started a few weeks ago, and the behavior is completely random (it can happen twice in 10 minutes, or once a week).
Any ideas anyone?
PS - Apple Discussion Board - How come you forgot to put "Keyboard" as a Category for posts?

Shift Key Brings up scratchpad. Also search firefox at bottom of the screen appears randomly HELP Started after the latest update

Ever since Firefox automatically updated I have 2 VERY annoying problems. 1) Just touching the Shift Key Brings up scratchpad. 2) search firefox at bottom of the screen appears and defaults without me doing anything, randomly. Please help

'''[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode Start Firefox in Safe Mode]''' {web link}
While you are in safe mode;
Type '''about:preferences#advanced'''<Enter> in the address bar.
Under '''Advanced,''' Select '''General.'''
Look for and turn off '''Use Hardware Acceleration'''.
Poke around safe web sites. Are there any problems?
Then restart.

Xorg - SHIFT key bugs out randomly after TV-hardware is connected

I'm on Xfce4. When I hold down left SHIFT key and press some other keys, after a while the SHIFT key may "unregister" itself. What I mean is, it stops working as if I had released it, although I'm still pressing it down. Ie I'm suddenly writing lower-case again and stuff. This behaviour is application-independant apparently.
I tried running 'showkey' and it correctly reported pressing+releasing of the SHIFT key (keycode 42) when I actually physically pressed and released it. It did NOT report release of the SHIFT key when it in fact stopped working. So it doesn't seem to be a keyboard hardware problem or something.
The right SHIFT key (showkey says keycore 54 for this one) seems to work correctly though (but it's not really a comfortable work-around..).
Is there maybe a trick that could be used as a workaround, to somehow switch the right and left shiftkey's key codes? Maybe that could "fix" it. >:)
I had a look at xmodmap, but that shows entirely different "keycodes" for SHIFT keys so I'm a bit stumped:
$ xmodmap -pk
..for "keycode 42" it had this line:
42 0x0067 (g) 0x0047 (G) 0x0067 (g) 0x0047 (G) 0x03bf (eng) 0x03bd (ENG) 0x03bf (eng) 0x03bd (ENG)
..and for left shift key it had "50" in the "keycode" column:
50 0xffe1 (Shift_L) 0x0000 (NoSymbol) 0xffe1 (Shift_L) 0x0000 (NoSymbol) 0xffe1 (Shift_L)
Anyway, I tried out https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xmodmap:
xmodmap -pke > ~/.Xmodmap
..then edited that file and changed the Shift_L (50) and Shift_R (62) lines, and did
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
..and my X froze up completely, not even registering mouse clicks, might wanna correct the Wiki there^^.
After a reboot, my xmodmap -pke showed the two lines swapped as intended though - but 'showkey' still shows keycode 42 for left and 54 for right, so swapping didn't work here.
Funny thing is, now after a fresh reboot I seem unable to reproduce the bug, so I'll wait and see what happens I guess.
Now I have read about people getting a bug where SHIFT key is suddenly _pressed_ on its own, unlike my prob where it is released, and those people always write that it happens when a TV card is connected, and that it is detected as "keyboard" according to X0.log.
So I just connected my usual bunch of USB stuff that I had disconnected earlier just while that reboot happened after which my problem didn't surface.
My X0.log:
[ 647.676] (II) config/udev: Adding input device UVC Camera (eb1a:2571) (/dev/input/event13)
[ 647.676] (**) UVC Camera (eb1a:2571): Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"
[ 647.676] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'UVC Camera (eb1a:2571)'
[ 647.676] (**) UVC Camera (eb1a:2571): always reports core events
[ 647.676] (**) evdev: UVC Camera (eb1a:2571): Device: "/dev/input/event13"
[ 647.676] (--) evdev: UVC Camera (eb1a:2571): Vendor 0xeb1a Product 0x2571
[ 647.677] (--) evdev: UVC Camera (eb1a:2571): Found keys
[ 647.677] (II) evdev: UVC Camera (eb1a:2571): Configuring as keyboard
[ 647.677] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-5/1-5.1/1-5.1:1.0/input/input13/event13"
[ 647.677] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "UVC Camera (eb1a:2571)" (type: KEYBOARD, id 14)
[ 647.677] (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"
[ 647.677] (**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev"
[ 647.677] (**) Option "xkb_layout" "de"
[ 654.995] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo (/dev/input/event14)
[ 654.995] (**) Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
[ 654.995] (**) Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"
[ 654.995] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo'
[ 654.995] (**) Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: always reports core events
[ 654.995] (**) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Device: "/dev/input/event14"
[ 654.996] (--) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Vendor 0x2341 Product 0x8036
