keyboard problem MacBook Pro

To follow-up, I solved my problem yesterday. First, I'll describe the solution, then how I found it and why I think it worked.

My solution was to re-apply Mac OS X 10.5.1 Update by downloading it from:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1051update.html

After restart, I could use all keyboards and mice simultaneously, and the relevant pref panels worked as expected.

The reason this works is that a clean install of Leopard followed immediately by a full Software Update process seems to result in some (in my case, about 20) files with corrupted permissions which cannot be repaired due to a SetUID problem, as reported when repairing permissions through Disk Utility. Some of these apparently resulted in failures such that the topcase devices could be deactivated, but not reactivated or configured to remain active. Re-applying the updater fixes all but one SetUID warning, and (whether coincidentally or not) also allowed my internal keyboard and mouse to behave normally.

I guess this will never be fixed or even addressed by Apple.

So what we should do? I wonder if they will change our machines that are under warranty with newer ones or something else.

If you have AppleCare, just bring the laptop back in 2-3 years and say that the keyboard isn't working properly, and hopefully, they won't have fixed the problem by then (it's been known since July 2007, come on...)

I say hopefully because then they will have to replace your USB and keyboard with a newer one, and if they are out of new parts for older models, oh well, I guess they'll owe us a brand new one!

(Works with every tech company... A warranty is a warranty, and if they messed up to begin with, too bad, they have to honor their extended warranty too!)

Hi,

My keyboard and trackpad failed after about four months. I took it to my local Apple-authorised dealer and they replaced the keyboard, trackpad and top case.

It seems to be working OK now, but I'll post back here if anything goes awry.

For the record, the push-between-the-trackpad-and-spacebar trick did work, but caused kernel panics when adjusting the screen brightness on one of my user accounts.

maybe this is already known, but i am sure (and i just want to tell someone): that the missing-character-problem is a bluetooth problem.

by the way, is no one longer interested in solving this problem? or is the solution already known? then please tell me.

I've got this also, intermittent, but on my machine it transposes the first two characters. Happens especially after switching to the app in question.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1218995&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1227287&tstart=0

Any word on a fix would be ... delightful. My latest MBP is nice, but it (and leopard with various features missing) are the least impressive of my Apple purchases to date.

I wonder if the new 10.5.2 update addresses any of this?

no

unimproved.

hello? can you hear me? apple? don't be shy, say something! please!

No it didn't help my 1st letter skipped issue at all. I guess this is a hardware problem at the chipset level which probably has no easy fix short of hardware replacement, that is if they have even fixed it yet at that level. Apple sure doesn't like to acknowledge their little issues now do they?

Since this was my first Mac (MBP), I was testing the waters to see if I could be convereted from my windows desktop also, but after the way I see this being handled (or NOt being handled actually), I will not. To me silence on an issue is worse than the issue itself.

I haven't words left...
the technican told that it is MICROSOFT OFFICE fault and its API, and you can solve by formatting, so we should give him the mpb so he could FORMAT it!!
Now we don't have any spare time to follow these strange technican's ideas, but if he doesn't format the mbp, he says that he couldn't go any further....
He said that he ever heard about this bug and Apple didn't give him any news, so it doesn't exist for him...
WHAT SHOULD I SAY HIM?
Anyway it has been said that in the next week new mbp models are ready to come, I hope we could ask for a substitution with the newer model, isn't it?

That's hilarious (in a deeply frustrating kind of way), Flapane.

Was this an Apple store employee? Please post details so we can avoid!

Give him this URL, for a start, and tell him that many of us don't have Microsoft Office installed.

Point out that several people in this and other threads have tried a format and reinstall without any fix.

Ask him to explain specifically why he thinks this is being caused by MS Office. (He's probably just blaming whatever's least familiar to him - common enough human trait, but rarely a helpful approach dealing with technical issues.)

Ask him to get a response from Apple Support if he isn't able to identify the issue as one that's already known.

PS. A thought - if this is a chipset issue (as suggested above) then it should appear also when running other OSes on MBP.

Can anyone confirm it happens for them when booted into Linux or Windows?

yeah that's hilarious and frustrating, we are thinking about what to do in the next days...
He is the Apple ceritifed technican.
Anyway it happens under Parallels and XP SP2

Message was edited by: flapane