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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

Reply
250 replies

Sep 12, 2007 11:33 PM in response to belovedjs

I'm not sure if this is exactly the same issue, but last night my built-in keyboard stopped working too (in my case, the trackpad also ceased to work, and neither the keyboard nor the trackpad showed up as a connected USB device at all). None of the keys worked, and pressing Caps Lock didn't cause the green LED to light up. Rebooting didn't help. Resetting the PRAM and PMU didn't help. However, after a time it began mysteriously working again. Then died once more.

This morning, it was once again fine. Then when I arrived at work and turned it on, the keyboard and trackpad had gone again.

The machine is now in for service, and I'm without a personal computer for "three to five days" (with me having given away my previous PC on the expectation that this MacBook Pro would serve reliably as my only system). Fortunately (unfortunately?) it didn't magically fix itself yet again while the technician was examining it.

An external keyboard and mouse seemed to work fine.

I've searched around and found various people having various combinations of problems with the keyboard and/or trackpad ceasing to function, but no apparent conclusions (though one person did suggest that the problem will grow less and less intermittent unless you have it looked at).

My MacBook Pro was a Santa Rosa 15 inch model, purchased some two and a half months ago.

Sep 12, 2007 11:48 PM in response to belovedjs

I have the same problem! It started some days ago. My keyboard/trackpad stop working at random intervals , after a random amount of time it starts to work again.

It looks like the internal USB device for trackpad and keyboard is the problem.
It disappears from the system profiler when the keyboard/trackpad stops working.
Also the light on the caps lock key stops working.

I found the following logs in my system.log


Sep 13 08:21:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: Hijacking keyboard 0 (IOHIDKeyboard)
Sep 13 08:21:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: kea 00552AE8: ksea 00552C9C
Sep 13 08:21:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: modded kea 50A5C558: modded ksea 50A5C5FE
Sep 13 08:25:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: Returning keyboard 0 (IOHIDKeyboard)
Sep 13 08:25:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: keyboard not ready?
Sep 13 08:25:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: keyboard not ready?
Sep 13 08:25:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: hijacked values kea 00000000: ksea 00000000
Sep 13 08:25:15 macbookpro kernel[0]: returned kea 00000000: modded ksea 00000000
Sep 13 08:25:25 macbookpro kernel[0]: Hijacking keyboard 0 (IOHIDKeyboard)
Sep 13 08:25:25 macbookpro kernel[0]: kea 00552AE8: ksea 00552C9C
Sep 13 08:25:25 macbookpro kernel[0]: modded kea 50A5C558: modded ksea 50A5C5FE
Sep 13 08:28:01 macbookpro kernel[0]: Returning keyboard 0 (IOHIDKeyboard)
Sep 13 08:28:01 macbookpro kernel[0]: keyboard not ready?
Sep 13 08:28:01 macbookpro kernel[0]: keyboard not ready?
Sep 13 08:28:01 macbookpro kernel[0]: hijacked values kea 00000000: ksea 00000000
Sep 13 08:28:01 macbookpro kernel[0]: returned kea 00000000: modded ksea 00000000
Sep 13 08:28:16 macbookpro kernel[0]: Hijacking keyboard 0 (IOHIDKeyboard)
Sep 13 08:28:16 macbookpro kernel[0]: kea 00552AE8: ksea 00552C9C
Sep 13 08:28:16 macbookpro kernel[0]: modded kea 50A5C558: modded ksea 50A5C5FE
Sep 13 08:29:40 macbookpro kernel[0]: Returning keyboard 0 (IOHIDKeyboard)
Sep 13 08:29:40 macbookpro kernel[0]: keyboard not ready?
Sep 13 08:29:40 macbookpro kernel[0]: keyboard not ready?
Sep 13 08:29:40 macbookpro kernel[0]: hijacked values kea 00000000: ksea 00000000
Sep 13 08:29:40 macbookpro kernel[0]: returned kea 00000000: modded ksea 00000000
Sep 13 08:29:43 macbookpro kernel[0]: Hijacking keyboard 0 (IOHIDKeyboard)
Sep 13 08:29:43 macbookpro kernel[0]: kea 00552AE8: ksea 00552C9C
Sep 13 08:29:43 macbookpro kernel[0]: modded kea 50A5C558: modded ksea 50A5C5FE


And it keeps going on 😟
This also occurs during boot time (OS selection bootcamp).
I already opened my macbook pro and made sure the keyboard/trackpad is firmly attached to the motherboard.

I hope this is a software problem but i fear it's not.

Sep 15, 2007 9:21 PM in response to belovedjs

I've had the same issue for the past 2 weeks. At first it started at intermittent intervals but now, trackpad and keyboard do not work at all. i've talked to apple and i need to take my computer in to a repair center. I did just check my system log and saw some of the keyboard issues. This computer is also less than a month old.

Sep 8 21:49:08 -computer kernel[0]: USBF: 194.338 AppleUSBTCKeyboard[0x4ef1600]::start - aborting startup

Sep 20, 2007 4:39 PM in response to Mandy K

I am just experiencing exactly the same problem. External USB keyboard and Bluetooth mouse work fine, but the built in keyboard and trackpad are dead. They reappeared and worked for a while after I had started from my bootable backup HD, even after restart from the internal HD, but not for long.