[ 654.996] (--) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Found 3 mouse buttons
[ 654.996] (--) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Found scroll wheel(s)
[ 654.996] (--) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Found relative axes
[ 654.996] (--) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Found x and y relative axes
[ 654.996] (--) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Found keys
[ 654.996] (II) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Configuring as mouse
[ 654.996] (II) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Configuring as keyboard
[ 654.996] (II) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: Adding scrollwheel support
[ 654.996] (**) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
[ 654.996] (**) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
[ 654.996] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-5/1-5.4/1-5.4:1.2/input/input14/event14"
[ 654.996] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo" (type: KEYBOARD, id 15)
[ 654.996] (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"
[ 654.996] (**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev"
[ 654.996] (**) Option "xkb_layout" "de"
[ 654.998] (II) evdev: Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: initialized for relative axes.
[ 655.001] (**) Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[ 655.001] (**) Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: (accel) acceleration profile 0
[ 655.001] (**) Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[ 655.001] (**) Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[ 655.005] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo (/dev/input/mouse3)
[ 655.005] (II) No input driver specified, ignoring this device.
[ 655.005] (II) This device may have been added with another device file.
Now I'm wondering, my webcam gets detected as "keyboard" (id 14) ^^' well and so does my Arduino, but that's natural for Leonardo models.
I started up the webcam, so the uvc modules are now loaded, but still I'm now unable to reproduce the bug for some reason. With either SHIFT key. Well that's good sort of, but then again, not so good to track what causes it when it happens And why does X think that webcams and tv cards are keyboards?
Will post again when the bug surfaces again I guess.
Ok, after plugging in a usb-tv box, the bug started happening again, except this time it's the rigth shift key that doesnt work correctly, while the left shift key seems fine.
So it seems the xmodmap change worked, although showkey still shows 42 for left and 54 for right.
This might do as a workaround for now, although someone should figure out why tv cards (and tv usb boxes in my case) mess up the shift key in Xorg.
Apparently the IR-receiver part of my tv-box was recognized as "keyboard":
[ 17549.633] (II) config/udev: Adding input device IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver (/dev/input/event15)
[ 17549.633] (**) IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver: Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"
[ 17549.633] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver'
[ 17549.634] (**) IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver: always reports core events
[ 17549.634] (**) evdev: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver: Device: "/dev/input/event15"
[ 17549.634] (--) evdev: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver: Vendor 0xccd Product 0x38
[ 17549.634] (--) evdev: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver: Found keys
[ 17549.634] (II) evdev: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver: Configuring as keyboard
[ 17549.634] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-1/input/input15/event15"
[ 17549.634] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver" (type: KEYBOARD, id 16)
[ 17549.634] (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"
[ 17549.634] (**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev"
[ 17549.635] (**) Option "xkb_layout" "de"
Can I somehow find out which modules were loaded when I plugged it in so I can unload those?
Also, I tried
$ lsmod |grep dvb
dvb_usb_cinergyT2 6645 2147483647
dvb_usb 15171 1 dvb_usb_cinergyT2
dvb_core 79241 1 dvb_usb
rc_core 11081 1 dvb_usb
usbcore 126764 7 uhci_hcd,uvcvideo,dvb_usb,ehci_hcd,dvb_usb_cinergyT2,usbhid,cdc_acm
i2c_core 16944 7 drm,i915,i2c_i801,dvb_usb,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,videodev
$ rmmod dvb_usb_cinergyT2
rmmod: ERROR: Module dvb_usb_cinergyT2 is in use
but I don't have any media player running anymore, so why is the module in use and how do I see by what it is in use? Forced removal via rmmod -f worked by the way. Then I was able to remove the other two dvb_usb_ modules, and usbcore and i2c_core disappeared automatically.. but the bug still occurs! Any way to find out which other modules were possibly loaded, or what was done by the system, when I plugged in the tv box?
Last edited by Jindur (2013-01-06 05:08:51)

