Hi

For some while now I've been getting weird thing happening when trying to type when using Safari, like in forums and forms for example....

It can be okay for a short while, but if I tab to the next box, it jumps to the url box, or if I backspace to delete text after 2 or three characters it will act as a 'back' button and go to the previous page...

If I use 'space' while typing it will scroll down, and sometimes if I've deleted text by selecting a chunk and deleting, when I start to type, it's in reverse (ie the letters appear BEFORE the next)....

I also noticed similar things happening in Text Edit - double spaces when pressing space once, not being able to backspace to delete, it freezing....

Has anyone else encountered any such issues? I'd have hoped that new versions of Safari might have helped, but no joy... I was advised to get an older Text Edit and replace mine - which didn't really work...

I have in the time since this has been happening re-installed my OS (for a separate problem) but it didn't fix it.

Would anyone have any ideas? Should I try ditching Safari completely (all files) and re-install? Or does it sound like the problem is deeper in the OS as it affects TE too?

Running things like Onyx haven't solved it. Even our local Mac fixer guy who came to the office the other day had never seen anything like it... he suggested moving all caches/plists and starting up again, but that made no difference.

It's a bit annoying as I really like Safari, but I'm being forced into other browsers!

Any help would be VERY gratefully received!! I posted this same message on the MacFormat forum, but no joy there...

Thanks!

Ben

Oh - I'm pretty certain it's not the keyboard, as all other apps are completely normal....

The Safari thing is normal keyboard actions when browsing a web page.

Obviously they shouldn't happen if you are focused on a text box though.

Do you have the mouse pad set so that you just need to touch it in order to click the moue? I find that if this is on and you are typing then you thumb or the palm of your hand can touch the mouse pad and take focus outside of the test box and then space will scroll down a page or backspace will go back in the browser history.

Check the mouse preferences.

Not sure about the other stuff.

HTH

Thanks for that, but I'm not using a MAcBook here - it's doing the weird thing as I type now - the screen constantly scrolling up and down while I type! Very weird and irritating!

This does sound a bit like a fault with the keyboard rather than a software issue, if only it was system wide.
Peculiar.
Might be worth swapping keyboards anyway just to check.
If it's persisting after a system reinstall, then I can only suppose it's a hardware fault.

Have just tried a new keyboard and it did the same...

I think a re-install might be wise as I also have Photoshop issues (ie no files open in it) AND my Suitcase can take around 20 minutes to initialize sometimes...

I have a poorly Mac I think....

Yeah, try a fresh install and see if it persists. If it does, then I'd imagine a trip to the service desk at your nearest Apple store might be in order.

There was a firmware update to the aluminium keyboards rolled into the 10.5.7 update recently.

It might be worth making sure Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update.app appears in your ~/Applications/Utilities folder. It only needs to run once at boot time, but seems to lurk in the Utilities folder for the chance to install itself on new keyboards should the need arise.

I don't have one of the new keyboards here - I'm using the older white ones. I just tried ditching Safari completely with AppZapper and re-installing to see if that helped, but no joy....

I'm awaiting a service call over the Photoshop issue, so I'll ask their advice... they might suggest a fresh install too. It's just going to be a real hassle to start over!

Thanks for your help guys... I had hoped someone might have known of a deep rooted file to hunt out which might have been the cause, but nevermind!

Mac service guys suggested using a test user account... which works... and fixes the Photoshop issue too....

I think they're going to send someone out to look at it as they'll need to delve in to sort it.

I'd hoped i could have fixed it myself, but nevermind!

Thanks for you help!

Just a test post after having a system re-install.... all looking good so far....

No scrolling or jumping back from backspace....

Darn... it went wrong again.

Mac fixers coming back to rebuild.... seems like a hardware fault.

For anyone who might be interested in the outcome of this, it seems like my user account became corrupt - so if anyne else gets the same problem, that might be the cause.

Glad you're sorted though. Curious problem with a simple-ish solution.

I was in England all week, without Internet...

The first thing I thought of was a corrupt user account. I'm surprised none of the others cottoned onto that, I know that Prof and Heather have suggested that in the past.

Anyway, glad it is sorted.