Julie Carneiro Said:
"Esc key not working on Mac OS 12.4 MacBook Air:
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Thank you for the followup reply.
Q1. "I don't have an external keyboard to try"
A1. Getting a Keyboard: Ask someone else if you may use theirs.
Q2. "so I'm not seeing what resetting the SMC or NVRAM would do except that it's been overheating almost since I got it, to the point of freezing and requiring a hard reboot."
A2. About Resetting the SMC or NVRAM: This will get the caches set to where they should be and keyboard configurations confined to certain keys's settings.
Q3. "But I really think that it's something my cat or I pressed that changed a setting. Unless I get another hint, I may be doing a heartfelt system reinstall later. First, to install OS 12.5 ..."
A3. Reinstall the macOS: Go Here: How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support. Important: Be certain to create a backup of your Mac prior to all of this. That way, you can have something to restore from the Mac from, should anything go wrong with the reinstall. Once reinstalled, try this once mor