Hey Esther, Barry was right and having mouse keys on without realizing it really did cause the problem. What is really interesting is that upon first booting the machine, I could log into my account and the mouse keys of course were on, so sure enough things behaved oddly or as they should. Now what is curious is if I logged out, I couldn't login using the MBP's keyboard, only the external keyboard and just as true once I logged into the test account after logging out of my own account, the mouse keys appeared to be on. I have some testing to do, but it seems that if a user logs out, the universal settings should not persist.
Thanks, On Aug 6, 2009, at 4:40 PM, Esther wrote: > > Hi Scott, > > Barry's explanation that you might have mouse keys turned on seems > plausible. I tried an experiment where I connected an external > keyboard to the USB port of my MacBook and pressed the ALT/Option key > 5 times. That had the weird side effect of enabling mouse keys on my > laptop keyboard, but still allowing me to type as usual through the > attached external keyboard. I could disable mouse keys mode by > pressing the ALT/Option key 5 times quickly on the external keyboard, > or by pressing the option key on my MacBook keyboard 5 times quickly > in succession. You could try going to System Preferences and checking > the box for "Show Universal Access status in the menu bar" on any of > the Universal Access menu tabs. Then you're always able to go to the > status menu bar (with either Control-F8 or VO-M twice), right arrow to > the Universal Access menu, and arrow down to read the status of > Universal Access features or open the Universal Access Preferences > from this menu. I know that you don't need this to tell you that > VoiceOver is turned on, but if you've ever configured a Mac for a low- > vision user or someone who needs to use sticky keys this menu is great > to have enabled. Not only can you tell whether an accessibility > feature is turned on, but you can easily get to the Universal Access > menu to modify its settings from this menu. > > If having mouse keys turned on is not the reason for your inability to > use the regular keys on your MBP keyboard when logged into your > account, then the most likely explanation is that one of the > preference files under your individual user account is corrupted. > That would explain why things work when you are in the test user > account but not in your own account. I don't know which plist file is > likely to be the culprit. You could try removing > com.apple.systempreferences.plist under the Library/Preferences folder > for your account. > > HTH > > Cheers, > > Esther > > Barry Hadder wrote: > >> >> Sounds like you have mouse keys turned on. Try hitting the option >> five times. You can also turn them off in universal access/mouse and >> trackpad. >> >> Sorry if you've all ready tried this, but that's sure what it sounds >> like so I decided to mention it in case you haven't. >> > >> Scott Howell wrote: >> >>> >>> All, I posted this to another list and must have stumped the >>> geniuses. First let me explain my setup. I have one of the new >>> MacBook Pro 15-inch models. I generally use an external keyboard >>> since I don't always need my machine for portable purposes. The >>> other >>> day I tried using the MBP's keyboard and and realized that all of >>> the >>> letters, numbers, spacebar, and caps lock keys do not work. Now >>> before you say hardware, it is not hardware related. I have a test >>> account and 9 out of 10 times I can log into this account and >>> everything works as expected. If I log into my own account first, >>> then >>> I can't use the MBP's keyboard to log into any other account. Now >>> the >>> weird part is the external keyboard works perfectly and is not >>> affected by whatever the hell is going on. I tried an archive and >>> install with no success, I have booted from another Leopard disk and >>> it works fine, I even just did the upgrade to 10.5.8, and this had >>> no >>> affect on my issue. I believe there is some software that is >>> causing >>> the problem, but I have not located anything that has not already >>> been >>> there and this is a new issue. If anyone has any thoughts, it would >>> be appreciated. I only installed an upgrade to Dragon Burn and a >>> trial of Cocktail, which I removed, but do not believe this is the >>> issue. I also did install a copy of ABBYY FineReader and I could >>> certainly remove from my system, but again, I don't think this is >>> the >>> problem. There is something being loaded when I log into the system >>> and seems to have an impact system-wide in that I have to login >>> first. I could easily rebuild the system, but would prefer to avoid >>> doing this if at all possible or I'm going to have to run out and >>> find >>> a firewire 800 drive. Migrating all of my data would be such a >>> painful process since it would take quite a while. :) >>> >>> THanks, >>> >>>> >> >> >>> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
