[comp.sys.mac.hardware] Bad Keyboards in a Lab Environment

adishian@dorm.rutgers.edu (Aram Adishian) (02/01/91)

	Here at Rutgers, we have general access Macintosh labs that
see a high number of users.  However, we have noticed we are getting a
much higher than normal failure rate on our Apple Standard Keyboards
recently.  The purpose of this post is two-fold, first to see if
anyone else is having this high failure rate, the other to see if
anyone has any advice.

	The problem's symptoms are just that the keyboard will stop
working.  The mouse which is run out the keyboard will sometimes
freeze up when this happens, but sometimes continue working.
Sometimes swtiching which port in the back of the Mac  is being used will
cure this, or normal fiddling with the cables where they enter the
port on the keyboard will fix the problem for a while. Our repair
people have replaced ports, swapped motherboards in the keyboards,
sometimes sucessfully, other times not. 
 
	Is this normal wear and tear?  Could someone offer some
insight into what is going on with the keyboard and why the problem
does not seem to have one good cure or in the case of the attached
mouse, one good symptom.

advTHANKSance,

Aram Adishian
adishian@dorm.rutgers.edu

sandro@dm.unibo.it (Alessandro Amoroso) (02/05/91)

Referring to the Aram Adishian posting we report the same kind of
problem.
Here in Bologna we have a large number of Macs SE in public access
student laboratories.

Symptoms:
     o randomly keyboards and mouses freeze.
     o it is generally useless:
           o to change keyboard and/or mouse
           o rebooting the mac
           o rebooting from another different system disk (we use 6.0.5)
     o sometime the problem disappear without apparent reasons.

Is it possible that this is a new kind of virus, or is it simply an hardware
problem?
                                                       
						       
						       Alessandro Amoroso
     Universita' di Bologna, Corso di Laurea in Scienze dell'Informazione
                      Piazza di Porta S. Donato 5;  40127 Bologna (ITALY)
     E-mail: sandro@dm.unibo.it   Tel: +39 51 354481   Fax: +39 51 354490
-- 

                                                       Alessandro Amoroso
     Universita' di Bologna, Corso di Laurea in Scienze dell'Informazione
                      Piazza di Porta S. Donato 5;  40127 Bologna (ITALY)