You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Steve Eugene Author

Level 1

11 points

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.

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

Top-ranking reply

metaweb

Level 1

40 points

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.

View in context

382 replies

May 5, 2010 11:36 AM in response to jmrSeattle

Unfortunately I'm still getting a few problems but it has definitely improved since updating Flash

Numeric

Level 1

8 points

May 5, 2010 3:17 PM in response to Steve Eugene

Keyboard and trackpad have been working fine since I installed the Flash...

Still concerned though. Even if it works for two more weeks I just never know when it will decide to stop working in the middle of something important.

But for now I am thankful it's working much better than before... Thank you!

May 5, 2010 6:56 PM in response to Steve Eugene

if your keyboard/trackpad do freeze up you can always use an iphone, ipod touch, wireless keyboard, android phone, or something to restart instead of forcing it

May 5, 2010 7:05 PM in response to Steve Eugene

I think it's pretty clear that a similar problem is happening for both software- and hardware-related reasons. There are the people for whom the wedge of paper works (this has worked for me, so far, knock on wood), and those for whom things work fine when booting up in Windows. I don't have a Windows partition, so I can't say if there is any crossover.

All I know is, if the built-in keyboard and trackpad die before I've even had this machine for 2 years, I am going to be VERY cranky.

May 5, 2010 10:31 PM in response to Sandra Guzdek

Exactly Sandra, you raise a very good point. This is obviously software related in the fact that it happens only in OSX and not when working in Windows (I've used Windows for days and zero freezing problems). At the same time it's also hardware since the paper solution has worked for some people. In my case the paper and the new flash have been doing their work, after 2 full days of use in OSX only one (1) freezing problem.

What I'm thinking is booting back to 10.5.2 (my original OS at time of purchase) and use my computer with that for a couple of days and see what happens. I recall my freezing problems starting some time in August/September of 2008 so between February of 08 and Aug/Sept of that year I never had a problem. I'll work with 10.5.2 for a couple of days, if nothing bad happens then we'll know it was some sort of update that triggered an strange behavior in the system and the way it reads some hardware thing. I hope that made some sense.

Numeric

Level 1

8 points

May 6, 2010 3:10 PM in response to Josh Hinton

How do you use an iPhone to restart a MacBook???

Numeric

Level 1

8 points

May 7, 2010 9:17 AM in response to Steve Eugene

After installing Flash Gala the laptop was working fine for about four days...

But then the trackpad/keyboard froze last night. So this is not a permanent solution.

Guess it's off to the Apple Store and shelling out $250 for a new panel. 😟

May 13, 2010 5:10 AM in response to Steve Eugene

Had this same problem pop up last Summer. I too have an older 08 MBP. Initially I noticed the track pad was becoming "sluggish", and then everything went downhill from there. Within in weeks, the trackpad and keyboard would become consistently unresponsive (although my Bluetooth Mighty Mouse still worked just fine) and random keys would endlessly repeat when typing emails and documents. I sifted through the posts back then and concluded it was a hardware issue, that the flex ribbon under the trackpad needed replaced. I too it into my local apple store to have them repair it. After a few days they informed me that they had determined it was NOT a hardware issue and that they had simply reinstalled the OS (the guys attitude was a little frustrating... kind of a, "don't bother me with a simple OS reinstall issue" tone). But, apparently the story didn't end there. For almost 7 months now, things have been fine... BUT a couple of weeks ago, the trackpad started acting "sluggish" again, keys started repeating, and now I'm back to using my Mighty Mouse and waiting for the keyboard to lock up again (thus, my journey back to the Apple Discussion pages). I'm planning to reinstall the OS (Snow Leopard) again whenever I have a free day to kill, but I'm not convinced this will "cure" the issue. Anyone else with a REPEAT ISSUE on this? Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

May 14, 2010 4:01 PM in response to ghettoholder

I've recently been having issues with unresponsive trackpad and keyboard. it just randomly happens or whne I use keyboard shortcuts for spaces. I some times just have to wait or tap the trackpad few times. I have noticed as soon as I plug a mighty mouse in the trackpad and keyboard work again. As far as I remember this happened when I installed 10.6.3 on my early 2008 mbp. So apparently .4 has fixed some trackpad issues so will wait and see. All I can say is it's very annoying. Maybe apples concentrates more on their OS working fine on new machines and not odler models but these things are an investment and I cant afford to buy a new mac when it comes out.

May 14, 2010 10:17 PM in response to Numeric

Download one of the various remote apps - Air Mouse Pro, NTRConnect, VNC lite, etc. set it up and it should work

May 19, 2010 7:22 AM in response to Steve Eugene

Check it out: http://9to5mac.com/snowleper_betaships

"Resolve an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive"

We'll see.

May 19, 2010 9:15 AM in response to Josh Hinton

Good link. Nothing to do but wait until 10.6.4 is released. In the meantime I now use an external keyboard.

May 19, 2010 10:37 PM in response to Numeric

Sorry to hear that. My laptop is still running without incident after two weeks. I also used antistatic tape on the orange ribbon in the battery case. As an added precaution, I bought four self-stick rubber bumpers and taped them under each corner of my laptop. They create a little more room for airflow and took pressure off the battery compartment. I wonder if it's a combination of the physical and software problems.

aldo007

Level 1

0 points

May 28, 2010 2:51 PM in response to jmrSeattle

Sticky tape from the Apple Genius did seem to work. That was a month ago. Now the trackpad freezes, and so does the keyboard - on every start up. That is, if I can get it started. I does a kernel panic or ram alert for 3-4 attempts, then starts up, freezes, then boots up the 5th time.

I hold little hope for 10.6.4. This is a business machine, and I can't wait. I am replacing it this weekend, and will be asking for a discount I know I won't get. If 10.6.4. fixes it, I'll put it on craigs list. If not, I may drive over it with my car.

May 30, 2010 9:17 AM in response to NachtDesign

"genius" bar? That's a laugh. I went to four different stores in three states to get the same job done. Transfer my images to the new HD they sold me. You would think just one of "geniuses" would step up to the plate and "own" my problem. I won't bother going back, ever!

Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad problem FIXED/RESOLVED