The Pismo was my last Apple laptop which worked without a problem. Titanium: 2 new motherboards, hinge broken, PB G4: new motherboard, and now this. It's frustrating.

Sep 21, 2007 10:24 PM in response to belovedjs

Well, the apple technician at the genius bar had mercy on me yesterday. Although the problem didn't recur at the store, because i began to keep a log of what was going on with the intermittent keyboard issues, he went ahead and sent my MacBook Pro to the apple repair center for service. The update from Apple is that they are waiting on a part, but does not specify what part they are waiting for.

Sep 21, 2007 11:07 PM in response to roebu

One more here : keyboard and trackpad are both dead.
Like it has been said, the longer you let it go, the less intermittent it becomes. I've had it for a few seconds at first, then it was for some minutes, and yesterday evening it simply didn't answer at all (it's now been 17 hours).
Here are my conclusions :
- it is (at least for me) linked to waking the MBP up. Every time I had the problem, it occured just after a wake from sleep, was it from a hibernation or a normal sleep (hibernatemode 0 or 1). It did not, though, happen every time it was waking up, nor after a change of the hibernatemode ;
- it is not a software problem : the EFI can't read any key combinations, nor does the OS on the install DVD ;
- it is a problem linked only to the internal keyboard and trackpad (as it has already been said) : plugging in external peripherals work just fine ;
- the power button keeps on functioning normally ;
- the keyboard backlighting works perferctly too.

Taking a look at the connectors behind the battery on both my MBP and a friend's one, that doesn't have this problem, showed that my connectors weren't put exactly on the same way : the orange connector isn't perfectly parallel to the plastic protection ; however, this is so slight I don't think it's the matter.

So well, I think that the only option is to go to an Apple Reseller (we don't even have Apple Stores here in France :'( ) and hope it won't be too long…

Sep 25, 2007 8:38 PM in response to belovedjs

I'm having the same problem. Randomly, the keyboard and trackpad go completely dead, and though the computer seems otherwise unaffected, I cannot do anything, because they keyboard and trackpad do not respond to input.

I searched system.log and could find nothing that seemed to relate to this. How do I monitor this problem? It's very infrequent seemingly. I cannot figure out what might be causing it.

Is there some way to see if someone installed a keylogger that would affect this? What is this stuff about an area underneath the battery that could show a bad connection?

This MacBook Pro is the crashiest, worst Mac I have ever owned. I've had literally hundreds of crashes from it, multiple times per day, from running Second Life and Digital Performer, the two apps I bought it for. And Apple does nothing... no support, no software updates to fix the crashes after nearly four months I've owned this computer.

And now this.

When will the nightmare end?????

Sep 25, 2007 8:42 PM in response to belovedjs

I'm having the same problem. Randomly, the keyboard and trackpad go completely dead, and though the computer seems otherwise unaffected, I cannot do anything, because they keyboard and trackpad do not respond to input.

I searched system.log and could find nothing that seemed to relate to this. How do I monitor this problem? It's very infrequent seemingly. I cannot figure out what might be causing it.

Is there some way to see if someone installed a keylogger that would affect this? What is this stuff about an area underneath the battery that could show a bad connection?

This MacBook Pro is the crashiest, worst Mac I have ever owned. I've had literally hundreds of crashes from it, multiple times per day, from running Second Life and Digital Performer, the two apps I bought it for. And Apple does nothing... no support, no software updates to fix the crashes after nearly four months I've owned this computer.

And now this.

When will the nightmare end?????

Sep 28, 2007 4:02 AM in response to belovedjs

My Powerbook G4 17 keyboard works OK except when I try to type Cap P (Shift P), when you have to press and hold and eventually you may get several of them or nothing, then a repeat of the operation gives you what you want, Caps lock P and lower case is no problem. All other key combinations appear OK, Cap A etc operate immediately. I’m sure this not a hardware problem, although I could be wrong, it seems as though something else is activated on the Cap P command. Have tried several other keyboard layouts including the one I converted from System 9 to no avail. Booting up from a firewire hard disk running 10.4.8 and then trying gives the same failure. An external G4 Mac pro keyboard connected to the Powerbook does not have this problem. Why should Caps lock P and lower case be no problem but Cap P does. Can anyone shed any light? Cheers!

Sep 29, 2007 10:37 AM in response to JARP

JARP

Not sure if your issue was similar to mine, as mine affected more than just a couple of keys, and it would sometimes keep repeating random keys, like the enter key and the e and the k keys. but the most frustrating part was that the keys would just suddenly stop for 3 to 5 minutes. the external keyboard and mouse worked perfectly.

on your issue, you might get more responses if you post it as a separate topic? but i think the best to do would be to consult the genius bar as that is how mine finally got shipped out to apple for repairs.

but alas, still no update on mine except that they have been waiting on a part since 9/21. and i have no idea what part they are waiting for . . .

keyboard problem MacBook Pro

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