Macbook Pro Keyboard Issues

Wait, really? You talked with someone at Apple that undoubtedly confirmed that a solution is in the works?

Sorry for the persistence, it's just that I'd absolutely love to believe you.

Good news, everybody.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookmacbookprosoftwareupdate11.html

"This update addresses a responsiveness issue on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers. Some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems may occasionally experience a temporary suspension of keyboard input which can last a minute or longer. The Mac OS X 10.5.1 update is required before installing the MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1."

Install away.

I installed it and rebooted my MBP. So far so good in the sense that I have not gotten any reboot-worthy "permanent" disconnects. I did, however, receive two pairs of seemingly sporadic internal keyboard/trackpad disconnect/reconnect messages from HardwareGrowler, though.

Mouse movement was still choppy for about a second right when the machine woke up.

Edit: I just got another stutter and disconnect/reconnect message pair after waking a second time. Still not "permanent," however, which I'll take over having to reboot while in the middle of something that isn't beta testing Mac OS X 10.5...

Oh, wait. If you read what I just wrote, take it with about 200mg of salt.

*I just experienced the same exact problems as I had before applying tonight's software update.* I still got random stutters and both a "dead on wake" and a "dead on login" issue after rebooting twice (currently have rebooted three times since installing the software update).

I have a Genius Bar appointment on Thursday. If this software update didn't fix anything, I can only assume that Apple's update didn't do its job at all or that my MBP has a hardware issue.

i had previously noticed an issue where the mouse would freeze up when initiating quicklook, it so far seems to be solved possibly by this update, but i never experienced the issues u guys are having, my intel macbook is one of the core duo, not the core 2 duo or santa rosa, i wonder if that explains why i haven't had the issue...

The Macbook Pro Software Update has definitely helped but I’m still getting the problem.

I think Apple needs to work on this a bit more.

Okay, here's the word I received from my local Apple Store genius yesterday.

This problem is still assumed to be a software issue due to how widespread it is. Apple's first fix obviously did not work for everyone, so both Apple employees and us are waiting for Apple (in Cupertino) to deliver a fix until anybody can start pointing out clear-cut hardware issues directly related to keyboard/trackpad disconnect (that's my interpretation, anyway, which is why I held onto my machine.)

The genius did perform one action that I have not seen anywhere else, however, so I will reproduce that here. He deleted some system cache files residing in /var/db/dyld/ while booted in single-user mode. Right now it's too early for me to tell if this fixed or will fix my keyboard/trackpad issues. After rebooting from single-user mode, I still received disconnect/reconnect "skips" (and their corresponding HardwareGrowler notifications), so I suppose I'll find out if anything changes. Interestingly, on second reboot since that (haven't slept it yet) things seem to be stable.

Anyway:
Boot into single-user mode using the Command+S key combination and perform the following commands if you know what you're doing.

/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /var/db/dyld/
ls
rm -f dylib shared*
reboot

These commands mount the boot disk, change the present working directory to /var/db/dyld/, lists the contents of the directory for good measure, deletes any files beginning with the prefix "dylib shared*", and restarts the Mac in GUI mode.

I'm pretty sure all these are the correct commands; I double-checked my notes with the genius, but please be careful, as this is an *rm -f* command. It's safe to delete these cache files, but a misdirected rm command can cause serious damage.

Hey Joe,

Did it finally solve the problem? was that all ok?

This is still NOT fixed for me. As I use my Macbook Pro for work and Vista specifically I find all of these problems with the Macbook Pro unacceptable. Anyone interested in a Macbook Pro used Make a reasonable offer

Steve

Never had the problem before, but encountered it this weekend...

KB works for login prompt, but then is disabled...at one point, the right side of the KB worked, but the left didn't...

I've tried:

1. reset PVRAM/SCM
2. archive & reinstall
3. boot from another disk - USB - and the KB worked
4. del /var/db/dyid/shared*
5. hooked up a wireless KB, it works.

I tried to re-install the KB firmware 1.0 update, but couldn't...anyone know how to force OSX to take an update??

Any other ideas? I'm getting ready for a clean re-install now...backing up my VMs.

Oddly, I added a new user and that user does NOT have the problem...
So, it's user-specific.

Last install was the VMware 1.1.2 update, could this be linked to VMware?

Mark

I too just installed the 1.1.2 update from vmware and just started to see this problem. I installed vmware, then installed kubuntu into a vm, kubuntu is stuck on the screen that appears after the first reboot in the install sequence. it is asking me to "press ENTER to continue". I do not have any control of mouse of kb. curious tho: screen will dim and if I move the mouse it will light up again.

OOPS....
I AM A BONE HEAD. I needed to press control-apple to have kubuntu release the keyboard.

Sorry

Since people are still writing about this over a year later, I'll add my 2 cents. Aluminum Keyboard was unresponsive in iChat and Entourage's Calendar only, so after trying almost everything suggested in the post I finally deleted the iChat & Entourage plist files in /volumes/local hd/username/library/preferences and things are fine now. My guess is that somehow the Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0 or a Leopard update made things a muck and deleting each affected application's preference file cleaned things up. Thought about doing this after seeing that the problem didn't exist with a newly created user account and after downloading the trial version of PlistEdit Pro, which would allow me to restore a plist file with the proper permissions if my hunch had been incorrect.