Random Keys Working Sporadically

Omg, adding that I'm having the exact same experience: Spring 2011 MacBook Pro, and my t, y, u, i, and o keys work only sporadically.

We fixed the issue for a while (messed with the ram, repaired disk permissions, cleaned out a ton of things in the hard drive library per some online suggestions), but it's back again after 3 weeks of keyboard bliss. I'm using an external bluetooth keyboard to type this.

The problem's recurred for the last 8ish weeks -- enough time for me to notice that this seems to happen during the same periods when my laptop starts to easily overheat. Like, my laptop seems to have "seasons" during which I suddenly have to prop books beneath it (when working in certain scenarios) in order to keep the fan from running high.

Not sure if it's coincidence that the keys get intermittent during these times, but it's def curious. ?

If anyone finds a solution, please let us know!

Same issue for 13" MBA mid-2011 for all keys from Q to O (not P,.. yet), started yesterday. Very annoying since my password has some of them, and also reloading (Cmd+R) does not work. It starts working again if I press one of the keys for long time.

Edit: I have a "service battery" warning since a while so I guess it's time to fix it.

finally after months of research and not finding the answer here is the trouble shoot for you key problems.

just tap option key 5 times in your keyboard and your set to go.

hope it helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxSo1xnxL_k

Oh my god. Are you kidding me?? This sounded ridiculous, but at this point, I'll try anything.

So the option key didn't work, but you may have meant the ctrl key? Because I tapped it 5 times, and here I am typing on my macbook pro keyboard for the first time in over a week.

What. The. F.

Early Spring 17" Macbook pro and having the same issue. 2 days ago y,o,h,l,n,0,., and arrow keys stopped working. For a moment 'control' locked on but that faded away after an hour or two.

- Pressing keys 5 times ( opt, alt,cmnd,shft) does nothing.

- I have checked all preferences (speech, dictation, universal, keyboard, text) as mentioned in blogs.

- I have also created a new user to varify there is no issue with specific account preferences.

- I reset RAM ( press & hold Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears on restart )

Keyboard viewer shows nothing when pressing these keys however when keys are clicked through keyboard viewer they works fine.

I noticed this began after I wiped off my keyboard while the computer was on (on the log-in screen) which is why I thought that this could simply be some bizarre setting I mistakenly turned on while pushing multiple keys that renders keys non functional but after reading 8 hours worth of online tech support, blogs, etc., nothing suggested works. I am careful with my Mac and have gently cleaned it the same way I have been since 2011. This is the first keyboard issue. There seems to be a lot of people with this same problem, I hope there is a fix I am overlooking. I am going to the Mac Store today and will update with issues.

I've heard Macs are 4 year machines before the built in obselete features kick in. I definitely love this 17" so I hope this is just of single, correctable glitch.

and sidenote, if the new iphone is not waterproof I may just be convinced Apple has lost its competitive edge. 😟

I have a MacBook Pro purchased in 2010. Letters A through L on my built-in keyboard (the entire middle row of letter keys) have stopped working. At first it was sporadic but now they seem to be out for good. This problem just developed over the past few days. I've tried all the troubleshooting suggested. Nothing works. I'm typing with an external bluetooth keyboard now. From what I've read, it could be that the battery has warped and is affecting these keys? Hesitant to buy a replacement battery given the machine is already four years old and may just continue to deteriorate...

I just started having the exact same issue as AndreiX this evening with my Mid 2012 MBP Retina. I discovered quite at random that if I press hard on the case on the speaker grilles to either side of the affected row (QWERTYUIOP), it starts working again. I think this lends credence to the theory that there's a loose connection somewhere under the keyboard.

Exact same problem here. With me, it's the middle row from A to L. If I press down hard and repeatedly they work. Then they don't. Then they do again. I'm struggling to type this out now.

Early 2011 15" Macbook Pro. Odd that all these similar machines should suddenly have this issue.

I have the same problem with my 13" MBA mid 2011.

Letters q to t do not work. It's funny that the user AndreiX with the same MBA has the problem in the same row of letters.

