[bamakodaker]

Hello,

Doesnt seem to matter what program I am typing in when these problems pop up. Right now I cant use the apostophe to go between the N and T in cant. I cant delete. I found a space between words in something already typed, copied it and have to paste it every time in between words. Mac G4 PowerBook, OS 10.4.11. Can not find connection to programs open or not. Probs in diff browsers and diff programs - even when typing in PhotoShop or PhotoMechanic. Sometimes I can sit and hold the Delete or Space Bar and it will finally clear up. Without doing anything sometimes it will clear up. Doesnt matter if puter on long or just turned on.

Any thoughts on what to check or what to do will be appreciated.

bamakodaker

************
I am reaching for anything so I will throw this out. Great, right now it's typing clear! Minutes earlier it wasn't. I have not closed anything or changed anything. When I first got back to my computer I went to Activity Monitor - great, justwentbacktonotworkingright! In Activity Monitor I Forced Quit 'kernal task' and was able (now it's working again!) to get (and now its not!) to type info in a field in PhotoMechanic. It soon acted up again, I tried force quit on kernal task and it made no difference.

kernal task - messages rcvd - 106,342,637 Threads - 47 Ports - 2 Real Memory - 115.86 MB Virtual Memory - 1.03GB
Safari - 2,345,252 - 11 - 271 - 146.99 MB - 963.14MB
PhotoShop - 107,179 - 2 - 91 - 167.88 - 437.57
Photo Mechanic - 102.508 - 9 - 247 - 73.14 - 315.38
WindowServer - 2,011,323 - 2 - 287 - 42.14 - 243.86
Activity Monitor (these all low)
PolicyKey
pmTool
configd - 1,773,852 - 3 - 186 - 1.96 - 29.23

CPU usage - threads - 209 processes - 64 % User - 5 to 18 % % idle - 67 to 92%
System Memory - wired-138.74mb Active-715.36mb Inactive-582.52 Used-1.4gb Free-99.37mb VM size-7.24 Page in/outs 46326/775 and I think Total Memory is 1.50GB
Disk Activity - Read ins-51257 Writes out -67902 Data read-1.14gb Data written-1.38gb
Disk Usage - Space utilized (it's working again) 71.06GB Space free - 3.34GB
Network (stopped working) Packets in - 127,264 Packets out - 61,295 Data Rcvd -112.13MB Data sent - 10.18MB

Took me probably 30 minutes to get this last section typed so understand how DESPERATE I am!
HHHEEELLLPPP
* * * * * * *
Well, I get no response here so I try things and post here to see if anyone thinks maybe I am doing something right!
I have cleared up some space and now have 7.9GB free space but continue to have same issues.
bama

Edited by bamakodaker, 01 February 2010 - 08:37 PM.

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This sounds to me like a problem with the physical keyboard, probably a bad or intermittent connection on one of the contacts for the ribbon cable.

What I'd do (with the power off) is lift the keyboard out and check the state of the connections at the end of the ribbon cable. (There should be illustrated how-tos for this on the Web). Make sure the metal traces are clean and undamaged on both sides at the 'connector' end. You might want to wet the end of the ribbon... while disconnected and safely away from the innards of the computer!... with a little contact cleaner like LPS. Be sure there aren't any checks, breaks, folds, delaminations, etc. in the ribbon-cable conductors going up to the keyboard.

Note that certain keys will be affected for each line coming off the ribbon cable. An Apple tech can tell you exactly which keys would 'go' at the same time (cf. your 'no apostrophe, no delete, no space, but clears up spoontaneously OR when an affected key is held down sustainedly -- perhaps passing current long enough to break down oxide coating?). This information would tell you where to look more carefully.

Cheap approach might be to swap in a known-good keyboard and see if that fixes it, but truth to tell the 'answer' could be a lot more simple. Just get a USB keyboard you like and plug it in! You can easily use two keyboards in parallel (as long as you don't type on both at the same time) and disconnecting is just about as easy... just to be on the safe side, make sure your chosen keyboard is Mac-compatible (most wired ones are).

[RME]

This sounds to me like a problem with the physical keyboard, probably a bad or intermittent connection on one of the contacts for the ribbon cable.

What I'd do (with the power off) is lift the keyboard out and check the state of the connections at the end of the ribbon cable. (There should be illustrated how-tos for this on the Web). Make sure the metal traces are clean and undamaged on both sides at the 'connector' end. You might want to wet the end of the ribbon... while disconnected and safely away from the innards of the computer!... with a little contact cleaner like LPS. Be sure there aren't any checks, breaks, folds, delaminations, etc. in the ribbon-cable conductors going up to the keyboard.

Note that certain keys will be affected for each line coming off the ribbon cable. An Apple tech can tell you exactly which keys would 'go' at the same time (cf. your 'no apostrophe, no delete, no space, but clears up spoontaneously OR when an affected key is held down sustainedly -- perhaps passing current long enough to break down oxide coating?). This information would tell you where to look more carefully.

Cheap approach might be to swap in a known-good keyboard and see if that fixes it, but truth to tell the 'answer' could be a lot more simple. Just get a USB keyboard you like and plug it in! You can easily use two keyboards in parallel (as long as you don't type on both at the same time) and disconnecting is just about as easy... just to be on the safe side, make sure your chosen keyboard is Mac-compatible (most wired ones are).

[bamakodaker]

Hello,

To be honest I put this problem in some other site, on a Mac site also. Seems I really stumped people. No one got it right. Well, someone kinda did. They pointed out that OS X needs about 10gb free for it to function good. The suggestion was to clear off some space on the hard drive. I cleared 12gb free. It was better, but still quirky. Several days later, early in the morning, my mind stumbled over to that computer problem. I wasn't really paying attention when something caught me - the computer is straining because it doesn't have enough memory. MEMORY, not HD space! Isn't that Computing 101? No one asked the simple questions! You know, the ones the IT folk ask when you have problems - have you restarted your computer lately, unplug and replug all connecting cables - and are you sure you're not using up all your RAM? I checked my desktop - whoooaa! A couple of recently downloaded programs were there, several PDF's, large jpegs . . . I started putting everything away and if they needed to be VERY visible I gave them aliases and put those on the desktop. Restarted computer - no more problems!

Remember, only put aliases on your desktop. The desktop uses your RAM so keep the desktop clean or with only aliases!

Safe computing!

bamakodaker

[bolser]

thanks for info..