Unresponsive Keyboard/Mouse on Lock Screen

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Level 1

11 points

Unresponsive Keyboard/Mouse on Lock Screen

Hi there,

I have a MacBook Pro (4GB RAM/ 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5) running OS X 10.9.5.

For the past few months I have been getting a problem which is stated in the title. Both my mouse and keyboard are unresponsive on the lock screen for a prolonged period of time. After the laptop has been in hibernate/sleep mode for a prolonged period of time, when I wake the machine up by pressing the power switch on opening the lid, the neither the keyboard or mouse will respond at all - therefore I cannot unlock my computer.

This only used to happen for about 10 seconds about 5 months ago, but it's been slowly getting worse. Nowadays it takes roughly 4-5 mins for the keyboard to respond. As the computer isn't registering any input, it keeps going into sleep again. It's almost an endless cycle! I turn it on, keep pressing keys until it responds, then it turns itself back off...

I'm assuming it must be some sort of software issue. I have updated to the latest release for Mavericks, even though I was having the same problem when I was running 10.9.2.

I would like to avoid a time machine reset, I've had to do it a few times in the past but I'm not exactly comfortable with all my data being wiped and copied back over. Upgrading to Yosemite is also not an option. I've had many, many compatibility issues with hardware and software when upgrading to Mavericks and quite frankly, I do not have the money to buy new hardware or upgrade software to work with the absolute latest OS. (And I know people with the same model MacBook as me - where Yosemite has crippled their computer so much, it takes at least 5 minutes to open their web browser sometimes!)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ray.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jun 14, 2015 4:17 PM

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Answer 1

Grazzii Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 2, 2015 6:23 AM in response to Grazzii

This problem is getting worse. Anyone have any ideas? 😐

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Jul 2, 2015 8:46 AM in response to Grazzii

Try a restart.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode

Safe Mode - Mavericks also Yosemite

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