Macbook Pro keyboard does not work

I was looking for a slightly different problem, but see that many of you are having larger hangs than I experience. My MBP is not quite 2 months old. I installed Leopard the first week it was out and since then have been experiencing brief hangs where the cursor won't move.

The issue that brought me here is that I can't type in some form fields. I've been kept out of password fields in Safari and tool modifier fields in Photoshop. Safari I can understand, but Photoshop?

I too am experiencing intermittent keyboard problems with no known 3rd party apps. The following discussions might prove helpful:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1129578&start=100&tstart=0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5860606#5860606

Another Keyboard problem with 10.5 and a macbook. It's so frustrating. I'm glad it's not just me.

Just found I could do a blog search on Google.

http://blogsearch.google.com/

Give it a try and search on "Leopard keyboard". Brings up a lot of other folks having keyboard issues. Given the number of hits, I think there is a software component to most of the difficulties. It may be related to the waking from sleep.

In preparation for the replacement computer Apple is sending me, I did clean install of Leopard on an external hard drive 2 days ago. I did transfer all settings from my DOA MPP to the external firewire installation of Leopard. I have booted from that external firewire drive for at least 48 hours, installed the remainder of my software AND have had no more significant keyboard freezes. I should have had a number based on past experience. There have been a several "pauses" when I thought all was lost but quickly I had keyboard response again without any extra ordinary efforts like plugging in an external USB keyboard or rebooting. My Powerbook G4 has had no keyboard issues. My MacBook 1.83 GHz has had no keyboard issues. I have never had trackpad issues period.

I wish we knew a way to separate out the hardware vs the software issues we all are experiencing. I am more inclined to conclude that my difficulties are software related & not hardware. If you read through the posts, a number of people have the issue disappear if they do and archive reinstall.

But for me the problem solving stops on this computer since a replacement arrives tomorrow. I will problem solve MBP 2.4 GHz from there.

Here's some anecdotal data that I'm hoping will help to nail down a pattern:

-New MacBook Pro < 2 weeks old -- came loaded with Tiger
-Immediately upgraded to Leopard, no problems until today
-Problem with intermittent keyboard lockups didn't start until after I loaded Parallels with a Vista machine
-Today, I disconnected from a USB hub, and the problem cropped up
-Warm reboot ("Restart") didn't solve the problem
-Plugging back into USB hub with external keyboard did fix the problem
-The tip about "holding down a key" doesn't appear to have any effect
-Keyboard is typically out for about 15 seconds
-Trackpad always works

Apple's silence on problems like this is infuriating. I can live with the bug if I know Apple acknowledges the problem, is working on a fix, and helps with workarounds. This radio silence is incredible.

I appreciate you are trying to problem solve with the help of the discussions. But I do wonder why you have not called Apple Care. You are within the 30 day window where they can determine a computer is DOA (dead on arrival). They replaced mine under these conditions. Some people seem to be encountering software problems & others hardware problems. I suggest Apple Care is a good place to start to establish the source of the problem. Keep track of your case number. Your subsequent calls on the case number will get you to tech support which can effect a replacement of your computer if that is necessary or get you high level problem solving.

In the meantime, download Quicktime 7.3 and reinstall from the download. Reset your SMU and PRAM. Finally, if you have an extra hard drive, try an archive install of leopard to see if the problem disappears when booted to the external drive. Keep track of the results and report to Apple Care under your case number. If it is software, you'll help pin down that issue. You can then report back to the discussion group. If it is hardware, you'll get the situation repaired. Would help reporting that as well.

Same problems here. Keyboard seems to go out with no caps lock, num lock or any response. Trackpad works fine, except for intermittent problems with jumping around and being flaky that doesn't seem related.

It might be my imagination, but I've only had the keyboard problem happen with the mute button on (which is rare for me)

It took me 20 mins to write this, and its extremely frustrating since im trying to write a paper, Apple please please please do something or at least let us know your trying to do something. I dont understand how one min it worked, then the next it didnt! I unfortunately do not have any of the programs that were mentioned and lack the patience and time to switch everything over. For my computer it seems to get worse as time goes on like its deteriorating, oh well.. I just wanted to add to the list of people in hopes of making this problem a priority for apple.

Add me to the list of MacBook Pro users whose keyboard has frozen. For me restarting fixes the problem. It only appeared for me after my uptime of about 15 days.

I suspect it is something that does show up for many days (at least in my typical usage pattern. Here's hoping it doesn't happen much more than once every week or two. I can accept weekly restarts in the short term until it's fixed.

In my case the only kext I have installed that seems at all keyboard related is Mouseworks.

I have an unresponsive keyboard on my MacBook Pro, too. But I can state that this behavior does NOT happen when using Windows in BootCamp, at least not over the past few days while it was happening in Leopard. It must be something software/OS related. K.

same here. my macbook pro 2.2 ghz keyboard will not work. it started about 2 weeks after installing 10.5. if i restart it will not reappear for 1 week to 10 days.

Try zapping the PRAM a couple of times. I did it once and nothing happened did it a week later and it solved the problem... for now

I've had the same problem with my PowerBook G4 that was upgraded to Leopard. The keyboard stopped working, but an external keyboard would work. I didn't realize it might be a software problem. So I spent around $500 putting in a brand new keyboard from an authorized Apple dealer, then after about 10 days, the brand new keyboard stopped working.

I was thinking of getting a new computer, but with so many problems with Apple, I'm not sure what to purchase. I'm definitely not going to purchase a Mac until these bugs are worked out.

I feel really burned that I wasted the money on a new keyboard.