Do you have the 3 year Applecare? If so, you could try calling Applecare and see if they can help you resolve this over the phone. If not, be sure to get this problem documented with a case number before your 1 year warranty is up. If this has just been a constant hassle, you could ask to talk to Customer Relations.
It sounds like you may have some hardware problems with the keyboard and the trackpad, which could be causing at least some of the problems. Any chance of getting to an Apple store to have it looked at, or would you have to send it in?
Good luck!

Macbook air hangs randomly

My macbook air 2012 hangs randomly, when it happens the only thing i can do is push the power button and restart. I tought it was mavericks related so installed ML again but it still freezes sometimes. The log of the few minutes before the freeze:
<APSConnectionNotificationQueue: 0x7fd82c247530>: outstanding count -1 for com.apple.apsd-queue-port=com.apple.syncdefaultsd.push-user=501-env=production
Jun 2 18:28:35 --- last message repeated 4 times ---
Jun 2 18:28:42 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local WindowServer[79]: CGXSetWindowBackgroundBlurRadius: Invalid window 0xffffffff
Jun 2 18:28:42 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local WindowServer[79]: CGXSetWindowBackgroundBlurRadius: Invalid window 0xffffffff
Jun 2 18:29:59 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local WindowServer[79]: CGXGetConnectionProperty: Invalid connection 73143
Jun 2 18:30:25 --- last message repeated 4 times ---
Jun 2 18:30:25 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory kernel[0]: SMC::smcIH WARNING: unexpected interrupt: 0xf2
Jun 2 18:30:34 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Jun 2 18:30:34 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local Safari[151]: CGContextGetCTM: invalid context 0x0
Jun 2 18:30:34 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local Safari[151]: CGContextGetDefaultUserSpaceToDeviceSpaceTransform: invalid context 0x0
Jun 2 18:30:34 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local Safari[151]: CGContextGetCTM: invalid context 0x0
Jun 2 18:30:34 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local Safari[151]: CGContextGetDefaultUserSpaceToDeviceSpaceTransform: invalid context 0x0
Jun 2 18:30:38 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local WindowServer[79]: CGXRegisterWindowWithSystemStatusBar: window 10 already registered
Jun 2 18:30:39 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory kernel[0]: SMC::smcIH WARNING: unexpected interrupt: 0xf2
Jun 2 18:30:49 MacBook-Air-van-Gregory.local Safari[151]: CGContextClipToRect: invalid context 0x0
Jun 2 18:33:05 localhost bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1401726785 0
And Ertre checks:
EtreCheck version: 1.9.11 (43) - report generated 2 juni 2014 18:54:28 CEST
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)
          MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir5,2
          1 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
          4 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 512 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.8.5 (12F45) - Uptime: 0 days 0:21:56
Disk Information:
          APPLE SSD TS128E disk0 : (121,33 GB)
                    disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209,7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 120,47 GB (108,48 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information:
          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper:
          Anywhere
User Login Items:
          None
Internet Plug-ins:
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.6.0 - SDK 10.8 Check version
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
          CitrixICAClientPlugIn: Version: 11.2.0 Support
Audio Plug-ins:
          AirPlay: Version: 1.7 - SDK 10.8
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.1 - SDK 10.8
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.8
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Citrix Online Plug-in Support
Time Machine:
          Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
               3%          WindowServer
               1%          WebProcess
               0%          System Events
               0%          fontd
               0%          Safari
Top Processes by Memory:
          246 MB          WebProcess
          135 MB          Safari
          57 MB          mds
          45 MB          WindowServer
          37 MB          Console
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.93 GB          Free RAM
          889 MB          Active RAM
          63 MB          Inactive RAM
          1.14 GB          Wired RAM
          240 MB          Page-ins
          0 B          Page-outs

