Great Keyboard Mystery

pantosj

pantosj

Registered
Okay, here's one for the books. My wife's Japanese iBook had a video card failure a few months ago and we had to send it to Apple for a free repair. When the iBook came back, the keyboard did not work as it once did. Somehow, the computer thought it had a Western-style keyboard arrangement--a different key arrangement from the actual Japanese arrangement on her iBook. For example, when you pushed SHIFT-2, you got the @ sign, just like on my Western keyboard on my iMac. But on her computer, the symbol above the 2-key is the quote-sign, not @.

We called Apple about it and they worked on it for weeks. No, it wasn't the international settings in the System Prefs. No, it wasn't the PRAM, we tried resetting that. No, it wasn't even OSX. We even clean installed OSX using the original Japanese OSX disk that came with the computer. Nothing worked and we just gave up.

Then, today, her computer froze and we couldn't force it off by holding the power button down. So, I opened up the battery case and forced the machine to turn off that way. When it rebooted, my wife announced with shock: "the keyboard works right!"

Go figure.
 
Ok, the Mac was purchesed from Japan, I take it you had it repaired in europe or the US.

Please note that OS install Disks in Asian countrys are not the same as ours....Sonds like your Mac was wipped and installed with a western OS Disc.

If you have the Japanese Disc that came with the Mac reinstall using that disk. If this fails, then the Logic board they have installled is the wrong one, under Apples tech net Asian boards differ sightly, the apple code number would end with a /00XX number. This board would have to be orderd from the East.. Don't let let anyone tell you that all Macs are the same hardware around the world, they are not...

Try the wipe and install with the Japanies Disk, If this fails take it back to the Apple store, reject the repair.
 
You're right, the computer was purchased in Japan. And when we tried reinstalling the Japanese OS, it still didn't work.

One tech thought that the wrong logic board (an American one) had been re-installed, but he was overruled. My suspicion at the time was he was right but Apple didn't want to go find a Japanese board.

Anyway, like I said, nothing worked, until we disconnected the battery to force quit the computer. Suddenly, the Japanese configuration had been fixed when we restarted.

So...maybe it wasn't the logic board...
 
You may have found a work-around, I won't say its fixed, you may have issues with apps...I still think the wrong board was installed, also you may find "strange things" start to happen...If the other Tech ( I am a Apple engineer) has stated the same then....

Modem. Asian modems are not the same, that is a fact. ( depending on which IBook)

Video. Asian video cards, the drivers are modified to display the type set correctly.

If your happy with it, use it. But don't forget that the IBook cannot be rejected after 14 days...

All the Best

Trooper
 
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