I shouldn’t be surprised that the keyboard had a hairball.
It only took the guy at the Apple Store’s Genius Bar about ten seconds fiddling with the keyboard before he looked up and ask, “Do you have a dog or a cat?”
I said, “cat”. I don’t think I confessed to eight cats. Why belabor the point?
Apparently there was just a bit of hair hidden under the keys of my MacBook Pro. A major attack with a can of compressed air, followed by a retreat into the back room for major vacuuming, and the “A” key miraculously restored itself. Now I can easily write “Kaaawa” and “Haahaa Street” without banging on that poor key.
The Genius Bar guy suggested that I might want to try a keyboard cover to keep cat fur at bay.
But this computer celebrates its third birthday in five weeks, so it took a while for the cat hair to build up to dangerous levels. I think I’ll go slow on the cover, for now.
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That’s hilarious. Did they charge you?
Actually, it’s covered under their Applecare warranty for another five weeks, so the question didn’t come up. I don’t know if they would charge if it were out of warranty.
You can get a 3-pack of canned, compressed air at a big box or office supply store.
In the alternative, you can get an adaptor thingie (technical term) to go on the end of your vacuum cleaner hose that lets you attach fine tools (including a little brush) for small crevices and other tight spaces on keyboards and similar equipment (really good for that space under the front edge of the toaster oven door where all the crumbs gather but can’t be reached).
That’s what I do, at least. More enviro friendly than the compressed air. Plus, you can control where the offending substance ends up, instead of blowing it all over the place.
I’ve been told, but don’t know for sure, that a regular vacuum should not be used as the ones for this type of job are designed to create less static electricity.