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem. But with the aid of the test results, the solution may take a few minutes, instead of hours or days.
2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to collect information about the state of the computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. However, you should be cautious about running any kind of program (not just a shell script) at the behest of a stranger. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.
Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:
☞ Copy a line of text in this window to the Clipboard.
☞ Paste into the window of another application.
☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.
☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.
The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time. Details follow.
4. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode, under the conditions in which the problem is reproduced. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.
5. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.
6. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/libexec;clear;cd;p=(Software Hardware Memory Diagnostics Power FireWire Thunderbolt USB Fonts 51 4 1000 25 5120 KiB/s 1024 85 \\b%% 20480 1 MB/s 25000 ports 'com.autodesk.AutoCad com.evenflow.dropbox com.google.GoogleDrive' DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES\ DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH -86 ` route -n get default|awk '/e:/{print $2}' ` 25 N\\/A down up 102400 25600 recvfrom sendto CFBundleIdentifier 25 25 25 1000 MB );N5=${#p[@]};p[N5]=` networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder|awk ' NR>1 { sub(/^$[0-9]+$ /,"");n=$0;getline;} $NF=="'${p[26]}')" { sub(/.$/,"",$NF);print n;exit;} ' `;f=('\n%s: %s\n' '\n%s\n\n%s\n' '\nRAM details\n%s\n' %s\ %s '%s\n\t(%s)\n' );S0() { echo ' { q=$NF+0;$NF="";u=$(NF-1);$(NF-1)="";gsub(/^ +| +$/,"");if(q>='${p[$1]}') printf("%s (UID %s) is using %s '${p[$2]}'",$0,u,q);} ';};s=(' /^ *$|CSConfigDot/d;s/^ */   /;s/[-0-9A-Fa-f]{22,}/UUID/g;s/(ochat)\.[^.]+(\..+)/\1\2/;/Shared/!s/\/Users\/[^/]+/~/g ' ' s/^ +//;5p;6p;8p;12p;' ' {sub(/^ +/,"")};NR==6;NR==13&&$2<'${p[10]} ' 1s/://;3,6d;/[my].+:/d;s/^ {4}//;H;${ g;s/\n$//;/s: [^EO]|x([^08]|02[^F]|8[^0])/p;} ' ' 5h;6{ H;g;/P/!p;} ' ' ($1~/^Cy/&&$3>'${p[11]}')||($1~/^Cond/&&$2!~/^N/) ' ' /:$/{ N;/:.+:/d;s/ *://;b0'$'\n'' };/^ *(V.+ [0N]|Man).+ /{ s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/(.+: )(.+)/ (\2)/;H;};$b0'$'\n'' d;:0'$'\n'' x;s/\n\n//;/Apple[ ,]|Intel|SMSC/d;s/\n.*//;/\)$/p;' ' s/^.*C/C/;H;${ g;/No th|pms/!p;} ' '/= [^GO]/p' '{$1=""};1' ' /Of/!{ s/^.+is |\.//g;p;} ' ' $0&&!/ / { n++;print;} END { if(n<200) print "com.apple.";} ' ' $3~/[0-9]:[0-9]{2}$/ { gsub(/:[0-9:a-f]{14}/,"");} { print|"tail -n'${p[12]}'";} ' ' NR==2&&$4<='${p[13]}' { print $4;} ' ' END { $2/=256;if($2>='${p[15]}') print int($2) } ' ' NR!=13{next};{sub(/[+-]$/,"",$NF)};'"`S0 21 22`" 'NR!=2{next}'"`S0 37 17`" ' NR!=5||$8!~/[RW]/{next};{ $(NF-1)=$1;$NF=int($NF/10000000);for(i=1;i<=3;i++){$i="";$(NF-1-i)="";};};'"`S0 19 20`" 's:^:/:p' '/\.kext\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/p' 's/^.{52}(.+) <.+/\1/p' ' /Launch[AD].+\.plist$/ { n++;print;} END { if(n<200) print "/System/";} ' '/\.xpc\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/p' ' NR>1&&!/0x|\.[0-9]+$|com\.apple\.launchctl\.(Aqua|Background|System)$/ { print $3;} ' ' /\.(framew|lproj)|\):/d;/plist:|:.+(Mach|scrip)/s/:[^:]+//p ' '/root/p' ' !/\/Contents\/.+\/Contents|Applic|Autom|Frameworks/&&/Lib.+\/Info.plist$/ { n++;print;} END { if(n<1000) print "/System/";} ' '/^\/usr\/lib\/.+dylib$/p' ' /Temp|emac/d;/(etc|Preferences)\//s/^\.\/[^/]+//p;' ' /\/(Contents\/.+\/Contents|Frameworks)\/|\.wdgt\/.+\.[bw]/d;p;' 's/\/(Contents\/)?Info.plist$//;p' ' { gsub("^| ","||kMDItem'${p[35]}'=");sub("^.."," ") };1 ' p '{print $3"\t"$1}' 's/\'$'\t''.+//p' 's/1/On/p' '/Prox.+: [^0]/p' '$2>'${p[9]}'{$2=$2-1;print}' ' BEGIN { i="'${p[26]}'";M1='${p[16]}';M2='${p[18]}';M3='${p[31]}';M4='${p[32]}';} !/^A/ { next;} /%/ { getline;if($5<M1) a="user "$2"%, system "$4"%";} /disk0/&&$4>M2 { b=$3" ops/s, "$4" blocks/s";} $2==i { if(c) { d=$3+$4+$5+$6;next;};if($4>M3||$6>M4) c=int($4/1024)" in, "int($6/1024)" out";} END { if(a) print "CPU: "a;if(b) print "I/O: "b;if(c) print "Net: "c" (KiB/s)";if(d) print "Net errors: "d" packets/s";} ' ' /r\[0\] /&&$NF!~/^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./ { print $NF;exit;} ' ' !