Something very funny going on (virus?)

[missjennyg]

My boyfriend's Mac is acting very strange. I am normally a PC user, so I was not aware that there are very few viruses for OSX. Now that I am, I am even more confused because it seems like a typical Windows virus. It started out with not being able to use the spacebar, if I typed a sentence it was all strung together - the spacebar just stopped working. Now when I press the space bar it types 4 different characters, including a space, but I can't backspace! Only very few of the letters work now. Some don't type anything at all when they are pressed, some type a random character. This happens in Explorer but also in the text program I opened, so I do not think it has to do with Explorer specifically. Unfortunately I don't have another keyboard to test out, but I have no idea why the keyboard would all of a sudden stop working. Nothing has been spilled on it, etc.
The boyfriend said it is "acting funny" but I would have to see it to understand. So... it's not JUST the keyboard but unfortunately I don't know specifically the other symptoms. (Edited to add: One thing I can recall it doing is bringing up the login screen (where you put in your password) which is weird because it's not set to ask for a password at all.)
I downloaded and ran the free anti-virus program Apex and it did not find a virus, but there were tons and tons of lines saying "(random file) could not be accessed because it could not be found" - something along those lines.

Does anyone have any ideas for me?

Thanks in advance.

 

[The Ghost]

My boyfriend's Mac is acting very strange.

Hi:

There currently are no known viruses or malwares affecting OS X Macs. When a keyboard misbehaves as you describe the problem often is with the keyboard itself. I suggest that you buy a cheap keyboard and attach it to the Mac to check things out. You also could perform the standard basic trouble shooting/maintenance procedures (e.g., repairing disk, repairing permissions, running the cron scripts, and updating the prebinding), but I am betting that these procedures will not help.

 

[riccbhard]

Yep chances are it's the keyboard. The keyboard to my imac g3 started acting like this and I borrowed an imac g3 keyboard from the school. I tried it and it works fine. I bought another imac g3 keyboard from ebay and it now works, and returned the one to the school. (They dont use the imacs anymore, even though they have OS X. They just bought all eMacs.)

 

[perfessor101]

I have no idea why the keyboard would all of a sudden stop working. Nothing has been spilled on it, etc.

Assuming no new software was installed on the computer shortly before this began happening, I would have to go along with the bad keyboard at least as a place to start looking. Having worn out 4 PC keyboards and 1 or 2 Mac keyboards I can attest to the fact keyboards do wear out. You should be able to borrow a USB keyboard to test this. Even a USB keyboard for a PC will work although there might be some minor key mapping issues.

From time to time, software has been known to cause keyboard problems too. Any software for USB devices such as mouse, printer, or scanner drivers would be suspect. Strangely enough some elements of Norton AntiVirus have also been known to cause keyboard glitchs. You can start by looking in /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor to see what processes are running in the system. You can even terminate processes from there to see if the problem goes away. Any process owned by the user can be terminated without causing any problems. You need to know what a process owned by root actually is before terminating it. That can bring the system down.