Leopard killing MacBook Pro keyboards?
updated 10:30 am EST, Wed November 14, 2007
MacBook Pro kybd. issues
A number of MacBook Pro owners who have upgraded to Mac OS X Leopard are encountering "dead" keyboards, discussions in Apple's support forums indicate. Primarily in the MacBook Pro forum, users are complaining that Leopard seems to be disabling their keyboards and/or trackpads, though only periodically. "Sometimes after the wake up from sleep," complains one user, "after the username/password screen, the keyboard will stop working for a few seconds, then after pressing a few keys, it will get back to work and so on, until I restart the MBP." Others have claimed dead times of a few minutes to several hours.
Although some users have been reporting similar problems without Leopard, installing the operating system appears to be more likely to trigger the problem. "Zero issues whatsoever until installing 10.5," says a user called kenji. "Now, keyboard disappears frequently and intermittently. I would have finished typing this post sooner, but my keyboard was unresponsive every time I opened a new window."
Keyboards may also be more prone to failure after coming out of Sleep mode, and it is suggested that the keyboard themselves may be falling dormant. At least one user is claiming that holding a key for several seconds may revive control; for most other users however, the only solution so far has been rebooting. Apple has not yet commented on the topic.
While Leopard has been welcomed by numerous reviewers, some drawbacks have gradually been revealed, most recently glitches in Time Machine that have in some cases produced either stalled backups or invisible backup sets.












Me Too
11/14, 10:43am reply
The same thing is happening to my Mini w/1.66 Core Duo.
tlhash
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2003
me three.
11/14, 10:57am reply
My MBP will have no keyboard after waking up 1 out of 5 times or so. Putting the machine back to sleep usually fixes the issue. This began after upgrading to Leopard.
MarkLT1
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2002
Count me as well
11/14, 11:12am reply
My MBP is experiencing the same keyboard issues after installing Leopard. Hopefully a fix will come in 10.5.1.
RussGJohnson
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2004
yeeehs my minions
11/14, 11:18am reply
To all my little guinea pigs, test this cat for me and let the bug fixes come! LEts see if M$ makes mac-pc commercials showing all these problems like apples does to M$ about vista.
themacjedicali
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2007
No Prob here
11/14, 12:39pm reply
I installed and have been working extensively with Leopard on my MBP without any keyboard problems. I travel to different locations so my MBP is often sleeping while in my car. On average, it goes to sleep about 5 times a day and wakes up just fine. There is only a lag while the hard drive spins up.
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
I wish
11/14, 12:43pm reply
I wish I had these problems, unfortunately I can't afford a MacBook Pro just yet and will have to make due with my iMac G5.
I have had issues with OS X 10.5 mostly my iPOD doesn't mount I have to reset it every time I connect to my Mac but then it works, and iPhoto 08 crashes frequently and is extremely slow in 10.5, other than that my iLife is good :-)
jstephe
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2006
Happens on my MacBook
11/14, 01:08pm reply
Yup...I experienced this problem on my MacBook on Monday. I pulled the notebook from my case, hit the space bar to wake it up and the track pad worked well but no keyboard.
I restarted the computer, logged in and all was well. This was not a problem before Leopard. It may be a quirk with my computer as sometimes things happen for no reason regardless of the OS. It does seem that is may be a problem in Leopard, though. I hope this is a not a new issue with 10.5 and my MacBook or it will come off and I will re-install 10.4.10.
DDT_JMT
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2007
Which models?
11/14, 01:19pm reply
Which models of MacBook Pro are affected?
blahblahbloo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2006
Tiger does it too
11/14, 01:33pm reply
My mac mini has been having this issue for a couple of months now. The apple keyboard will just stop working until the usb cable is unplugged then plugged back in. This seems to fix the problem until the next day or so. It seems to happen for me more when I am using parallels.
thedude
thedude
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
Seen it a few times...
11/14, 01:36pm reply
I've had this happen to me only a few times and this just recently. The keyboard just stopped working.
sc_markt
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2002