/^T/ { printf "(static)";exit;} ' '/apsd|OpenD/!s/:.+//p' ' (/k:/&&$3!~/(255\.){3}0/ )||(/v6:/&&$2!~/A/ ) ' ' $1~"lR"&&$2<='${p[25]}';$1~"li"&&$3!~"wpa2";' ' BEGIN { FS=":";} { n=split($3,a,".");sub(/_2[01].+/,"",$3);print $2" "$3" "a[n]" "$1;b=b$1;} END { if(b) print("\n\t* Code injection");} ' ' NR!=4{next} {$NF/=10240} '"`S0 27 14`" ' END { if($3~/[0-9]/)print$3;} ' ' BEGIN { L='${p[36]}';} !/^[[:space:]]*(#.*)?$/ { l++;if(l<=L) f=f"\n   "$0;} END { F=FILENAME;if(!F) exit;if(!f) f="\n   [N/A]";"file -b "F|getline T;if(T!~/^(AS.+ (En.+ )?text$|POSIX sh.+ text ex)/) F=F" ("T")";printf("\nContents of %s\n%s\n",F,f);if(l>L) printf("\n   ...and %s more line(s)\n",l-L);} ' ' BEGIN{FS="= "} /Path/{print $2} ' ' /^ +B/{ s/.+= |(-[0-9]+)?\.s.+//g;p;} ' ' END{print NR} ' ' /id: N|te: Y/{i++} END{print i} ' ' / /{$0="'"${p[28]}"'"};1;' '/ en/!s/\.//p' ' NR!=13{next};{sub(/[+-M]$/,"",$NF)};'"`S0 39 40`" ' $10~/$L/&&$9!~"localhost" { sub(/.+:/,"",$9);print $1": "$9;} ' '/^ +r/s/.+"(.+)".+/\1/p' 's/(.+\.wdgt)\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/\1/p' 's/^.+\/(.+)\.wdgt$/\1/p' );c1=(system_profiler pmset\ -g nvram fdesetup find syslog df vm_stat sar ps sudo\ crontab sudo\ iotop top pkgutil PlistBuddy whoami cksum kextstat launchctl sudo\ launchctl crontab 'sudo defaults read' stat lsbom mdfind ' for i in ${p[24]};do ${c1[18]} ${c2[27]} $i;done;' defaults\ read scutil sudo\ dtrace sudo\ profiles sed\ -En awk /S*/*/P*/*/*/C*/*/airport networksetup mdutil sudo\ lsof test );c2=(com.apple.loginwindow\ LoginHook '-c Print /L*/P*/loginw*' '-c Print L*/P*/*loginit*' '-c Print L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist' '~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $' '.??* -path .Trash -prune -o -type d -name *.app -print -prune' '-c Print\ :'${p[35]}' 2>&1' '-c Print\ :Label 2>&1' '{/,}L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist -exec plutil -s {} \;' "-f'%N: %l' Desktop L*/Keyc*" therm sysload boot-args status " -F '\$Time \$Message' -k Sender kernel -k Message Req 'Beac|caug|dead[^bl]|FAIL|GPU |hfs: Ru|inval|jnl:|last value [1-9]|n Cause: -|NVDA$|pagin|proc: t|Roamed|rror|ssert|Thrott|tim(ed? ?|ing )o|WARN' -k Message Rne 'Goog|ksadm|SMC:' -o -k Sender fseventsd -k Message Req 'SL' " '-du -n DEV -n EDEV 1 10' 'acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu' '-t1 10 1' '-f -pfc /var/db/r*/com.apple.*.{BS,Bas,Es,OSXU,Rem,up}*.bom' '{/,}L*/Lo*/Diag* -type f -regex .\*[cgh] ! -name *ag \( -exec grep -lq "^Thread c" {} \; -exec printf \* \; -o -true $ -execdir stat -f:%Sc:%N -t%F {} \;|sort -t: -k2 |tail -n'${p[38]} '-L {/{S*/,},}L*/Lau* -type f' '-L /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems -type f -exec file {} +' '-L /S*/L*/{C*/Sec*A,E}* {/,}L*/{A*d,Ca*/*/Ex,Compon,Ex,In,iTu,Keyb,Mail/B,P*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Sec,Servi,Spo,Widg}* -type f -name Info.plist' '/usr/lib -type f -name *.dylib' `awk "${s[31]}"<<<${p[23]}` "/e*/{auto,{cron,fs}tab,hosts,[lps]*.conf,pam.d,ssh{,d}_config,*.local} {,/usr/local}/etc/periodic/*/* /L*/P*{,/*}/com.a*.{Bo,sec*.ap}* .launchd.conf" list getenv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf\ globalstate --proxy '-n get default' -I --dns -getdnsservers -getinfo\ "${p[N5]}" -P -m\ / '' -n1 '-R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt' '--regexp --only-files --files com.apple.pkg.*|sort|uniq' -kl -l -s\ / '-R -l1 -n1 -o mem -stats command,uid,mem' -i4TCP:0-1023 com.apple.dashboard\ layer-gadgets '-d /L*/Mana*/$USER&&echo On' );N1=${#c2[@]};for j in {0..8};do c2[N1+j]=SP${p[j]}DataType;done;N2=${#c2[@]};for j in 0 1;do c2[N2+j]="-n ' syscall::'${p[33+j]}':return { @out[execname,uid]=sum(arg0) } tick-10sec { trunc(@out,1);exit(0);} '";done;l=(Restricted\ files Hidden\ apps 'Elapsed time (s)' POST Battery Safari\ extensions Bad\ plists 'High file counts' User Heat System\ load boot\ args FileVault Diagnostic\ reports Log 'Free space (MiB)' 'Swap (MiB)' Activity 'CPU per process' Login\ hook 'I/O per process' Mach\ ports kexts Daemons Agents launchd Startup\ items Admin\ access Root\ access Bundles dylibs Apps Font\ issues Inserted\ dylibs Firewall Proxies DNS TCP/IP Wi-Fi Profiles Root\ crontab User\ crontab 'Global login items' 'User login items' Spotlight Memory Listeners Widgets Parental\ Controls );N3=${#l[@]};for i in 0 1 2;do l[N3+i]=${p[5+i]};done;N4=${#l[@]};for j in 0 1;do l[N4+j]="Current ${p[29+j]}stream