Chosen Solution
My keyboard on my MacBook keeps typing a Nordic symbol å instead of the letter a. Also, the delete key is deleting whole words instead of just one letter. I cannot get any help from Apple support. This just started out of the blue, I didn’t change anything, I was typing an email and about half way through, all of a sudden I am getting this å everytime I type the letter a. Upgraded to snow leopard, but that didn’t help either. Help! Update (12/04/2013) I have never resolved the issue, and have stopped using the Mac. It appears that this is a hardware issue not a software issue, Sorry I can’t be of anymore help.
Go under the Apple in the upper left and corner to System Preferences > Language and Text and set it to English.
I’ve run into this problem a few time in a school full of iMac computers. Randomly someone can’t logon and the keyboard appears to type some sort of unrecognized characters. I’ve discovered that a simple fix is to merely RUB MY HAND VIGOROUSLY OVER ALL THE KEYS. Voila! Working again. If there was a key that was stuck that I couldn’t see, rubbing over all of them made it work again.
I had the issue today I found that my alt key was stuck ˆ ˙å∂ †˙´ ˆßߨ´ †ø∂å¥ ˆ ƒø¨˜∂ †˙å† µ¥ 嬆 ˚´¥ ∑åß ß†¨ç˚ The 2nd line is what results when holding down alt while typing and that is what I was having issues with. Very strange only occurred on my external keyboard and not the laptop keyboard so I figured I had a setting messed up but to no avail.
It sounds like your “a” key has been remapped to display the symbol it does instead of the “a” you want somehow (via prank, glitch, cosmic event, flying monkeys….). What is the delete key doing? Maybe it’s related, or can be similarly fixed. I found a Mac key mapper here: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12004/d… but since I do not have a Mac, I cannot test it to see if it’ll let you remap your “a” key. Reviews are mixed, proceed at your own risk. Maybe try and find an alternative program if you wish.
i also got problems with this for two days. upon reading your answers guys my problem was solved ;). prior to these weird nordic texts appearing after 30minutes upon boot. all i know ws my left shift key is not functioning so voila yes indeed my shift key was stuck so i have it remapped using karabiner to always ‘increment to brightness’ that’s the only thingi can think of becasuse of you use other like mute it always mute your mac, so thats the best option
I am failed to understand why the customer is built in keyboard of my MacBook types like this ˙å∂ †˙´ ˆßߨ´ †ø∂å¥ ˆ ƒø¨˜∂ †˙å† µ¥ 嬆 ˚´¥ ∑åß ß†¨ç˚ I did command +option +R+P plus power button pressing. No result Changed languages, no result. Set language as English, no result. Everything was fine earlier before I stuck due to lockdown for 6 months. Please help me fix it.
The two behaviors (å and deleting words) indicate you have a stuck option key. Could be a dirty keyboard. Try another external USB keyboard, or snap both option keys with a fingernail. Also, the option key may be stuck in software because of accessibility “sticky keys” feature. If it is, you may have an option key logo in gray in the top right corner of your screen. Go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Keyboard > Hardware and make sure “Enable Sticky Keys” is not set. For good measure, if it’s not set, set it and unset it again.
