Shift key is "stuck down"

So I first had a problem with this over a week ago - when I switched my laptop on it went to a grey screen with the option of me or guest. I clicked on me, but it wouldn't accept my password. I clicked on guest, and got a message about restarting in Safari only mode or something. Tried this a few times but each time it came back to the same screen with the same options.
Eventually I managed to get on as normal by holding down the right hand command key whilst switching on (doesn't work with the other command key). From there I tried various things and worked out that everything was acting as if I had a shift key held down, and I used the keyboard viewer to work out that it was the right hand shift key causing the problem.Obviously this was why my password wasn't being accepted.
It corrected itself after a couple of hours but the problem came and went last week. I tried blasting air under the key, thinking there might be something under there, but it didn't have any effect.
I should mention at this point that I'm from the UK but currently living in Madagascar so though my MacBook is only 8 months old I can't take it anywhere for help.
My dad called Apple for me who advised to try reinstalling Lion (by holding down CMD + R whilst switching on). I first tried this on Friday afternoon last week but couldn't do it because it required logging in to the app store, and I couldn't type my password in as the shift key was doing it's thing. It stopped doing it a while later, but by that time our internet was down so once again couldn't do it. I used a spare laptop (as I am doing again now) and tried to change my app store password, but it won't let me change it to an all caps password.
On Monday it became more of a problem - it's now constant rather than intermittant. Also, if I leave it for 5 minutes or so the mouse starts to work normally, but as soon as I type the entire problem returns.
Last night I left software updates downloading overnight (internet here is sloooooooow) but this morning someone had unplugged my power cable so I assumed they wouldn't have worked. I tried doing a normal switch on and it went to the grey screen, then when I tired switching it off got a message saying there were updates to install. Only took 5 minutes to install these but when I switched on again I still had exactly the same problem. When I tried holding CMD down the grey screen persisted 4 or 5 times, but then decided to work. So I've got it switched on but still have the problem.
I did a software update again and it says there are still 2 updates which are 1.34GB - which seems weird as yesterday there were 5 updates and it was 1.34GB. I can't try downloading these during the day, would have to leave it overnight again.
I'm going to try calling Apple from Skype in a couple of hours but just wondered if there's anything else I can try. If they can change my password to all caps I can try reinstalling Lion. This morning we took the key off and cleaned it, but made no difference at all (didn't really expect it to). The only options I've come up with are downloading a key remapping programme to try and disable that shift key, or using an external keyboard - we don't have one here so would have to wait a few weeks for someone to bring one from the UK and I could do with knowing whether this would even work before trying to arrange it.
Could really do with fixing this as I am not making the best first impression at my new job due to being able to do very little work! I'm not planning to return to the UK until at least November and flights would cost more than buying a new laptop - so some kind of solution is needed!
So... any thoughts much appreciated. Sorry for the lengthy explanation! Many thanks in advance.

It should be the simplest of matters to connect an external keyboard -- any USB KB will do -- and see whether it works. If you need to be able to travel with a functional MBP, though, that won't be a very practical workaround.
I don't know whether the Shift key can be remapped successfully. The fact that it's one of two keys that both have the same function may be a complication: you won't want the left Shift key remapped too.
The computer doesn't have to go back to the UK for service -- there may be a closer option, and your warranty is good worldwide.
http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

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Left shift key is stuck down

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Did you double check to make sure you replaced the shift key correctly?

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Due to a water spill my Shift Key is stuck. I was able to enter my password that included lower case letters by using an external (bluetooth) keyboard. This allowed me to start the computer and access the contents but only in Safe Mode because the shift key was stuck. Does anyone know a workaround this until I'm able to have the shift key fixed?
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Liquid damage is very hard to recover from.
Best option is to take the computer to Apple store and see what can they do for you.
Suggestions in this article may or may not work, but at least interesting.
http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/4485/My+shift+key+is+always+on.
Best.

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It appears that my shift key is stuck, everything including numbers is capped, can this be fixed?

Yes since it is on a iMac simply replace the keyboard.

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Drawing Tools Acting As If Shift Key Being Held Down

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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.
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*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

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Did anyone have this problem before?
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No physical damage has been done to this computer, I have not spilled any liquids on it and the keys are definitely not physically stuck (I did pry them off and check to see if there was anything under there).
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Thank you so much!

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
This sounds like a defect and should be handled by warranty. If you have an Apple Store nearby make and appointment and bring it in. If you did not then contact Apple on Monday using the phone number in your manual and call them. They will help you get it taken care of. You are covered by 90 days of phone support so take advantage of it!
Regards,
Roger

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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/

Left shift key is stuck after cleaning?