data";done;A0() { id -G|grep -qw 80;v[1]=$?;((v[1]==0))&&sudo true;v[2]=$?;v[3]=`date +%s`;clear >&-;date '+Start time: %T %D%n';};for i in 0 1;do eval ' A'$((1+i))'() { v=` eval "${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}"|'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};A'$((3+i))'() { v=` while read i;do [[ "$i" ]]&&eval "${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}" \"$i\"|'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}";done<<<"${v[$4]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};A'$((5+i))'() { v=` while read i;do '${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$1]}" "$i";done<<<"${v[$2]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};';done;A7(){ v=$((`date +%s`-v[3]));};B2(){ v[$1]="$v";};for i in 0 1;do eval ' B'$i'() { v=;((v['$((i+1))']==0))||{ v=No;false;};};B'$((3+i))'() { v[$2]=`'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}"<<<"${v[$1]}"`;} ';done;B5(){ v[$1]="${v[$1]}"$'\n'"${v[$2]}";};B6() { v=` paste -d: <(printf "${v[$1]}") <(printf "${v[$2]}")|awk -F: ' {printf("'"${f[$3]}"'",$1,$2)} ' `;};B7(){ v=`grep -Fv "${v[$1]}"<<<"$v"`;};C0(){ [[ "$v" ]]&&echo "$v";};C1() { [[ "$v" ]]&&printf "${f[$1]}" "${l[$2]}" "$v";};C2() { v=`echo $v`;[[ "$v" != 0 ]]&&C1 0 $1;};C3() { v=`sed -E "$s"<<<"$v"`&&C1 1 $1;};for i in 1 2;do for j in 2 3;do eval D$i$j'(){ A'$i' $1 $2 $3; C'$j' $4;};';done;done;{ A0;A2 0 $((N1+1)) 2;C0;A1 0 $N1 1;C0;B0;C2 27;B0&&! B1&&C2 28;D12 15 37 25 8;A1 0 $((N1+2)) 3;C0;D13 0 $((N1+3)) 4 3;D23 0 $((N1+4)) 5 4;for i in 0 1 2;do D13 0 $((N1+5+i)) 6 $((N3+i));done;D13 1 10 7 9;D13 1 11 8 10;D22 2 12 9 11;D12 3 13 10 12;D23 4 19 44 13;D23 5 14 12 14;D22 6 36 13 15;D22 7 37 14 16;D23 8 15 38 17;D22 9 16 16 18;B1&&{ D22 11 17 17 20;for i in 0 1;do D22 28 $((N2+i)) 45 $((N4+i));done;};D22 12 44 54 45;D22 12 39 15 21;A1 13 40 18;B2 4;B3 4 0 19;A3 14 6 32 0;B4 0 5 11;A1 17 41 20;B7 5;C3 22;B4 4 6 21;A3 14 7 32 6;B4 0 7 11;B3 4 0 22;A3 14 6 32 0;B4 0 8 11;B5 7 8;B1&&{ A2 19 26 23;B7 7;C3 23;};A2 18 26 23;B7 7;C3 24;A2 4 20 21;B7 6;B2 9;A4 14 7 52 9;B2 10;B6 9 10 4;C3 25;D13 4 21 24 26;B4 4 12 26;B3 4 13 27;A1 4 22 29;B7 12;B2 14;A4 14 6 52 14;B2 15;B6 14 15 4;B3 0 0 30;C3 29;A1 4 23 27;B7 13;C3 30;D13 24 24 32 31;D13 25 37 32 33;A1 23 18 28;B2 16;A2 16 25 33;B7 16;B3 0 0 34;B2 21;A6 47 21&&C0;B1&&{ D13 21 0 32 19;D13 10 42 32 40;D22 29 35 46 39;};D23 14 1 48 42;D12 34 43 53 44;D22 0 $((N1+8)) 51 32;D13 4 8 41 6;D12 26 28 35 34;D13 27 29 36 35;A2 27 32 39&&{ B2 19;A2 33 33 40;B2 20;B6 19 20 3;};C2 36;D23 33 34 42 37;B1&&D23 35 45 55 46;D23 32 31 43 38;D12 36 47 32 48;D13 20 42 32 41;D23 14 2 48 43;D13 4 5 32 1;D22 4 4 50 0;D13 14 3 49 5;B3 4 22 57;A1 26 46 56;B7 22;B3 0 0 58;C3 47;D23 22 9 37 7;A7;C2 2;} 2>/dev/null|pbcopy;exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
7. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste by pressing command-V. The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
8. If you see an error message in the Terminal window such as "syntax error," enter
exec bash
and press return. Then paste the script again.
9. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, press the key combination control-C or just press return three times at the password prompt. Again, the script will still run.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.
10. The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, there will be nothing in the Terminal window and no indication of progress. Wait for the line
[Process completed]
to appear. If you don't see it within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report the results. No harm will be done.
11. When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.
At the top of the results, there will be a line that begins with "Model Identifier." If you don't see that, but instead see a mass of gibberish, you didn't wait for the "Process completed" message to appear in the Terminal window. Please wait for it and try again.
If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
12. When you post the results, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." It means that the forum software has misidentified something in the post as a violation of the rules. If that happens, please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.
Copyright © 2014 by Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Use Agreement for the Apple Support Communities website ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

