Q: Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad problem FIXED/RESOLVED

Hi techiesteve,

Just wanted to let you know how it all turned out: I phoned Apple regarding the problem, and after outlining all of the troubleshooting I had done, they felt that I was correct in my assessment that it was likely either a faulty installation or a faulty product. They set up an appointment for me with another service provider and replaced the topcase for me, free of charge! I was very happy indeed - considering my mac is 4 years old, I wasn't sure how amenable they would be to looking into this. I had read somewhere that there was a 90-day warranty or somesuch on the topcase replacement, but wasn't entirely sure if this was fact or simply rumour. In any case (no pun intended), everything is working again, thanks to Apple customer service!

Hi danisirek, good to hear you have resolved the issue. Ideally the original service provider should have been more amenable and looked at it again, and you would have had this sorted much sooner. The warranty on the top case is 90 days. A new bezel and top case makes an older Macbook sparkle again, it's still got plenty of life left.

YES YES YES!!!!!! THE FIX COMPLETLY WORKED!!!!! THANK YOU I am now going to call Apple and complain about their defective computers.

Chynadu80, your Macbook "My mid 2009 MacBook" does not match the parts you were advised were defective "B661-5855 housing top case non backlight british 922-9014 trackpad"

The white mid 2009 Macbook was the last of the original style Macbooks prior to the white unibody polycarbonate style, while the parts you list are for a Late 2008 Aluminium unibody.

If you have an aluminium late 2008 Macbook, the parts you listed and labour to strip and rebuild could cost in the region of £240.00 with VAT in the UK, plus insured return shipping to Nigeria would be expensive. Why was the trackpad condemmed along with the top case with keyboard? If you do have a white mid 2009 Macbook, then the part numbers you were given are wrong and the repair cost is much less.

This thread appears to reference just about every model of Macbook Pro and Macbook made, other than their names there are often major differences in design and construction. Additionally, what may appear a major issue on a world wide forum, is in reality very very small compared to the number of Macbook Pro's and Macbook's sold, I suspect no more than normal failures rates. I know anyone experiencing a trackpad or keyboard problem will probably disagree, but the facts are at work I see very few of the problems described here. Hard drives and optical drives fail more, anything mechanical will fail more than purely electronic devices.

Most older Macbook Pro's that lose their keyboard and trackpad requires the flex cable that runs from the trackpad to the logic board replacing rather than the top case. Initially this part was part of the top case, then Apple made it available as a seperate spare part to authorised repairers. Unibody Macbook's and Macbook Pro's are built differently, the odd trackpad fails, usually the clicker, and most keyboard issues I see are caused by liquid spillages, usually backed up by the internal LCI's going red or crunchy keys caused by dried sticky liquid.

I have had the same problem as mentioned over and over again in this line of comments.  I was about to get a whole new case for my laptop, but the shop didn't have one in stock.  I next went to an Apple store and was told that the battery was old and swollen.  They replaced the battery for me, and presto!!  no more problem.  The swollen battery was pressing on the inside of the track pad and confusing everything.

all is good 3 months later, and I'm happy!

I have had the same problem for a long time on my MBP A1260. It started by the trackpad/keyboard being unresponsive. At that time, I solved the problem by giving a "massage" to the orange ribbon and restarting the computer. I was also not using the battery anymore. But after a while, even those solutions prove to be useless and my trackpad/keyboard stopped working for good. The post-it and the growl tips never worked in my case. I then went on eBay, bought a second-hand trackpad ribbon cable and replaced it myself using instructions found on powerbookmedic.com and iFixtit.com. It now works again

Do you have a link to the auction?

Thanks,

Nate

Hello guys,

Im late to the party, so excuse me if some of this has been covered previously and i missed it.

My brother recently gave me his old Macbook, pretty sure its a late 2008 early 09 model, with the larger battery compartment, like so:

[img]http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/HT1366/HT1366_1.jpg[/img]

MB403xx/A 13.3"/D2.4G/2x1GB/160/SD-DL (pretty sure thats the model, i dont have it with me atm so i cant check numbers to confirm)

It was working fine, my brother used it heavily for the last 4 years, (graphic designer) until recently upgrading and never had an issue.

He gave it to me and is was working perfectly, until it just randomly stopped about 2 hrs after using it (note: it was just sitting in his cupboard for a few months prior to me recieving it)

it still functions normally with an aux keyboard/mouse attached.

What i want to know is how do i get to the "Ribbon" to see if it is kinked and or broken as my battery compartment is alot different to the one pictured in the original post. Im abit of a Mac noob so please not too technical, im good with electrics but dont know my way around a mac too well.

Any help would be great guys.

Hi N,

Have a look at the illustrated repair manual for that model at ifixit.com.

thanks for the link,

however, its like where do i start, there are so many different catagories within that i dont know which one to follow, as this is such a unique problem to have, even though its not entirely uncommon.

N.Danger wrote:

 

thanks for the link,

 

however, its like where do i start, there are so many different catagories within that i dont know which one to follow, as this is such a unique problem to have, even though its not entirely uncommon.

Click on Repair Manuals > Mac Repair > MacBook Pro > and browse through trackpad, upper and lower case replacement, logic board, etc. I'm sure one of them will require removing the the ribbon cable you're inquiring about.

thanks tj,

ill have a go this afternoon after work.

thanks for your assistance

You're welcome. Good luck to you.

MBP early 2008 here (purchased late fall 2008 as closeout)

Experienced  the typical trackpad/keyboard issue and read through this and other  threads.  Just before my Applecare ran out last fall I had the Apple  Store replace the Flex cable.  All seemed to work well until recently  when the problem returned.

I thought it was related to  heat since it seemed to happen after the unit was in use for a while  but now it can happen even a minute or so after waking from sleep or  even on start. 

I barely used this machine for the first couple years so the battery seems to be good.  Here is the System Profiler readout:

Charge Information:

  Charge remaining (mAh):    5003

  Fully charged:    No

  Charging:    Yes

  Full charge capacity (mAh):    5089

  Health Information:

  Cycle count:    37

  Condition:    Good

  Battery Installed:    Yes

  Amperage (mA):    287

  Voltage (mV):    12579

Anything  here that looks like it might be bad?  I can't see anything wrong. I  took it out and checked the cable but it also seems to be snug.  Or  could it be too snug?

Everything looks fine for the batt. It sounds like another bad cable. They are so thin and delicate, the wire inside the plastic can begin to come apart or completely sever even though the outer plastic looks ok.