Can not pause game using shortcut

I actually have the same problem every once in a while.

I am using the german client of Simcity 5 in which pause is usually bound to the "^"-key left to the "1"-key. Sometimes however this doesn't work.

I tried pressing "SHIFT + ALT" (this switches the keyboard layout in Windows) and after that it worked just fine. The thing about this though is, that I didn't hit that combination before, so it shouldn't have switched to a different layout in the first place...just very weired.

Anyways, maybe that will also help you with your problem.

Indeed, f4ir8or is spot on, I seen this strange behaviour for several other games, it is just weird.

I tried pressing "Shift + Alt" but nothing happend.
i did it on my desktop, tried it. then tried pressing it in game nothing happend.
also im running Windows 8 Pro if thats any help

This is a known issue with Windows systems that have Windows Media Center and IR receiver for the WMC remote. Disabling the IR receiver fixes the problem:

1: Open up the Device Manager
2: Expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers group
3: Right click the eHome Infrared Reciever (USBCIR)
4: Select "Disable."

5: You should now be able to use your tilde key in games as intended!

I have tried using the @/‘ button it seems to work