Arrow keys spark random 5-10 minute keyboard glitch

Some combination of the arrow keys will acuse the following errors will pop uptogether, then in about 5-10 minutes they vanish:
-Everything I type will be in caps, even though caps lock is off,
- both my USB and touchpad mouses will open new browser windows when I right-click on tabs,
- my mouse will highlight and not stop highlighting,
-I can't switch to other windows using the minimized tabs on the taskbar, they just bring up new windows (be it browser or other programs)
-The mouse wheel will send me through my broswer history rather than scroll down or up.
-Macros don't do as expected. Example: Shift+A takes me to firefox's addons rather than highlight everything on the page.
- clicking on bookmarks in firefox will open the website in a new window rather than in the same tab.
This error I get quite frequently: Random semicolons followed by a random number will appear when I navigate a document with the arrow keys. This usually preceeds the following errors above.
Its a new HP Probook 450 G1, and I've had plenty of programs scanning my system for viruses and malware. I've even reset windows and the problems persist. HP phone support did not help me. What's the deal?
While writing this complain those same errors occured and navigated me away from this page, forcing me to write it again.
I'll post this over and over until I get a reponse and a repair suggestion if I have to.

SO I ended up getting in contact with a rep. who noticed that I had restarted windows and some things had not been activated. He got them updated and told me to get rid of AVG, and some other antimalware stuff because 'they weren't needed.'
I only got them in the first place because I suspected this issue to be viral in nature. We decided to see if these changes altered my situation.
Answer: Things have gotten worse. Semicolons appear much more commonly when I use the arrow keys in documents, and its the arrow keys that somehow lock the keyboard into a state where it thinks I'm holding down the shift key.
These errors have nothing to do with me using the shift key, although repeatedly pressing it does reset the semi-perement shift key issue.
And no, nothing has ever been spilled in/on the keyboard.

Selecting Multiple Files With Shift Key

Am I right in understanding that the only way to select multiple files with the Shift key in Finder is by using File view? Seems kinda silly.
Thank you, Scott

I'm at my Snow Leopard machine right now, and I'm not sure that nothing was changed in Mavericks, but I never noticed that it was.
I have four view modes: Icon, List, Column and CoverFlow.
I almost always use Column view, but I am guessing that you are calling Icon view File view. In Icon view, Shift clicking seems to work the way Command clicking does in Column view (and probably the other views as well): it allows you to add randomly selected files to the selection. In Column view, Shift clicking works like it does for most things (like text selection); it selects every thing between the previous click and the Shift click.

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!

[CS3] Guides: Shift key will remove guide when zoomed-in above 500%!?!!???

Ok, so... PS CS3 is kinda funky (buggy?) at times...
I am on a quad-core Mac... Fast machine with lots of memory...
Guides, in particular, are acting strange. The most annoying thing is when I am zoomed in (500%+, using Move Tool), and I want to snap my guide to each pixel increment on the ruler, holding down the shift key while moving the guide will make my guide disappear! Why???
Additionally, I have noticed that newly created guides will sometimes take a few seconds to refresh and/or update? The ruler itself will take a few seconds to update when I move the center point around.
Anyway, what's up with the disappearing guides?

