MacBook Pro Keyboard Function Keys & Backlight Stopped Working

same problem, no solution.

Same problem - no solution - I do have a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch - but I was using it fine up until recently..

I am having the same problem as well. I'm running Windows Media Center Edition through Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro but I have no peripherals attached.

Backlight stops working as well as all Apple function keys. I can still use my keyboard to type and my trackpad works fine too. Very aggravating when i cant adjust my volume playing a game or watching movie.

Every other day or so when i boot into windows the backlight does not turn on so i know I'll have to re-install my Bootcamp drivers. I have also noticed in the lower right, start menu notification area that the Bootcamp icon is not loaded. Is Windows just not running the Bootcamp startup Sequence or is there a problem in the Bootcamp Startup drivers.

Anybody have an idea to what this could be? Help please!

As you all are probably well aware, this exact problem has been asked on a countless number of discussion boards and each is answered with a different "solution." Quotation marks are necessary because the solutions suggested work for some users but don't work for others. So, in a way, I offer those who read this reply this same disclaimer. The following solution worked for me (for now!) but it may not work for you.

Just like those other users, my volume and brightness function keys on my Macbook refused to work after installing the latest Bootcamp updates and after restarting Windows 'x' amount of times. In addition, trackpad scrolling, which worked great after one of the updates, also did not respond.

Here's what I did to get them working again, and it's rather simple. Find the Bootcamp application in Windows. Mine was housed in Program Files but yours may located be somewhere differently. Right-click the application and select Open. In my case the screen went black and the resolution downgraded to 800x600 or lower when the images on the screen returned so keep this in mind if or when you attempt this. The screen is significantly cropped so you may have trouble navigating to the Control Panel to fix the resolution to your liking. Anyway, now my brightness and volume function keys and trackpad scrolling work properly.

I should mention one or two more bits of information before I sign off. To start, I cannot say if this trick continues working after restarting Windows. Also, I do not know if this process is something you have to perform everytime you run Windows. In any case, let the world know if this or any other solution fixes this stated problem for you.

I am having the same issue (backlight/FN Keys 1,2,5,6,10,11,12) but I don't even have Boot Camp. So is it the same issue? I don't know. Most of my Googling has led me to people with either the backlight issue OR the volume FN keys issue, not both. I also USED to have an option in Keyboard Prefs to use (or turn off) the keyboard backlight, but that option has vanished.

Tried all the resets, tried creating a new user, no joy. not enjoying this!

k, I don't know if this will help anyone else or not, but I got frustrated seeing people post a problem description without ever returning to say whether a "fix" actually worked or not.

anyway, swallowed my pride and took my MBP to the genius bar at the apple store in the mall, and helpful Andy ran the Snow Leopard install again, which completely fixed my problems. I coulda done that, but honestly I'm used to the Win effect where if you re-install the OS, you lose everything. I was working my way up to that 🙂 But it was a simple enough fix, at least in my case. Worth a shot!

Oh, btw I tried to learn about what may have caused this to happen, but was told basically what I've said to enterprise users before when I've had to re-image their Win PC: it's not worth spending many hours chasing the "actual" fix when a rebuild is much faster and will likely fix the problem anyway. So I don't know any more than I did, but at this point I'm settling for a MBP that works again!