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Level 1

0 points

New Macbook - Keyboard freezes

Hi,

I bought a new 'Santa Rosa' Macbook on 11-2-07 and have been enjoying the process of setting it up and getting familiar with Leopard.

One thing disturbs me though: Periodically as I have used it for the last two days, the keyboard will freeze, allowing no text input. I can still move the mouse, click on windows and start/stop programs, but the keyboard acts as if it's dead. The caps-lock light won't even come on.

This condition lasts for a minute or two and then normal operation resumes. It happens every few hours (three times in six hours of use yesterday, two or three times today). I haven't been able to correlate this with any particular thing I'm doing, either when it begins or ends.

What's going on?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Eric

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 4, 2007 12:08 AM

480 replies

dawi

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 7:55 AM in response to b_johnsen

So I have had this problem intermittently since buying my macbook w/ santa rosa not too long ago. At the time I speculated that it had something to do with Spaces since it seemed to occur after shifting desktops.

Lately (after rebooting) I've been switching between apps with just Command-Tab instead of switching spaces with Ctrl-Arrow (in fact, I've stopped using that key combo altogether now), and I haven't experienced the keyboard freeze in a good while now. Don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I thought I'd throw it out there ...

Nov 12, 2007 8:21 AM in response to schininis

ok - I am glad I was not the only one experiencing this issue - Ive been a proud user of my first mac (mac mini G4 1st gen) using 10.3.9 so I was quite shocked when my brand new macbook got the keyboard issue on the first night 😟

I can vouch that attaching an external keyboard solved the issue everytime - i can also say since that day (knock on wood) it hasnt happened again since.

I really would like to hear what is a the bottom of this issue!

Message was edited by: udance4ever

pmanisa

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 9:07 AM in response to emeb

I have the same problem too. I just got this new macbook with Leopard installed on 11/8/07. The keyboard stopped responding for two times, a few minutes each, and it came back. Any suggestion? Should I bring it to the apple store?

qui3xote

Level 1

16 points

Nov 12, 2007 9:39 AM in response to pmanisa

If my experience is any indication, you will just stand in line for a long time and then they will tell you to try an archive and install of Leopard. Which won't change anything. I'd get an external keyboard and wait for Apple to release a software fix. Stinks, but that's the best solution I've come up with so far...

Nov 12, 2007 9:54 AM in response to OAP Pepper

Curiously, I haven't had it for a few days either. Just like OAP Pepper, I have rebooted a couple of times since it was happening (the first time was to unfreeze the keyboard), but I don't think I've been doing anything else different. I have my fingers crossed that it was teething trouble, although it does seem bizarre.

Anyway, I've at least delayed downgrading back to 10.4 for the moment.

alvarix

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 1:01 PM in response to dawi

@ dawi - i have spaces disabled & last night I was getting it every couple of minutes. I had my laptop replaced before 14 days, what a waste of time that was.

Nov 12, 2007 1:39 PM in response to emeb

@Dawi - you could have something there with the spaces thing, I've not used spaces for what seems like a while a now, and I've not had the issue for a while either. I'll go start playing with spaces again and see if the keyboard plays up.

Nov 12, 2007 2:22 PM in response to emeb

Add me to the 'annoyed-about-this-bug' list.

I'm having the same problem -- bought my MacBook in March -- upgraded to Leopard just a couple weeks ago and the freezing problem started then.

It'll freeze for approximately 10 seconds then go back to normal.

Help!

Yoshokun

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 4:01 PM in response to emeb

I own a Santa Rosa MBP that I purchased the first week they came out, so obviously it came with Tiger preinstalled. I upgraded to Leopard the weekend it came out and ever since I have experienced times where the keyboard randomly fails to respond. Sometimes putting it to sleep will fix it, but that only seems to work once per boot. After that a reboot is required to resolve it.

Some days the issue happens every hour, some days it doesn't happen at all. It's very annoying and very, very frustrating. Sometimes, because multiple users are logged into a system, it's impossible to cleanly restart because I can't log the other users out.

I am going to call Apple on this issue and hopefully they'll pay attention.

jcwillia

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 4:55 PM in response to emeb

Just adding another one to the list... The keyboard thing is annoying...

ALSO... Sometimes Safari just freezes solid, iWeb froze solid too --- I let it sit to see if it would work its self out, and had to reset the hard way.

This is my first mac, and its doing the same stuff I bought it not to do...

Can someone assure me I made the right choice.... 😟

Nov 12, 2007 5:39 PM in response to jcwillia

I sent apple an email of the bug. You guys should too because if enough people complain they will definitely take care of it.
I advise everyone to do this.

pmanisa

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 7:21 PM in response to ItsDaKronic

Can you please post here how we can send an email to report this bug to apple? Thanks.

Nov 12, 2007 7:33 PM in response to pmanisa

Here is the link. You have to fill out all your info.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html/

Nov 12, 2007 7:52 PM in response to ziglertron

Add me -- purchased on 10/27. Just installed Leopard a week ago and keyboard constantly freezes - -no light, no caps lock, no num lock. Not a good first impression.

ibid

Level 1

4 points

Nov 12, 2007 10:17 PM in response to schininis

I'm having the same problem with my MBP since upgrading to Leopard. For what it's
worth, I seem to be able to unfreeze it by repeatedly hitting the Fn key several times
followed by the Shift key. I repeat that until the Shift key indicator lights and I know
it has unfrozen. Maybe it is just a coincidence and it would have unfrozen by itself,
but I am not sure because sometimes it does not unfreeze unless I either sleep and
wake the machines or, in the worst case, reboot.

This is a bad usability problem.

New Macbook - Keyboard freezes