Hi Allen! Thanks for the quick reply. I really appreciate the help. :)
Specs:
Processor:
2x2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory:
8GB 800MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
OS:
OS X, 10.5.2
Dual LCD monitors.
Photoshop:
CS3 Extended
v.10.0.1
UPDATE: I just opened a different document, and guides work fine... This disappearing guide problems appears to happen randomly.
Hmm, maybe I need to re-install?
Kinda OT: I tend to work with a lot of guides in my PS docs... I kinda wish Photoshop guides behaved like Illustrator guides. It would be cool to assign guides to different layers.
... A few other strange PS problems I have been having:
1. Save for web will take like a minute to actually save slices when first "saving for web" upon opening a doc... After that, it goes fast.
2. This happens occasionally: Command-tabbing through apps (example, Photoshop to Firefox, and back to Photoshop) will not bring the Photoshop menu to the front, but Photoshop is the selected front-most app. The fix: I have to command-tab back and forth one more time, in order to get Photoshop to come to front.
Thanks again Allen! :)
Cheers,
Micky

Firefox won't let me use the shift key

Hi
Basically when I try and use the shift key I keep getting this bar come up on the bottom of my screen and begins typing my text in there. Even when I close the bar and press the shift key again it still appears; I'm not sure how I can stop it from happening or how to disable it. It's getting frustrating not being able to type properly- I have to use the caps lock key for capitals.
Can someone please help me out?
Thanks

hello Sab01, your screenshot shows the firefox developer toolbar which can be brought up with the keyboard shortcut shift+f2. so this is just a guess, but maybe your keyboard's f2 key is hanging...
in case you cannot solve it that way, please enter '''about:config''' into the firefox location bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up) & search for the preference named '''devtools.toolbar.enabled''' - double-click the entry and toggle its value to '''false'''. this will generally disable the developer toolbar after you restart the browser.

Can't select text using shift key

Really weird thing...
Suddenly can't use the shift key to select a block of text... but only in certain apps.
Unfortunately, have read through 20 or 30 articles and getting nowhere, so posting here in case anyone has had a similar issue!

Checked that. Wasn't anything there.
But doesn't matter much as it suddenly randomly started working again. *sigh*

WIreless keyboard shift key problem

I have an Apple wireless keyboard which was working fine for the past 10 months, until this morning. Now, when I press the shift key, it types an "I" and whatever other key I hit. Also, there are occasional random capital letters when I type without pressing the shift key. I've tried things like resetting the PRAM, going into keyboard preferences and resetting to the defaults, and unpairing/repairing the keyboard to my iMac. It is definitely the keyboard, as I plugged in the USB keyboard from my daughter's iMac, and that works fine. Also, I've tried to get support, but can't get past Apple telling me my serial number is invalid (Thanks so much to srodney for a VERY clear explanation of how to find that miniscule serial number!)
Thanks for any help you can give!

Keyboard: lower case letter or letters stop working.
Friends, I have solved this problem and used it several times successfully. In my case, it was the lower case “a”, the only letter that would not register and because my password contains an “a” I could not even restart and log in without a work-around. Tried numerous keyboards, cables, and all the rest. A safe boot fixed the problem so I knew it was a corruption glitch. Short version: I just did this two hours ago - July 18, 2009 - only the second or so time in a year, although it took me a lot of preference experimentation the first time to sniff it out.
In my case, went to my “user/library/preferences” folder and dragged onto the desktop the preference “loginwindow.plist” (not the one that starts "com.apple", at least in my case I didn’t need to get rid of that one). Restart and voila! Problem solved. Trash the old "loginwindow.plist" as a new one is created when you restart and you lose no data. To their credit, Apple was very helpful back when it happened the first time, and it was a real conundrum to them as well. I got lucky that it was not too obscure a problem so I didn't have to go through all the preferences and remove them one by one for hours. I found the guilty party fast. Now ya know! Maybe it'll work for you. And a general thanks to all the good people who write these notes and have saved my sanity many, many times. Finally a chance to pay it forward.

USB keyboard shift keys suddenly not working

For some reason, when I woke up my MacBook Pro this morning, both shift keys on my aluminium USB keyboard were not working. I'm using the keyboard with a Magic Mouse and LED cinema display connected to my MacBook. When I hold either shift key in combination with any other key, either nothing is typed, or there will be random characters typed, occasionally.
I ran AppleJack on auto to see if there were any problems. There were a few preferences it corrected, but nothing major was wrong. I connected the keyboard to a friend's MacBook Pro, and the shift keys did not work on his machine either. Caps Lock does work. I've tried canned air. I don't remember spilling anything on it.
Any idea about what I can try to get it working, or is it broken? Thanks,
-Jeff

Try resetting the PRAM. Info here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Shift key just stopped working...

both of my shift keys have stopped working. they are working sporadically, and i'm not sure what happened. i was typing and suddenly my shift button would not work. i know i didn't hit some sort of hot key to disable the shift function, and it seems that the buttons will randomly work or not work, without hitting anything. is it possible that i have disabled them, or that there is a bug in my computer that is causing this to happen [i hope not, as the guy taht sold me my computer told me not to buy virus protection]. any help would be greatly appreciated, and i'm sorry for the all-lowercase post.
rob
ps. i have reset my computer several times to no avail.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
One of the issues outlined in the User Tip I wrote may be affecting you:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607533&#607533

Shift key 'hangs' randomly

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for