All Boot Keyboard Commands Not Working

Richard Swallow

Richard Swallow

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My iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) running OS X 10.11.5 will not start up in Recovery Mode, Safe Mode or any other mode using keyboard commands on restart. Nor can I reset the PRAM etc. The Recovery HD is there (disk0s3 650mb) but it does not show in System Preference>StartUp Disk. I figured I'd reinstall OS X so made an El Capitan boot flash drive but even though it mounts on the desktop it doesn't boot from it when I hold down the option key at restart and it also doesn't show in in System Preferences as a boot option. I can't even boot to Internet Recovery. For all startup commands the Mac boots as normal to the login screen. Please help!
 
Is it a wireless keyboard? Have you tried putting fresh batteries in it?
 
Hi Cheryl thanks for the reply. It is a wireless keyboard but they are new batteries...this has me totally stumped. I've rinsed the internet for information on this but to no avail. I'll happily reinstall OSX but I need to be able to boot from the El Cap install USB but can't find a way to make my iMac do that without any of the keyboard commands working. That and the fact I can't see Recovery HD as a boot option in System Preferences. Kind of stuck here.
 
Try this: With the El Cap install USB in a port on the machine (not the keyboard or hub) go to System Preferences>Startup Disk.
From there the install USB should show. Select it, then click on restart.
 
Thanks Cheryl but nope doesn't work either! The USB (which I created using the installer from the App Store and createinstallmedia) is in the USB at the back of the mac yet is not showing as a startup disk in system preferences, same as the Recovery HD. Yet the USB is mounted on the desktop and when I go to About This Mac>System Report it shows as an available drive, same as the Recovery HD. Like I said, weird and frustrating.
 
I should point out that a 2009 iMac is too old to boot to Internet Recovery.

Assuming that your "wireless keyboard" is an Apple keyboard, your bluetooth may (for unknown reasons) not be seeing the wireless keyboard at all for booting.
Or, maybe your wireless is NOT an Apple-brand keyboard (?)

In any event, try a different keyboard.
Do you have a wired USB keyboard (or can you borrow one) so you can try that?
 
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Hi DeltaMac that did it thank you! My wireless keyboard is a Mac one but I used a USB pc keyboard and now all the boot commands work. The wireless keyboard has worked fine in the past...how annoying. I can now access the startup menu and recovery HD etc. However when I go to System Preferences>StartUp Disk the Recovery HD is still missing from the available drives as is the plugged in Install USB..? Am I going mad as these should be there right? Not that it matters now the keyboard commands work of course but I like to know why things are the way they are!
 
There are alternative boot choices.
You can insert your USB installer, then restart while holding the C key (no other keys, just C). That will work, but if it does not work for you, then there may be a couple of possibilities:
1. Your iMac might not support that C key for booting to a USB drive. Should work, but might also be a firmware feature that a 2009 iMac doesn't support. Could be related to the same reason that a 2009 Mac can't boot to Internet Recovery.
(I tried that from an even older Mac, and realized that it probably won't work if there is a built-in optical drive. :D )
2. Your USB installer might be incorrectly built. It is an El Capitan installer, so should boot virtually any Mac made in the last 6 or seven years, including new Macs.
So, try to boot from your USB stick on a different Mac. You might find out it won't boot any Mac.

Finally - the recovery system does NOT always show up in Startup Disk. For example, it does not appear in my own El Capitan system Startup Disk pane. But, you can still boot to that by restarting with Command-R, and you would see it as available in the Option-boot screen.
(Your USB windows keyboard probably uses the alt key to show the boot screen, and Windows-R to boot to the Recovery system)
 
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