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November 14, 2007
Leopard Losing Touch with MacBook Pro Keyboards, Trackpads
As much as you may like Mac OS X 10.5, a patch wouldn't be a bad thing.
According to Macworld UK, several MacBook Pro laptop users have reported that their systems' keyboards and trackpads have stopped working under 10.5. The only apparent solution: reboot your computer.
In many cases, the problem seems to be intermittent. One user who identified himself in a forum post as "Cub man", reported that his keyboard would stop working and become unresponsive to the point where even the caps lock and number lock lights would refuse to turn on. The bug would then resolve itself after a few minutes and resurface at a later point in time.
Other users, including Stefan Arentz, wrote of nearly identical symptoms. "This is on a MacBook Pro that I bought about a month ago. Now with Leopard the keyboard and trackpad stop working at completely at unpredictable moments. The only thing that helps is to connect an external keyboard/mouse and reboot."
To date, Apple support personnel, though sympathetic, have been unable to provide a definitive answer. In some cases, the problem seemed to surface after the computer was activated from a sleep state while in others, it appeared as if the keyboard itself had dozed off.
Apple has been reported to be working on a Mac OS X 10.5.1 release, albeit no specific fix list or release timetable has come along with it.
If you've seen this problem on your end or encountered a similar error, let us know in the comments or forums.
Posted by chrisbarylick at November 14, 2007 9:09 AM
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Comments
I just noticed it last night on my MacBook.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 14, 2007 9:53 AM
I experienced this type of problem once when rebooting after the latest QuickTime and iTunes updates. The NumLock key was suddently lighted so I turned it off and the keyboard didn't work anymore except for the UI)PJKL:M>? key that acted as 456*123-0.
It turned out the keyboard was acting as it NumLock was on when it was off and vice versa it worked fine when NumLock was on.
Rebooting the computer reset things to normal.
Posted by: Georges Pelpel at November 14, 2007 10:01 AM
Mine too! But only a couple of times and only the left half of the keyboard. Weird.
Posted by: Ryan Parks at November 14, 2007 10:33 AM
This is _not_ a Leopard-only issue. My MBP 2.4GHz (SR) running Tiger has it as well.
Posted by: DF at November 14, 2007 12:13 PM
I've been struggling with this nearly daily on my MBP 2.4 (4 months old). Initially my problem seemed to be present only when waking from sleep but I can't say that's definitely the case. Unfortunately I also had this happen a few times with this same machine and 10.4.10 so I don't think it's just 10.5.
Posted by: vijoy at November 14, 2007 1:05 PM
About 25% of the time when I wake my MacBook Pro from sleep the track pad is "jumpy" and you can't cursor does not move smoothly accross the screen. It is almost impossible to manouver it so you can point on something. The only solution is to reboot. I never had this problem with 10.4, only since I upgraded to 10.5. I also have lost keyboard function a couple of time but thought that it was something that I did. Good that others have had this problem. Hopefully Apple can fix this.
Posted by: Russell Brown at November 14, 2007 3:47 PM
Exactly the same thing happened to me couple of days ago about 4 times. In my case logging out helped, I didn't have to reboot. Strange thing is that it doesn't seem to happen every day. Don't remember doing anything special the day it happened a lot. Never happened to me with Tiger, so my take is that this is Leopard thing. I'm running a 17" MBP 2.33.
Posted by: Timo Pakkala at November 14, 2007 4:42 PM
This is happening occasionally on my MacBook (not pro) where the trackpad is unresponsive and then self corrects. Only started with Leopard install.
Posted by: Anonymous at November 14, 2007 10:52 PM
I have the same problem with my Macbook Pro. I've only started having problems after I installed leopard.
Posted by: Joe A Flores at November 15, 2007 2:13 AM
No keyboard response on MBP 2.4GHz. Had Kogitech mouse connected -- blamed it -- but only option was reboot.
Posted by: ben boonen at November 15, 2007 7:21 AM
The 10.5.1 patch does *NOT* solve this problem, at least on my MacBook.
Keyboard is completely unresponsive, after multiple reboots, plugging in iPod, resetting PRAM. Not sure what else to do.
Posted by: Joe W at November 18, 2007 11:38 AM
I've had the same problem. It happened several times after he went into sleepmode.
Also the lights (like F6) didn't work anymore.
He usually restores himself or it works again after rebooting.
The trackpad does not have problems, so far, my macbookpro is only 4 days old.
Posted by: Ellen at November 19, 2007 1:30 PM
PowerBook G4, trackpad doesn't respond immediately (seems "groggy"), but is fine after half a minute. With an external mouse plugged in, there is no slowed response from mouse.
No keyboard issues
Posted by: AK Mac fan at November 19, 2007 5:07 PM
I have the same issue with a PB 15 inch with 1,5 Ghz PPC. A few weeks after I upgraded to 1.5 I woke it up after sleeping and suddenly no keyboard and no trackpad. The only solution was to connect external ones. Have tried removing suspicious software which potentially have no Leopard support but no luck so far.
Posted by: Alexandra at November 25, 2007 4:07 PM
Managed to solve it now. Unsure really why but what I did was to reset a setting I did earlier this year to enable Expose "Show Desktop" with the following command:
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-olddesktop -bool true; killall Dock
Then I booted into safe mode (with Shift-key pressed down). Then both keyboard and trackpad started working. Before the reboot I was informed that caches were being restored. I wonder if maybe cleaning some caches with Cocktail.app or something would do the trick. However, now it is working again.
Posted by: Alexandra at November 25, 2007 7:13 PM
So 2 weeks later now, the problem didn't occur anymore.
I am not sure, but my problems were gone when i deleted suitcase fusion (a program to store fonts) so i'm thinking maybe i had a corrupt font(s) who were messing things up.
I've had problems with software before because of fonts,so that's why i think that is/was the problem.
Posted by: Ellen at November 28, 2007 4:57 PM
So I think that my keyboard is on its last leg. I am running 10.5.1 on a MBPC2D, and the keyboard keeps cutting out more frequently and getting harder to get back. It almost looks like Leopard is killing my keyboard, and if thats so I am going to be screwed I installed a new hard drive after my warrantee expired, so there will be no hope of getting apple to fix it.
Posted by: Kilopound at November 30, 2007 10:38 AM
I have the same problem as Russell Brown. The trackpad seems "jumpy;" the cursor doesn't move smoothly across the screen. It seems to hesitate.
I have _tended_ to think the issue revolved interrupts associated with WiFi scanning. When I turn off WiFi, it does track a _bit_ more smoothly. But it's still not silky smooth movement.
It's driving me a bit nuts. I, too, hope Apple identifies the problem. Has anybody gone and filed tickets at Apple?
Posted by: Anonymous at December 28, 2007 7:47 AM
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