Steve Eugene
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: 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 3:21 PM

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Steve Eugene

Q: Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad problem FIXED/RESOLVED

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  • by mattathayde,

    mattathayde mattathayde Feb 25, 2008 2:37 PM in response to RamzaMik
    Level 3 (565 points)
    Feb 25, 2008 2:37 PM in response to RamzaMik
    ya the piece being exposed is weird, the power books never had this so im not sure why its there now

    -matt

  • by Twiddr,

    Twiddr Twiddr Mar 4, 2008 6:55 AM in response to RamzaMik
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2008 6:55 AM in response to RamzaMik
    Hi,

    Had the same problem and they changed my TOP CASE ASSY, but now - only a week later the problem have returned.

    Seems like the replacement haven't worked, so I really would like to hear what they did to your machine the second time you sent it to repair before I send my own in once again.

    / Kenneth

  • by RamzaMik,

    RamzaMik RamzaMik Mar 4, 2008 9:09 AM in response to Twiddr
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 4, 2008 9:09 AM in response to Twiddr
    THe guy at the Apple.store checked up the tape-connector and he also judge that this was causing the trouble, because when he pressed it the keyboard and trackpad works fine. He automatically autorized a machine swap ,because mine was a month old...and 2 repair on a month old machine is unacceptable by the apple policy, but also because it is a unknown problem that dont have a <<repair procedure>>. Notice that when they change the top case and keyboard, this tape connector is supposed to be replace aslo, so if apple tech do their job right, it means that no mather how much cable you will throw-in to repair the trouble, it will always be back. At this point i think that anyone at Apple.store will authorize the machine swap, if not start to complaints and talk to the macgenuis manager and show him this thread on the forum. If no one want to hear what your telling then let them repair it again, it will not works and go see them after the repair and now they will be obligued to do the machine swap...apple dont do much repair over a machine, after 2 time if it dont works they give you a brand new one.

    Oh and juste to give you a little hope, i had the confirmation this morning that the machine they are sending me vback is the brand new one with all the update from the past wekk....so sweet.

    Hope it helps.

  • by grumpybear,

    grumpybear grumpybear Mar 4, 2008 4:08 PM in response to Fletch045
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 4, 2008 4:08 PM in response to Fletch045
    Worked like a charm!! Thanks soooo much.

  • by Slechtenl,

    Slechtenl Slechtenl Mar 6, 2008 11:47 AM in response to Steve Eugene
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 6, 2008 11:47 AM in response to Steve Eugene
    Same problem here and yes, it works with the tape fix. But I'm still going to send it back to Apple.

  • by Ken Wallace,

    Ken Wallace Ken Wallace Mar 11, 2008 1:38 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mar 11, 2008 1:38 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    Thank you for finding this. I have had constant freezes for a couple of weeks and nothing seemed to work. I tried everything. I just tapped down the gold tape which was not flush with the battery compartment and so far working really well. Hope others see this.

  • by Sawyersmith,

    Sawyersmith Sawyersmith Mar 20, 2008 10:23 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2008 10:23 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    I can't believe this works! I'm now typing again with my MBP keyboard, when 15min ago the trackpad and keyboard were completely frozen, "can't enumerate usb" in system log, I had to use external keyboard and mouse.

    I read the thread, put the computer to sleep, unplugged the battery, and as soon as I pressed the cable my computer woke-up from sleep!

    This also explains why if I pushed the trackpad hard with my palm (thinking I was reseting it) it sometimes came back to life, and why the computer would sometimes randomly wake from sleep.

    I wonder if this problem is connected with the new battery layout. I keep my computer in a slip case, so whenever I remove it I squeeze together the lid and battery, which always felt a bit shoddy compared to my old powerbook.

    THANKS THANKS THANKS Steve, I've tried EVERYTHING to fix this, all the same steps as you. I work for an aid agency in Cambodia so getting this to my "nearest apple service centre" was not exactly an option! When I return home I'll send this in for Apple to fix. This must be very embarassing for Apple to have so many people fixing their top of the line laptops with sticky tape!

