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Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad problem FIXED/RESOLVED

I've been dealing with this issue since early December myself.
I purchased the MBP in November and had nearly a month with out any issues.

I spent nearly two hours on the phone with Apple Care via a specialist trying to diagnose the problem yesterday.
He did mention that they believe neither the 10.5.1 update or the MBP 1.1 update were to blame for occurrence of this issue. (I remain slightly skeptical)

Let me give you a short rundown of my problems and what I've done to help resolve the issue. Hopefully it'll help some of you.. or help me (with some of everyone else insight) if it happens again.

The symptoms:
keyboard and trackpad become unresponsive.
The problem is intermittent but often is completely unresponsive at start up.
USB mouse and keyboards have full functionality.

Kernel panics often occur as well. Usually this occurs just after the keyboard and track pad experience extreme intermittent "on and off" periods.
The only option is to do a hard-restart which my or may not resolve the unresponsiveness.

Things I've addressed in my particular case:

1. The battery recall issue - my battery (6N745288YFTA) is OK.
2. Resetting the PMU - no change.
3. Re-installing both the 10.5.1 and MBP 1.1 updates - no effect.
4. pressing the Function + S key at start up and running /sbin/fsck -fy The HD is said to be OK
5. I just finished an Archive and reinstall of Leopard = this seems to have fixed the issue for the moment. I have not run the Updater to bring the OS back to it's fully updated form yet.


The Archive and Re-install DID NOT WORK.
Even upon downloading and installing the 10.5.1 and 1.1 update, I'm still back at square one.

I've also been experiencing these phantom keystrokes to the eject key and backlight myself lately.

I've resolved to wait for the 10.5.2 official release to see of that helps... If not then I'll break down and send my machine in for service.

_____________________________________
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B05
SMC Version: 1.16f10
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

THE SOLUTION:

This is a HARDWARE problem!

After playing around with removing the battery and noticing that this often returned functionality to the keyboard I surmised that this had some sort of physical aspect.
Sure enough, there is a section of copper colored tape/wiring exposed in the batter slot that is slightly bowed where it's smallest.
When I depressed this with my finger tip on this portion to basically flatten it out flush against the housing; I found that all functionality was restored!

You can see the portion in the picture below.

User uploaded file

I haven’t had any problems AT ALL since I took a piece of napkin and taped it down to sustain pressure on this portion of bowed tape/wiring.


I have yet to call AppleCare to see what they suggest I do.
I will post a reply here when I hear their suggestion.

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.1), 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz SDRAM

Posted on Jan 27, 2008 3:18 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 14, 2017 8:01 AM

Same problem here. It's a design issue. My keyboard and trackpad also stopped responding, couldn't get past login ... The problem is that Apple ran the trackpad cable over the top of the battery. And as Macbooks get thinner and thinner, component are snugger and snugger. So, when the battery heats up, and it will when watching YouTube videos or running video editing programs as many of us do, the trackpad cable gets unseated from the connected to the trackpad board. I have an Early 2015 Macbook Pro, and this problem surfaced just after the 1-year warranty period expired. If I turn my Macbook Pro over and firmly press in an up and down motion over the bottom case (under where the trackpad, trackpad cable and battery are all 3 aligned, then turn on my laptop, I once again have a working keyboard and trackpad and can login as normal. This is not what one would expect from such an expensive laptop. As these things get thinner and thinner ... problems will crop up more and more.


Apple Support will tell you to reset your NVRAM and SMC ... but that is the canned reply. Resetting those do fix other problems: keyboard backlights and other wonky issues ... but it will not reconnect an unseated trackpad ribbon. And if you are out of warranty ... just purchase a replacement ribbon on ebay and install it yourself. Taking it to an authorized Apple Repair Center will cost you an arm and a leg, especially outside of the USA where there's no price regulation.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/821-00184-A-Touchpad-Trackpad-Cable-for-Apple-MacBook-Pr o-Retina-13-A1502-2015-/111975916834?hash=item1a1248e522


The link above is only for the Early 2015 (March) MacBook Pro ... you will need to research your models ribbon for replacement.

User uploaded file

382 replies

May 2, 2010 3:55 AM in response to Josh Hinton

Thanks, Josh.

This worked for me so far (getting the gala preview release of flash). Like Josh, it's only been a day, but I was getting the freeze at least once or twice an hour before I updated flash. So I'm very optimistic. It also would explain why reinstalling Snow Leopard worked for some as I believe the SN install reverts to an earlier version of flash.

May 3, 2010 6:38 AM in response to achecht

Several days now and still no freezing — yippee! It totally figures that it would be a flash problem (Ironic if you read Steve Jobs recent "thoughts on Flash" letter: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash . Quote: "Flash is the number one reason Mac crash." -- add trackpad freeze to that now.)

If you have this freezing issue, then before you try any expensive hardware swap-outs, try to install the gala preview version of Flash.
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html#gala

It has worked for me.

May 3, 2010 2:12 PM in response to Steve Eugene

I have been getting the freezing trackpad and keyboard on-and-off for the past couple of weeks. Same deal with everyone else... Keys and track don't work, but external devices and power button do.

Walked by Apple one day and had it on me so decided to have it checked out. They said they could replace the front panel for $250. Sounds like some kind of scam... I told them about this thread and how repairs weren't always the solution, and they actually suggested that I just save my money and keep using an external keyboard. Actual advice from an Apple Genius!

I am going to try this Flash Gala thing, but I feel like it goes deeper than that.

Very annoying as I am a DJ and can't afford to have my laptop's front panel die in the middle of a show!

May 4, 2010 9:16 AM in response to Carlos*usmx

The solution definitely doesn't work in my case. I find it that is has to be software related though, since I've used it for days on Windows and haven't had a problem. I also think it has to be sort of hardware dependent (if that makes any sense), because I have another early 08 that also presents the same problems as mine and that one has been used for a month on a bed (never on a desk) and hasn't experienced any freezing problems. Once it was taken to a proper desk the freezing problems resumed.

Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad problem FIXED/RESOLVED

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