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Why does my cursor and keyboard freeze/is unresponsive for 10 seconds when I unlock my Macbook Pro?

A lot of the times when I unlock my macbook the cursor and keyboard is unresponsive for 10 seconds. I got this new macbook in January and it has always happened.


Anyone ideas on how I can fix this?

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 16, 2020 2:44 PM

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Posted on May 16, 2020 6:55 PM

  1. Reset SMC by following the directions applicable to your MacBook Air here ➔ How to Reset SMC. If that does not solve things then-
  2. Reset NVRAM/PRAM by following the directions applicable to your MacBook Air here ➔ How to Reset NVRAM/PRAM. If that does not solve things then-
  3. Enter ➔ Safe Mode and see if the freezing issue still exists. What safe mode does is that it does not preload background apps except the essential apps and that helps you determine whether it is a background app causing the freezing. Safe Mode also clears some cache files that are not needed for normal operation. Sign out of Safe Mode and then turn off your computer. Turn your computer back on and sign in normally. If after logging in normally does not solve the issue then-
  4. Open System Preferences ➔ Users & Groups ➔ Login Items - These are the items are loaded during startup in the background. Take a picture of the screen and post it here so that we can see what they are and then we can recommend which items to uncheck during next startup to see if one or more of those items is affecting the performance of your MacBook Air.


Axel F.

9 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 16, 2020 6:55 PM in response to User_Jim

  1. Reset SMC by following the directions applicable to your MacBook Air here ➔ How to Reset SMC. If that does not solve things then-
  2. Reset NVRAM/PRAM by following the directions applicable to your MacBook Air here ➔ How to Reset NVRAM/PRAM. If that does not solve things then-
  3. Enter ➔ Safe Mode and see if the freezing issue still exists. What safe mode does is that it does not preload background apps except the essential apps and that helps you determine whether it is a background app causing the freezing. Safe Mode also clears some cache files that are not needed for normal operation. Sign out of Safe Mode and then turn off your computer. Turn your computer back on and sign in normally. If after logging in normally does not solve the issue then-
  4. Open System Preferences ➔ Users & Groups ➔ Login Items - These are the items are loaded during startup in the background. Take a picture of the screen and post it here so that we can see what they are and then we can recommend which items to uncheck during next startup to see if one or more of those items is affecting the performance of your MacBook Air.


Axel F.

Sep 3, 2020 7:11 AM in response to Axel Foley

Axel F.: First, I love your song. Second, these steps haven't helped me. Maybe there was a bad run of MacBook/Pro's? Mine is a 2019 16-inch (purchased new from Apple mid-2020...July?). macOS version is 10.15.6, but the machine had this problem from the start: since I opened the box sent from the factory.


Regardless of whether external peripherals are attached, via usb or bluetooth, several times per day the system freezes--always when waking up, whether that's the lid being opened, or the screen was locked while I stepped away, and nearly all serial connections lock up (that includes the trackpad and keyboard, which are SPI, if i remember right). The laptop will then complain that there's no keyboard connected. Sometimes the computer sorts itself out within 10-15 seconds, sometimes I have to flip the lid a few times to get it to do anything, and sometimes that doesn't work, forcing me to hard reset the computer.


Re: the "nearly all" above: this does not include the displayport side of the USB-C--that is, the USB side freezes (no usb peripherals work, including the USB hub in my external monitor), however if the monitor is attached while this is happening, I still have video--but that's probably because the DP serial originates from the graphics card (discrete gpu in my MBP), not the CPU (or serial expansion/peripheral controller if the CPU doesn't control SPI and USB directly).


So...do I try to get a refund on my MBP to pay for a System76 machine, or do we look a real fix for this problem? Per the request in step 4, here's the list of Login Items on my machine. Please observe nothing is checked.

Sep 3, 2020 9:33 AM in response to kf4tqs

During the initial/fresh boot the keyboard and mouse load first before the other processes so you will experience no delay. Once sleep mode is enabled then the background processes are still active. During wake, those process may hinder the operation of the mouse/cursor/keyboard.

Have you tried to disable those applications (in your picture) to boot during start up at all and then tried out the sleep/wake operation?

Furthermore, If your MacBook Pro is still in under warranty then take advantage of it and have Apple Support sort things out.


Axel F.

Why does my cursor and keyboard freeze/is unresponsive for 10 seconds when I unlock my Macbook Pro?

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