    Looking forward to enjoying my MBP15 again!

  • by raiu.kyuu,

    raiu.kyuu raiu.kyuu Mar 20, 2008 11:47 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2008 11:47 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    Congratulations on this solution. We are all in your debt.


    Regardless, I still think this is horrible on Apple's part and that they should fix it don't you think?



    One question, how does this explain that the problems started after the update?

  • by JJ81,

    JJ81 JJ81 Mar 21, 2008 12:14 AM in response to raiu.kyuu
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 21, 2008 12:14 AM in response to raiu.kyuu
    Nope, didn't work for me. Not that I expected it to because my freezing issue started right after the Feb 19th keyboard update, it's not a hardware problem for those who's computers only started freezing after the update.

  • by Rod Hagen,

    Rod Hagen Rod Hagen Mar 21, 2008 12:48 AM in response to JJ81
    Level 7 (31,985 points)
    Mar 21, 2008 12:48 AM in response to JJ81
    JJ81 wrote: +"it's not a hardware problem for those who's computers only started freezing after the update"+

    Well it won't be for some, but it will be for others, JJH81. Anyone who has played around with computers for a decade or two or three or four will tell you that its when you get two or more possible issues running together that it is unwise to get dogmatic about causes.

    If I had a quid for every occasion I've seen people here assume that their problem was due to this or that update simply because of the timing of the problem, and a few reports from others assuming it was to blame, only to find later after weeks of abusing the update that the real cause was something completely different, I reckon I'd be just about able to buy Apple outright!

    Cheers

    Rod

  • by Steve Eugene,

    Steve Eugene Steve Eugene Mar 21, 2008 12:44 PM in response to Sawyersmith
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 21, 2008 12:44 PM in response to Sawyersmith
    I'm really happy that my obsession with this problem led to a solution for you.

    I know it was a relief to find out the cause.
    Too bad the "tape fix" isn't the most reassuring way to resolve the problem.
    But in your case I'm glad it's been able to restore functionality so far from any official, apple help.

  • by superstandard,

    superstandard superstandard Apr 1, 2008 6:05 AM in response to Steve Eugene
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 1, 2008 6:05 AM in response to Steve Eugene
    fantastic – couldnt believe this will work! Putting a piece of napkin under the battery solved the problem.

    But does it make sense?

    No reply from apple on this topic?

  • by mattathayde,

    mattathayde mattathayde Apr 1, 2008 6:18 AM in response to superstandard
    Level 3 (565 points)
    Apr 1, 2008 6:18 AM in response to superstandard
    no direct response addressing the issue but if you take it in you will get it fixed

    its an issue but i dont think its a rather wide spread one like the elp issue was and for some still is

    -mat

  • by the phase,

    the phase the phase Apr 3, 2008 4:20 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 3, 2008 4:20 PM in response to Steve Eugene
    You´re my man! Thanks! I´m so glad that anywhere in the world are people like you, who finding out such solutions. I´ve had exactly the same mbp, problems and (now the best) solution. Your post here helps not to fall in a long period of searching, reinstalling the os, changing firmwares etc. Thanks a lot. Know I know what to tell my service provider... But the important thing, to go on with my work until i´ve time to give up mbp away to service! again: *THANK YOU!!!*

    chris

  • by +om,

    +om +om Apr 7, 2008 8:32 AM in response to Steve Eugene
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 7, 2008 8:32 AM in response to Steve Eugene
    thanx a lot!
    finally i'm understanding the problem. it explaines to me why it's was not a continuos problem.
    the weird thing is; my MBP is only responding when the battery is totally out.. well okay.
    I will check later (after letting it sleep for a longer period of time) if my used sticky will solve that problem.. temporarily ofcourse. and then up to the apple repair centre to get this permanetly fixed.
    thanx again!
    TOM
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