[SOLVED] Caps Lock no longer works after switching system def to iMac 13,2

[therealtomlapp]

My system:
Asus p8z77-v lk
macOS Sierra
32gb ram

Apple Extended Keyboard II connected via Griffin iMate ADB to USB adapter.

Before I was using one of the older Mac Pro system definitions the caps lock on my keyboard worked fine along with the indicator light. Recently after upgrading to Sierra I learned that I should use the iMac 13,2 system definition, which was a better fit to my build. Switching to 13,2 fixed a lot of issues I was having, but it also broke my caps lock. The indicator light doesn't light up, and the actual caps lock function does not work either. Using shift does work, just not caps lock.

Since this is an older keyboard, it actually has the physical locking caps lock key that locks down when on, the whole thing worked before perfectly.

 

[therealtomlapp]

I just did an experiment and found this to be interesting.

This is what I did:
1. Opened System Preferences
2. Clicked on "keyboard"
3. Under the keyboard tab, clicked on the "modifier keys" button.
4. I kept the caps lock key as caps lock, I changed the command key to caps lock.
5. Pressed the command key, the caps lock light lit up. I typed and everything was in caps.
6. Pressed the caps lock key, caps lock turned off, yet it won't turn back on when pressing caps lock.

So with both the caps lock key and command key set to caps lock, you can turn caps lock on and off with the command key, the indicator light works as well. You can turn caps lock off by pressing caps lock (this works no matter if you have the caps lock key up or already locked down).

So based on the above, the issue is not due to any of the following:
1. Inability to detect if the caps lock key is being pressed.
2. Inability to put the keyboard into caps lock mode.

Just to be safe I already tried identifying the keyboard by clicking "change keyboard type" in the keyboard prefs panel.

 

[RockinKat]

(EDIT)A new version of Karabiner Elements, a keyboard binding customization tool for Mac OS X, appears to be able to fix this problem just in installing it. Also, unlike the work around below, Karabiner Elements doesn't result in unwanted effects which the work around produced.(END EDIT)

*While first off, I do understand that this isn't exactly the same as you... I'm not doing hackintosh stuff or changing model IDs on older Macs... but the problem and the OS version are the same, so maybe it could be a similar fix anyway.*

I ran into this issue with the griffin iMate when I upgraded my mid 2010 Mac Book Pro to macOS Sierra. I love my precious Apple Extended Keyboard II so very much, so discovering that the capslock key didn't work was a bit not cool... this thread with no answer is the first result that comes up on Google... what also comes up is this page.

I was just looking at it and saw the part about Accessibility. It said to check to make sure that "slow keys" was not enabled. Well, it wasn't enabled...

So, I decided to try enabling it and then I went into the options for slow keys and set the acceptance delay to the absolute minimum, which appears to be nothing at all.

End result... my ADB keyboard's caps lock key works with slow keys enabled and at the shortest delay setting. Meanwhile, at the shortest delay setting, I don't see it actually affecting anything else. Some kind of weird. Thought I'd register to share this.

 

[therealtomlapp]

MY MAN!!! Yeah, just typed that with my caps lock key on. Your suggestion fixed the issue! Keyboard works just the same, and now my caps lock works. I cannot thank you enough.

 

[therealtomlapp]

Even the caps lock indicator light works as well. The only issue is if you turn caps lock off and back on again real fast it seems to stay off, but who cares honestly. It works now and my hackintosh is complete.

 

[skelly]

End result... my ADB keyboard's caps lock key works with slow keys enabled and at the shortest delay setting. Meanwhile, at the shortest delay setting, I don't see it actually affecting anything else. Some kind of weird. Thought I'd register to share this.

Thanks for figuring this out! Caps-lock on my AEKII and iMate stopped working when I upgraded to Sierra (I believe, could have happened before that) and it was driving me nuts, I thought the keyboard or iMate were damaged.

 

[RockinKat]

I wouldn't really go so far as to really call this solved. You'll notice that when you go to delete a lot of text by just holding down the delete key that it goes... rather... slow, since one of the things that slow keys does is slow down key repeat. Now, if it were possible to find the files related to such settings and edit them so that it didn't change that.

Anyway, it's probably a device driver bug and what you're looking at is either finding a different way to hook the AEKII that doesn't run into this if the downsides of the workaround become more obnoxious... or just not use capslock. That said, whatever the case, I wouldn't let it go without at least submitting details of the issue (that Sierra has broken the capslock key on your third party keyboard) to the black hole that is http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html .

 

[therealtomlapp]

I wouldn't really go so far as to really call this solved. You'll notice that when you go to delete a lot of text by just holding down the delete key that it goes... rather... slow, since one of the things that slow keys does is slow down key repeat. Now, if it were possible to find the files related to such settings and edit them so that it didn't change that.

Anyway, it's probably a device driver bug and what you're looking at is either finding a different way to hook the AEKII that doesn't run into this if the downsides of the workaround become more obnoxious... or just not use capslock. That said, whatever the case, I wouldn't let it go without at least submitting details of the issue (that Sierra has broken the capslock key on your third party keyboard) to the black hole that is http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html .

You make a very good point, this is more of a workaround than a solution. I will retag the thread as [workaround] and perhaps the discovery of this workaround will help those who have more advanced knowledge of kexts to pinpoint the issue.

 

[skelly]

I wouldn't really go so far as to really call this solved. You'll notice that when you go to delete a lot of text by just holding down the delete key that it goes... rather... slow, since one of the things that slow keys does is slow down key repeat. Now, if it were possible to find the files related to such settings and edit them so that it didn't change that.

Anyway, it's probably a device driver bug and what you're looking at is either finding a different way to hook the AEKII that doesn't run into this if the downsides of the workaround become more obnoxious... or just not use capslock. That said, whatever the case, I wouldn't let it go without at least submitting details of the issue (that Sierra has broken the capslock key on your third party keyboard) to the black hole that is http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html .

Agreed, the delete issue is really frustrating. At least you've confirmed that the keyboard hardware is not to blame.

 

[RockinKat]

So... I turned off the accessibility feature pretty soon after getting annoyed with the downsides and gave up on having a capslock key.

Well, the other day I bumped the capslock key and the indicator flashed... so I pushed it down AND THEN THERE WAS CAPSLOCK. Anyway... it's still working today for me. Something must have been corrected in an update.

[edit] ok... I always post stuff too soon. It looks like something to do with an update to karabiner elements which I have installed is making it work like it should... quit out of karabiner elements and no more capslock...

But that's ok I guess.... I mean karabiner elements is pretty useful... I've been using it to map the function keys on my AEKII to the functions found on new apple keyboards, like audio control, etc... And it beats using the accessibility work around.