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belovedjs Author

Level 2

276 points

keyboard problem MacBook Pro

For the past few weeks, my macbook pro has been having problems with it's keyboard. For some time while I was using a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, the keyboard on the computer itself was not working. Now I have stopped using the wireless keyboard and mouse, and sometimes my keyboard won't work at all either. Tonight it stopped working for 5 minutes, and then finally started to work again. This seems to be an intermittent problem, so when I go to the genius bar at the apple store, the problem does not occur so that they can see what is happening.

Any ideas out there on why I might be having this intermittent problem? The trackpad seemed to function, just none of the keys work for a period of time.

Thanks for any advice.

(and by the way, i posted this question initially on the wrong discussion for the macbook and didn't know how to delete it from that discussion)

PowerMac Pro 17" and Powerbook 12", Mac OS X (10.4.8), ipod 5th generation, mini ipod

Posted on Sep 12, 2007 10:49 PM

250 replies

belovedjs Author

Level 2

276 points

Nov 4, 2007 5:19 AM in response to Kirk D

if you are a new mac user and live near an apple store, i would recommend going to the apple store to ask about your keyboard problem.

and, they have this thing called pro-care, where they give you appointments where they give you one to one help on any 'how to' questions you have - i have not personally experienced pro-care, but have glanced at others having their pro-care appointments in the past when i have been in the apple store. it looked like they were getting personal training for their mac questions-

Kirk D

Level 1

15 points

Nov 4, 2007 5:37 AM in response to belovedjs

Don't live close enough to do that. Two hours drive. Somethings got to blow up before I will drive two hours each way to the Apple store.

Kirk

Nov 4, 2007 7:10 AM in response to Kirk D

Same problem. I've got my Macbook Pro for 5 days... The touchpad is fine but the keyboard very often stops working, it takes about 10 sec, then it's ok again. I'm wondering if the reason is Leopard, but I have no such a thing as SideTrack installed. The bad news is the fact that I bought my MBP in U.S.A but I live in Poland and I have no Warranty here 😟 Seems I will have to spend lots of money from my own budget...

Nov 4, 2007 10:18 AM in response to tactical_neural_implant

tactical neuralimplant wrote:
Same problem. I've got my Macbook Pro for 5 days... The touchpad is fine but the keyboard very often stops working, it takes about 10 sec, then it's ok again. I'm wondering if the reason is Leopard, but I have no such a thing as SideTrack installed. The bad news is the fact that I bought my MBP in U.S.A but I live in Poland and I have no Warranty here 😟 Seems I will have to spend lots of money from my own budget...

You have world wide warranty on your MacBook Pro. So you should be able to just call Apple and let them pick it up or bring it to an authorized dealer.

S.

Nov 4, 2007 12:47 PM in response to Stefan Arentz

Well, that info has cheered me up (a bit) and hope you're right. But before giving MBP to repair I will install Tiger back. Maybe it's some software problem...

ewr1

Level 1

1 points

Nov 4, 2007 9:51 PM in response to tactical_neural_implant

I'm having the same issue with my 2 day old 15.4 MBP. It's just the keyboard that goes out. I'm guessing it's a Leopard issue too since the keyboard always come back. I guess it's back to the store for me.

thewolf

Level 1

20 points

Nov 5, 2007 2:31 AM in response to ewr1

Hi,

I've bought a MacBook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz a couple of weeks ago.

It came with Tiger and it appeared to work fine, but I didn't use it seriously until a few days ago when I did a clean install of Leopard on it.

And I've hit the keyboard issue.

Sometimes after the wake up from sleep, after the username/password screen, the keyboard will stop working for a few seconds, then after pressing a few keys, it will get back to work and so on, until I restart the MBP.

The trackpack works just fine.

I wonder if this is a Leopard software problem, since I didn't hit it with Tiger (but I used my MBP with it just for a few hours) or a HW problem, that needs repair.

Any ideas?

