Is my keyboard faulty or are my settings screwed?
No, your keyboard is almost certainly not faulty. In fact, if you hold down some keys, such as the full stop . or space keys you should see that they repeat just fine.

Assuming that’s the case, you have one of two options:


keep your Mac as it currently is and use the Keyboard Viewer with your mouse if/when you need to repeat other characters, or
totally change the default behaviour so that you don’t get the popup with special characters.


If you opt for the 2nd option, then you’ll need to do the following:


Run the following command in terminal:


defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false


Restart your Mac


Now you’ll have your keys repeat the way you want.