Keyboard & Mousepad not responding

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Level 1

5 points

Keyboard & Mousepad not responding

yesterday i was working on my macbook pro, and from one second to the next the keyboard & mousepad stopped working. I brought it to the apple shop and voila, it started working again as if nothing ever happened. I went back home and again, no keyboard/mousepad. if i hook up external keyboard & mouse, then i can work.

I've installed Leopard after this, hoping it was a software problem, but no effect. still no mousepad/keyboard working.

When i look in the keyboard&mouse section it says i dont even have a mouse when i dont have an external one connected. Anyone know a solution or do i really need to go to the apple shop again.

MacbookPro 2.2Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 27, 2007 3:48 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 27, 2007 11:32 AM in response to RoeLeerT

I'm also having this exact same problem. It happened to me after I installed Leopard.
I called Apple and they sent a box out to me, but I canceled the work order because I used an external keyboard to reset the PRAM.
This helped for a while, but now its broken again.

So I can only use Bluetooth until I reset the PRAM.

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Answer 2

RoeLeerT Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 28, 2007 1:53 AM in response to davide008

this might be a weird question, but was is the PRAM? im kinda new with apple.

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Answer 3

belovedjs

Level 2

276 points

Oct 28, 2007 3:24 PM in response to RoeLeerT

Your problem sounds similar to what i had on my macbook pro. the keyboard and mouse would intermittently stop working and then work and always work when i brought it to the apple store for help. They advised me to keep a log of what was happening and when it happened. So, after making a log of occurrences of what happened for a couple of weeks, I went back to the apple store for more help, and they sent it out to an apple repair center to work on it.

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Answer 4

Oct 28, 2007 3:36 PM in response to RoeLeerT

The PRAM stores some settings at a firmware level rather than in the OS. If you visit the following page it explains how to reset the PRAM and the areas it effects.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2007 7:40 PM in response to RoeLeerT

I am having the same problem. It seems to happen more with Safari, but I cannot say for sure. I got my MBP last week and installed Leopard Friday night. Could this be Leopard? It would seem to be a hardware problem for the keyboard to just stop responding. For me, the trackpad worked even when the keyboard did not.

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Answer 6

RoeLeerT Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 29, 2007 1:40 AM in response to RoeLeerT

well as i mentioned before, i had this problem before i installed leopard already. I was hoping it was software related so i did a full clean install of leopard to see if it would solve the problem, which it did not.

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Answer 7

Oct 29, 2007 11:43 AM in response to RoeLeerT

I wonder if this is more a USB problem than a keyboard/trackpad problem?

The reason why I think this might be the case is the built-in iSight on my MBP has been real flaky since I upgraded to Leopard and actually disappeared at one point Rebooting into Tiger didn't help (the camera never gave me any problems in Tiger), but if this is a PRAM issue that might explain things.

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Answer 8

Oct 30, 2007 12:02 PM in response to RoeLeerT

Exact same problem here. MBP, no problems before Leopard. Seems utterly random. Works for awhile, then not. Using Spaces - could this have something to do with it? Comes back seemingly at random. Not yet affecting trackpad . . . . yet.

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Answer 9

jaolie

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2007 5:17 PM in response to RoeLeerT

same problem here. No mouse (yes i can move the arrow but cannot click). Trackpad works when scrolling, not when clicking. External mouse no solution.
I was not planning to reinstall Leopard, but before the newest cat no problems at all.

Any solutions found?

Reg. Johan

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Answer 10

Oct 30, 2007 5:57 PM in response to RoeLeerT

I've been having a similar issue since I installed leopard. The trackpad works fine, but the keyboard cuts out randomly. It will work for a few minutes and then suddenly stop working. The backlight works fine, but the caps lock and num lock don't work. If I close the lid and put the computer to sleep it starts working when I open it back up.

I might do an archive and install and see what happens.

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Answer 11

Oct 30, 2007 9:56 PM in response to Max Hawkins

Mousepad works fine for me but every time I change focus (for example open the window to type this message the keyboard is not responsive, after pressing the numlock twice the keyboard responds again. I installed leopard on the first day it came out and worked fine until today (perhaps after I turned of the spaces yesterday (and disabled showing the spaces icon today?)

[filling in the system information (the popup-button) killed the keyboard and double pressing numlock brings it back]

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Answer 12

eile

Level 1

0 points

Oct 31, 2007 3:31 AM in response to monticola

Same problem here - my built-in keyboard stops working often for a minute or so. The trackpad and an external keyboard works. This also started with Leopard for me.

I haven't found a workaround yet.

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Answer 13

RoeLeerT Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 31, 2007 7:44 AM in response to RoeLeerT

I've sent it to the apple shop for repairs and will give an answer about what the problem was in 2 weeks(i hope)

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Answer 14

Oct 31, 2007 8:32 AM in response to RoeLeerT

I also have the same problem. I find that the keyboard will start responding again if you wait and keep hitting keys. Takes about 1 minute. This seems like a software problem, c'mon apple!

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Answer 15

Jakebot

Level 1

23 points

Oct 31, 2007 12:02 PM in response to RoeLeerT

Also, my keyboard randomly stops working for a minute or so. trackpad seems fine.

Its nice to see other people having the same problem as me once they installed Leopard, which means its most likely a software issue that can be fixed, rather than needing to send my macbook away.

Guess we'll have to deal with it till apple patches it up.

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