Also, do you know if I can still send back my MBP to the Apple Store (I bought it online) to get it replaced with a new one or get a refund?

Thanks.

belovedjs Author

Level 2

276 points

Nov 5, 2007 3:54 AM in response to belovedjs

My keyboard issues were with my first generation macbook pro, before leopard. Since getting my new macbook pro that I installed leopard onto, there have been no keyboard issues for me. But looks like others have experienced this problem after leopard.

If you are within 2 weeks of purchasing your MBP and want to return it, I believe you can return it for a refund. But you would need to contact Apple to make sure - there might be a different policy related to special ordered computers?

C60

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2007 10:54 AM in response to belovedjs

Same problem here. No keyboard, generally after a sleep, luckily the trackpad keeps working. And it usually comes back within a minute. This didn't happen to me at all on tiger, only since I've installed leopard. I also got the dvd drive replaced, right before installing 10.5

I really hope this is a software problem, as I don't really want to take it back in to get fixed.

It's also happened after running itunes, sharing in configuration, and disk utility. Perhaps it's a problem with there usb system.

sagalyn

Level 1

0 points

Nov 6, 2007 7:21 AM in response to C60

Well, at least I know I'm not alone. My keyboard has been down and out for a couple of days, only to inexplicably come back to life for about 8 minutes after I pressed every key on the keyboard. Very strange. BTW, I have mouseworks running, and I've noticed that a similar product caused this... anyone else with this problem running mouseworks?

Nov 6, 2007 7:27 AM in response to sagalyn

sagalyn wrote:
Well, at least I know I'm not alone. My keyboard has been down and out for a couple of days, only to inexplicably come back to life for about 8 minutes after I pressed every key on the keyboard. Very strange. BTW, I have mouseworks running, and I've noticed that a similar product caused this... anyone else with this problem running mouseworks?

Why don't you do the obvious and see if this problem goes away WHEN YOU REMOVE MOUSEWORKS?

S.

sagalyn

Level 1

0 points

Nov 6, 2007 8:51 AM in response to Stefan Arentz

Wow. Thanks for that, Stefan.

Question for you: are you just trolling around the site looking to prove your superior intelligence? If so, well played sir.

Or perhaps you've got some useful advice? That, unlike your previous comment, would actually be appreciated.

Nov 6, 2007 10:04 AM in response to belovedjs

Hi there! There's sth weird about my macbook pro. For 7 days the keyboard didn't work very often, it had about 10sec-breaks, it happened almost all the time. It's 7th day since I've installed Leopard and today I restart it for the first time... The thing is.. my keyboard works great as never before! I don't know what's goin on but I hope it will last forever 🙂 (though I'm afraid it won't).

Nov 6, 2007 10:52 AM in response to sagalyn

sagalyn wrote:
Wow. Thanks for that, Stefan.

Question for you: are you just trolling around the site looking to prove your superior intelligence? If so, well played sir.

Or perhaps you've got some useful advice? That, unlike your previous comment, would actually be appreciated.

I'll repeat my useful advice: REMOVE MOUSEWORKS AND SEE IF THE PROBLEM GOES AWAY.

Seriously, it is extremely difficult to diagnose this keyboard problem with people telling half of the story, leaving out facts like running Mouseworks or similar software.

If you really want to understand what your problem is then eliminate uncertainties. Remove silly software that you suspect is the cause, boot the installer cd, stuff like that. That is how problem solving works.

I know you are frustrated because of these problems, but so am I and dozens of others here. You can improve that situation by at least telling us whether Mouseworks was indeed the problem or not.

S.

sagalyn

Level 1

0 points

Nov 6, 2007 2:02 PM in response to Stefan Arentz

You're right about one thing... people are leaving out what sort of software they are using, which is why I asked the question. I am looking for a commonality before I go through the trouble of installing/reinstalling, to save myself the time of trouble shooting, of which I have very little. If mouseworks is indeed the issue, it seems to me someone here would have mouseworks too.

keyboard problem MacBook Pro