Physical keyboard problems preventing login on Mac

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Charwinger21

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Jan 3, 2014
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Hey, so my girlfriend has a mac (I think it is the air), and today her "m" key stopped working.

Unfortunately her password has an "m" in it, and it is preventing her from logging in.

I would take a look at it in person, however she is currently out of town, and all I can provide is over the phone support.

I'm wondering if there are any ways to fix the key, temporarily switch keyboard layouts (as you can do in most other OSes that I have used), enter the "m" key through the mac equivalent of alt codes (do they have one?), or if there were any other fixes that I haven't thought of.

I know the easiest would be to plug in an external keyboard, but that is a fairly temporary solution, and I don't know if she has access to one.

Thank you very much for the help.
 

Charwinger21

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Jan 3, 2014
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No, I'm not asking for password cracking help at all.

She knows the password, one of the keys used in the password just isn't working (specifically the "m" key).

I'm just trying to figure out how to help her enter that one letter that isn't working (along with the rest of her password), so that she can log in.

I can't diagnose the problem myself, but she believes her "m" key is broken (it's probably just dirt preventing it from working or something like that).
 

g-unit1111

Titan
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Huh this is a new one, you might want to take your laptop to the nearest Apple store and have them diagnose the problem, it sounds like your keyboard driver got screwed up or remapped.
 

Charwinger21

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Jan 3, 2014
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I'll suggest it to her as soon as she gets back, however she is currently out of the country.

I'm just trying to find a quick fix for her.

If it was on a Windows computer I would just switch to a different keyboard layout to enter the "m" (likely an AZERTY layout) and then switch back once done, or enter the alt code (ALT+77 or ALT+109), however I'm not sure how to do either of those on a mac, and she isn't either.

If anyone knows how to do either of those, the information would be greatly appreciated.

I've been googling with no results.

.

Honestly, I'm inclined to believe that it is a hardware failure, not a software failure.

I've seen individual keys fail many times due to hardware failures (especially with scissor-switch keyboards), however I've never seen an individual key become deprogrammed by accident.
 
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