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cjk

Did you double check to make sure you replaced the shift key correctly?

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Beeps can be an indication there's a problem with the RAM (memory)
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Spill has caused right shift key to be stuck on

A few months ago I spilled juice on my MBP keyboard (out of warranty - purchased June 2012). I removed all the keys effected and cleaned them. The result of this was that the right shift key was stuck on and it would only start in safe mode + I couldn't log in because I could only type in caps. This is what I did:
I plugged in a usb keyboard - was able to log in
I downloaded keyremapper4mac and disabled the right shift key so I could type in NOT CAPS
Switched to automatic login so I wouldn't be prompted to enter my password anymore
Removed the usb keyboard
Again, MBP would only start in safe mode. Then I found out that the key remapper would only work when the computer wasn't in safe mode. I did some googling and found a key combination that would stop the MBP from starting in safe mode. I have left my computer on for awhile now (not shutting it down) and yesterday I shut it down. I started it up holding down the cmd/shift and my login screen came up.
My problem is that I think I may have forgotten the key combination to bypass the safe mode boot up and I don't know why my login screen came up - maybe because of the key combo I used temporarily turned off the automatic login.
Does anyone know the combination of keys to press to get past the safe boot so my computer will start up normally? I am running 10.7.5.
Thanks!!

Someone else said to try and reboot by holding down the menu and play button on the remote for several seconds and then try again. It worked for several people and seems to be working for me now.

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!

Stuck Shift Key (Help!!)

I needsome help!
I've been having a LOT of problems with my MacBook Unibody late 2008 with Lion installed. The shift key is stuck. At first I thought it was a bug and restored everything from a timemachine backup. Nothing changed. The computer refuses to stay in sleep mode and everything is just weird and wonky. I tried to find similar cases but I have found nothing yet that could help me with this.
Has this happened to anyone else with lion?
And I haven’t dropped any liquids on the keyboard. I’ve also checked under both shift keys to see if there was something (dirt or whatnot) under them, I couldnot see anything. It was clean.

I did test with a spare keyboard, and it performed the same way: does not work for my user account, is fine for the test account I set up as an additional log-in.
I also did this to try and solve my issue, but still nothin':
- ran OnyX AND Cache Cleaner
- ran & configured PrefEdit
- ran AppleJack twice, once on AUTO for deep cleaning (in single-user mode, of course...)
- ran MacJanitor
- tried again to re-set my system prefs
- reset PRAM again
Sigh.
All I want is to be able to type capital letters in Mail & Safari. Seems like I'm asking for too much!
Sigh again.
Thanks for any other advice or things you think I should try.

Sat SP10-804: XP Home thinks Control Key stuck down (XP SP2)

Satellite SP10-804
XP home as installed plus SP2
Occasionally XP thinks that the Ctrl key is stuck down. So it is impossible to log on, Word wants to start in 'Safe Mode' C is always Ctrl-C etc and the only solution I have found so far is a reboot.
The Ctrl key is not actually stuck down. I have a keyboard utility that indicates when a key (including the ctrl key) is pressed. When this problem is present, the utility does not indicate that the key is pressed.
So something in Windows has got upset. Right now it is a real pain because I have some serious calculations going on that will take another 8 or 9 hours to finish so I cannot reboot the PC.
I rather think I must press a combination of keys accidently to cause this problem to happen but I have no idea which keys. Does anyone know
1) Why this problem occurs
2) How to fix the problem once it has occurred
3) How to stop the problem from recurring
TFAI

Hi
I dont know what you mean with Did reinstall. It is really not be easy to say what the problem can be. Maybe some virus or anything else can have influence on to this.
Unfortunately I have really no answer to this. In my opinion you should back up your data or save all them on second partition if you have one and reinstall the OS using recovery media. Only on this way the unit will be clean preinstalled and you can check if the problem still persists.

When I type on my macbook air I get the symbols I would get if I were holding down the option and shift keys.

I've looked at sticky keys and other stuff like this they don't seem to be the problem. I guess it is possible that both the option and shift keys are stuck at the same time, but they don't seem to be stuck at all.
I tried a restart and that didn't help and I hit the shift key 5 times....
Help

Have you been able to fix this problem? I am having the same issue with my laptop and it seems like each letter in my keyboard performs a shortcut or function rather than typing letters

Shift key is "stuck down"

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