Keyboard connection lost.

[John Varela]

Once in a while the trackball or the keyboard loses its connection to the computer. The situation is corrected by unplugging the USB connector (the trackball from the keyboard or the keyboard from the iMac) and reinserting it.

Here is the System Log from the most recent loss of keyboard:

Nov 16 16:32:35 His kernel[0]: Hub in Apple Extended USB Keyboard:
family specific matching fails
Nov 16 16:32:35: --- last message repeated 14 times ---
Nov 16 16:32:35 His kernel[0]: Apple Extended USB Keyboard: family
specific matching fails
Nov 16 16:32:35: --- last message repeated 14 times ---
Nov 16 16:32:35 His kernel[0]: IOUSBInterface: family specific matching
fails
Nov 16 16:32:35: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Nov 16 16:32:35 His kernel[0]: Trackball: family specific matching
fails
Nov 16 16:32:35: --- last message repeated 14 times ---
Nov 16 16:32:35 His kernel[0]: IOUSBInterface: family specific matching
fails
Nov 16 16:32:40 His authorizationhost[319]: MechanismInvoke 0x118160
retainCount 2
Nov 16 16:32:40 His SecurityAgent[320]: MechanismInvoke 0x101660
retainCount 1
Nov 16 16:32:40 His SecurityAgent[320]: NSSecureTextFieldCell detected
a field editor ((null)) that is not a NSTextView subclass designed to
work with the cell. Ignoring...
Nov 16 16:32:41 His SecurityAgent[320]: MechanismDestroy 0x101660
retainCount 1
Nov 16 16:32:41 His authorizationhost[319]: MechanismDestroy 0x118160
retainCount 2
Nov 16 16:32:41 His
/System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow[
322]: Login Window Application Started
Nov 16 16:32:45 His loginwindow[322]: Login Window Started Security
Agent
Nov 16 16:32:46 His authorizationhost[330]: MechanismInvoke 0x128ab0
retainCount 2
Nov 16 16:32:46 His SecurityAgent[331]: MechanismInvoke 0x1015f0
retainCount 1
Nov 16 16:32:46 His SecurityAgent[331]: MechanismDestroy 0x1015f0
retainCount 1
Nov 16 16:32:46 His loginwindow[322]: Login Window - Returned from
Security Agent
Nov 16 16:32:46 His authorizationhost[330]: MechanismDestroy 0x128ab0
retainCount 2
Nov 16 16:32:46 His loginwindow[322]: USER_PROCESS: 322 console
Nov 16 16:32:47 His com.apple.launchd[1]
(com.apple.launchctl.LoginWindow[326]): Bug: launchd_core_logic.c:2148
(23646):17: runtime_add_mport(j->mgr->jm_port, protocol_vproc_server,
mxmsgsz) == KERN_SUCCESS

Note I had to restore connectivity before accessing this log, because without a keyboard I couldn't enter a password to open an admin account.

The track ball is a Logitech "Trackman Wheel", with Logitech Control Center v. 2.1.1.

Mac OS X 10.5.5, iMac 17 inch Intel, 2 GB RAM.

 

[John Varela]

Update:

After writing the above, I tried various things. The last thing I tried was swapping keyboards between my Intel iMac and my wife's G5 iMac, to see if the problem traveled with the keyboard or remained with my machine. (I was kind of hoping this would be my excuse to buy one of those new Apple keyboards that everyone's raving about.)

Several weeks have passed and *neither* of us has had a problem. So it appears to be something unique to the combination of that particular keyboard and this particular computer.

If the problem continues to be absent for a full month, I'll swap the keyboards back just to see if the problem recurs.

 

[PaulOsb]

My wireless iMac keboard lost connection twice or three times in one year. After reading many forums on internet, the last time I fixed it, just 3-4 days ago, what I did was the following: a) I delete all the bluetooth plist files (Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist) ; b) I reset the keyboard to factory mode (shift+option+ bluetooth sign at the same time); c) I ran MacCleanse programme and I deleted the plist file that I appeared while running that programme. Since then my keyboard works. Just in case it may work to someone. I became crazy trying to solve it and was thinking of buying a cable keyboard, but here it is!! Saludos!!

 

[John Varela]

Thank you for the response, but I think you didn't notice that the message you are responding to was posted in December of 2008.