Panther keyboard bug on PowerBook

[jargrove]

Installed Panther on 15" PowerBook Titanium (Upgrade from 10.2.8). Everything seemed fine until the Setup Assistant came up. The lower case 'a' key does not function. Quit the Setup Assistant. tried Terminal, Text Edit, same problem. Upper case 'A', command-a, option-a, etc. all work fine.

The 'a' key does work in the login screen as well as in OS 9.2.2. I reinstalled 10.3 all over again with no luck.

Am I alone or has anyone else experienced this (or similar) problem.

System Profile Details:
PowerBook3,5
1GHz G4
1GB mem
Boot ROM 4.53f2

BTW: I'm composing this on my old G4 dual 500, it upgraded just fine.

 

[bobw]

I'm having a similiar problem with a G4/400MHz powerbook with the "c" key. It works, but has to be held down, then you get a few cc's before you n let it go.
Wiped the drive and installed Panther fresh.
On my G4 desktop, wiped and installed fresh and no problems.

 

[jargrove]

Found a thread on MacFixIt with same problem. I disabled ALL of my start up items and after logging off and back on the 'a' works again. It may have been Synergy or Palm Transport monitor.

 

[applewhore]

Found a thread on MacFixIt with same problem. I disabled ALL of my start up items and after logging off and back on the 'a' works again. It may have been Synergy or Palm Transport monitor.

Just checked on the synergy website (I used it under 10.2.8, along with lots of other shareware) but didn't want to install until everything was "sorted" for Panther...

Found this under the revision notes for 1.0.a :

Change history

1.0a (2 September 2003)

[Note] This build is labelled as 1.0a to indicate its "alpha" status, meaning that it is mostly a bugfix release intended for compatibility improvements with Panther, and it is not yet feature-complete. The next release, 1.0b, will be feature-complete (the two major features still to be completed are the ability to transfer album art back to iTunes, and preferences for displaying the Global Menu as a separate item, or not at all).

[Bugfix] Resolved problem with Synergy stealing the "A" key in Panther.


Looks like this would have been the problem...

Had you updated your Synergy software? Were you running this latest version? Or was the "bugfix" he describes actually still a bug for you?!

I don't want to install Synergy again if it's going to have to be disabled! (obviously...)

 

[jargrove]

I was running Synergy 0.9.9i2. I downloaded 1.0a and reinstalled. Everything seems fine now, I'm listening to iTunes with Synergy and as you can see in this Post, the 'a' is working now.

 

[applewhore]

I was running Synergy 0.9.9i2. I downloaded 1.0a and reinstalled. Everything seems fine now, I'm listening to iTunes with Synergy and as you can see in this Post, the 'a' is working now.

cool - synergy can come back on board!