I have a Macbook Pro 15" early 2011. At first, the E would give me trouble/would sometimes (not) register. Just a couple of days ago other keys (r, t, y, u, i, o) sometimes have problems registering. Pressing harder is not a solution. Keep pressing them often does work, sometimes within 5 seconds, sometimes up to 10 seconds, sometimes not at all. And a random period later (often a couple of minutes) the non-responsive keys work (for a while) again...

I have done SMC and PRAM resets. Taken off the back-cover and removing and re-inserting the keyboard flat cable. None of the action solves the problem.

This machine has already given me more problems ("monday model"?). Several keys have worn off (like: you can't make out whether it is an a, d etc). I had it looked at by Geniuses and resellers. Best i get is "we have never seen this before" and one time "maybe it's something in your sweat". Not: "We are an A-brand, this is not supposed to happen, you paid a premium price for this product, we will replace it free".

I had the misfortune of having it make a nasty fall once: that will ensure that every malfunction will be tight to that fall :-(. A couple of months after the incident a yellowish discoloration started to appear in the left lower side of the screen. Found others on the Net with similar problems. The display was replaced (although they said it might be related to the fall and i really needed to talk a lot to reason it was months after the fall this started and i read about similar problems).

A year later, after returning from holiday, i opened up my Macbook: battery had died, had to buy a new battery and was told it was a known (?) problem that when you totally drain the battery, it may die (really? 2011 A brand tech?). Only a couple of months later the screen stopped making any sense (unreadable, also at boot): brought it to a service store, and i had to pay for a mother board replacement. And now the keyboard :-( ...

Same problem for me! (macbook air 13" 2011) q till o are not working very well. The problem started just with the letter w but soon it began to spread out on the other keys. After several software attempts (fresh insall of mac os; Pram; SMC) I opened the macbook to see if there is any dirt inside. I cleand the whole keyboard (which was very hard to reach) with alcohol and reassembled it, but unfortunalty it still has the same problem. Some times the keys work and sometimes they dont.

Has anybody brouht it to the genius bar? What did they say about it?

Actually, I am a bit disappointed right now. I would not have expect such a problem after 3 years. I also have a lenovo think pad which is 5 years old which has no problem at all (except of the battery).

This problem started happening for me today. Only the top row, from e to o. Completely random, no liquids. The MBP service guide wasn't helpful - listed the usual stuff like try known good OS, updates, replace top case, etc etc.

Anyway your comment about the swelling battery interested me, so I tried unplugging the power adapter, then they started working again. Then after a few minutes they stopped. So I plugged it back in and they started working again. Keys haven't broken since - YET. I have no idea what being plugged in has to do with the keys, but it's worked for me so far! Try it!

So what did you do guys about this? Yesterday started to happen to me as well, mbp late 2011, letters from r...o randomly not working. i noticed if i get them to work and play only with them and then i press 'e' they start not to work again. also if i keep a nonworking key longer it appears after a while. for now i followed the advice to remove the power and seems to work, but there's a long time ahead...

This problem is incredible.

Exact same problem here (Late 2011 MBP), has been happening for around a month and getting continually worse. I am now unable to use keys E through O, although before it got worse I was sometimes able to repeatedly hit the key and/or hold it down to get them to work again for a few minutes. No random spills or anything has changed since this has started. I can only find replacements on places like Ebay, and the comments sound like the replacements aren't the best. Not to mention how long it takes to disassemble and replace the keyboard alone. Short of going to my nearest Apple store 1.5 hours away and paying for a repair (likely charging me for a 250$ top case and lord only knows how much for labor), I am lost. I can't believe so many similar systems just recently started having this issue. Has anyone figured anything out, or can we get something other than a referral to the support article? I am very unhappy about this.

I figured out the problem. I booted up into a known-good OS on a flash drive and plugged in an external keyboard. No problems. Then tried to type on the top row of the Macbook's keyboard - didn't work. Issue detected: the top case. -Fail horn- Even though I hadn't spilled anything in it, sometimes those top cases go bad for whatever reason.

So if you're having this problem: plug in an external keyboard, boot into a clean copy of OS, and try it again. If you can type on the external keyboard but not your computer's, it's the top case.