mlab2@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (11/30/90)
Get this... Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Shift key is down. KeyCaps will confirm this. But IT'S NOT DOWN. Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Option key is down. It's not, but KeyCaps agrees. Reboot? Often this fixes the problem. ? ? Why? Swap keyboards? Often this doesn't help. An earlier post reported a problem with the Mac suddenly thinking the Command key is down. Am I an alarmist or is an undiscovered virus? I don't know? More craziness. It's happening on SE's and an old Mac II. It has happened occasionally (at random) on the II for over a year now. Both the II and the SE have gone through several systems updates (currently 6.05). The II has had several hard drive flushings over the past year. None of this has made a difference. And more craziness. It appears random and application independent. Finder, Hypercard, Word, PageMaker, etc. Furthermore, it has suddenly occured with greater frequency of late. On the Mac II it goes through phases. My personal theories have revolved around static electricity, or a bizarre unknown virus. We've had WDEF (and nVIR and MDEF and Scores) at the computer lab where I work, but Disinfectant 2.3 shows nothing. Could one of these known virus' have caused damage more far reaching than the virus killers now know? Could WDEF affect more than simply the Desktop? Is this hardware, or software related? Are there Assembly globals responsible for the modifier keys, and could this bizarre bug cause the global to lock on a modifier-on? Am I crazy? john calhoun
wheeler@bwdls58.UUCP (Cheryl Wheeler) (11/30/90)
In article <27156.275546dd@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, mlab2@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: > Get this... > > Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Shift key is down. KeyCaps will confirm this. > But IT'S NOT DOWN. > > Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Option key is down. It's not, but KeyCaps agrees. Sounds like you have Easy Access installed without realizing it. When you press the shift key 5 times in a row without moving the mouse, you get the effect of the shift key being held down. Additional presses bring in other modifiers and combinations thereof. Note the interesting symbols in the upper right corner of your screen on the menu bar. Check out your system software documentation for details. > > Am I crazy? Could be -- but who am I to judge? > > john calhoun Cheryl Wheeler -- **************************************************************************** BITNET: wheeler@bnr.ca
murphy@hao.hao.ucar.edu (Graham Murphy) (11/30/90)
In article <4996@bwdls58.UUCP> wheeler@bwdls58.UUCP (Cheryl Wheeler) writes: >In article <27156.275546dd@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, mlab2@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: >> Get this... >> >> Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Shift key is down. KeyCaps will confirm this. >> But IT'S NOT DOWN. >> >> Suddenly, the Mac thinks the Option key is down. It's not, but KeyCaps agrees. > >Sounds like you have Easy Access installed without realizing it. When you Alternatively, if you _don't_ have Easy Access installed, you might have the same problem with static electricity that I have. The Colorado climate with 30% humidity causes chaos with my keyboard---particularly at this time of the year. It's driving me sufficiently crazy that I'm buying an anti-static mat in the hope of reducing the problem. Symptoms: after moving my feet on the carpet too much, or returning to the desk, or playing with my dog, I suddenly find one or more of the modifier keys appear down, i.e. caps-lock, shift, control, option. (It's really fun to get close to the keyboard and watch the caps lock come on without touching the keyboard :-( This effect can occur when I'm as far away as 30cm (12in) from the keyboard. Cures: nothing obvious. I wrote a routine that sits in the background and detects the condition. When it finds it, the ADB is clobbered with an ADBreinit, which generally clears the problem. However the option key is often stickier. This requires one of those nasty solutions you should never use: disconnecting and reconnecting the keyboard---forcing a power-up reset of the ADB. This occasionally can (a) crash the machine or (b) and more common, freeze the mouse. Usually the frozen mouse is cleared with the routine mentioned before, so I'm not forced to continually reboot the machine. Does this sound familiar? For your sake, I hope not :-) Graham Murphy High Altitude Observatory National Center for Atmospheric Research P.O. Box 3000, Boulder CO 80307-3000. Ph:(303)497-1565; Fax:(303)497-1137. INTERNET: murphy@hao.UCAR.EDU; Solar PO: GMurphy@SOLAR