According to Apple Insider some Macbook and Macbook Pro users have been plagued with a keyboard problem since upgrading to Leopard. The problem causes the keyboard to simply become unresponsive at random intervals, while the trackpad and/or mouse (if you have one connected) continue to function normally.
I’ve had Leopard on a Macbook Pro for a while now, and I haven’t had this problem yet, but apparently it can affect any Intel based Macbook or Macbook Pro regardless of age.
Has this happened to you? If so, do you have any ideas on how to fix it?
109 thoughts on “Reports online of Macbook/Macbook Pro Leopard Keyboard problems”
It happens to me, especially on battery. I reboot and all is well.
One quick way out of it is to hold down on a key until it works.
This is very annoying.
Three of the five machines that I own have this problem. Another symptom appears to be that the first letter typed is typically missing. I have this problem on two new Macbook Pros (17″) and on a new iMac. The MacMini does not seem to have this problem. Also my old Macbook Pro (15″) which is still on Tiger does not have this problem.
I have a Mac Book, and the left Shift-key doesn’t work with the top row of letters. But only sometimes.
All since Leopard.
I installed the 10.5.1 update and then reset my Mac’s PRAM and NVRAM like so:
https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
I have not encountered this problem in the three weeks since then.
This happens to me, and I’m using a G5 iMac!!
I bought a new MacBook two weeks ago and this happens to me every other day. It often happens when I plug or unplug a USB mouse. Sometimes I can just restart the program I’m in (usually Safari) but often I have to reboot. It’s very frustrating and I keep waiting for a software patch.
I’ve had this problem on my MacBook Pro. I can fix it just by rebooting usually.
My first generation MacBook Pro’s keyboard will go unresponsive after using safe sleep, though it doesn’t do it with normal sleep or randomly while being used. It seems that a reboot is the only way to restore it.
My friends from Eastern Europe also have told me, that there are some problems with their language special characters (which prviously worked fine in Tiger). And, yes, I’ve also heard about problems of unresponsiveness. How could Apple screw up such a simple thing – keyboard driver??? I really hope Apple is not slowly becoming another Microsoft!!!
It happens with a new Leopard-installed-as-new MacBook 2.2Ghz machine. Sometimes keyboard just comes back after a few minutes of key presses. Mouse works fine. Command-character (eg: Cmmd-Q to quit app) presses also stop on some apps. Irritating.
It happens to me, only happens when I sleep my MBP and change/remove and replace the battery. Also happens when the battery totally dies and I plug it back in.
Then the fault is intermittent, iv got to reboot to get it back to normal.
This happened when I installed leopard, in tiger it was fine.
Someone please find a fix! Its so annoying.
It happened to me whilst typing this comment!! Urgh!! I used to tell everyone to buy an apple – i’ve been very quiet the last few weeks.
I hope a fix is on its way – otherwise i will have to consider a permanent bootcamp -OMG!.
thought it was related to using multiple profiles, but that doesn’t seem to resolve it. Strange that shutting some apps fixes it – almost like an active x /java issue with browsing – it seemed to happen to me when there was html content in an email i received…that led me to believe a possible browser issue.
Apple – i’m relying on a quick fix here.
Installed 10.5.1 and reset the PRAM as per above…been using my laptop for 3 hours now and no issues…def. better. Fingers crossed, issue resolved for me.
Just bough a MacBook for wife’s bday. Same problem with unresponsive keys.
I’ve been a BIG evangelist for Macs, buying 8 over the years. My wife has been a PC user and I’m trying to convert her. The disillusionment is growing. Come on APPLE, help!!!!!
@Van
Just download the update and the problem should be fixed.
I almost always have this problem when I type in a new field. It is especially frustrating when inputting a password as you get ***** and dont notice the first letter missing.
Apple has acknowledged this problem with this bug report: Bug ID# 4333743
Everyone is reporting the bug to Apple here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html
good luck,
frank
I tried KR’s fix yesterday and reset my Mac’s PRAM and NVRAM yesterday. I have not encountered the keyboard issue since! Yeah!!
Thanks KR.
SG
It’s a bug in Leopard’s Finder. It gets itself into a state where it eats keystrokes rather than forwarding them to its windows. The workaround when it happens is to choose Force Quit from the Apple menu, select Finder and click Relaunch.
Background:
My Powerbook G4 keyboard worked perfectly under Tiger for over a year. I installed Leopard two weeks ago, and today experienced the keyboard bug for the first time. Having read about it earlier I watched closely when it happened. I was in Finder and noticed that Ctrl+Delete to delete files was no longer working. Shift+Ctrl+N to create a new folders didn’t work either. Neither did any letters or numbers which normally let you navigate through Finder file lists. My external USB 2.0 HDD was busy at the time so, suspecting it was a USB issue, I went into System Preferences to look for a way of reinitialising the keyboard. I found nothing there but *did* notice that keyboard shortcuts in the System Preferences panel worked, which meant it wasn’t a hardware fault.
The clincher was observing that keystrokes in the search box of System Preferences are displayed, but in Finder window the search box receives no such keystrokes. That made it a Finder bug. Keyboard functionality in Finder after its relaunched confirmed it.
It happened to me even with Tiger. I have the very first MacBook Pro 17″. Usually happens when I wake up the computer from sleep. It seems to happen more when it’s not plugged into power source. Sometimes putting it back to sleep seem to fix it, but I usually have to make it sleep couple times before the keyboard becomes responsive again. So sleeping it could have nothing to do with fixing it.
I haven’t noticed anything since upgrading to Leopard because I’ve been using Apple’s new USB keyboard.
I have this problem too. I have a three-week old MBP (15.4″ / 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo) with no 3rd-party software installed, and have installed the 10.5.1 update. I haven’t installed the PRAM but have anecdotal evidence that this doesn’t help anyway. I am still getting the milder problem where keystrokes randomly disappear, regardless of which app I’m running. Very irritating!
*reset the PRAM. Apologies.
This has just happened to me and I’ve been running Leopard until now without any issues. And I upgraded to the point release via Software Update the other week (so running 10.5.1).
The keyboard letters and numbers become non-responsive but the pad continues to be usable, and will click into documents or web forms. I just can’t enter information into those documents and forms.
It is happening to me right now. Once it starts I have short windows of time when it does work but then it stops again in a few minutes I will have to reboot to “solve” the problem. Help me Apple. Help me anybody!!
Maybe I should have read all the posts before being a smart-ass. I will have to try that Finder trick Grant Walker posted.
No, relaunching Finder didn’t help me. Nice try though.
I will now try resetting the PRAM & NVRAM.
Fingers crossed.
Apple Tech Support informed me about two weeks ago that they were aware of this issue happening to “a small number of users” – HA! Maybe by their standards, unless, as we all know in this thread and so many others, it’s happening to US! Then it is NO small matter!
They told me that there is an Apple Internal Memo #307030 on this subject, and that they are “working on it.” Not fast enough, I submit. I have 3 MBP Duos I want to upgrade to Leopard, but I refuse to do so until this HUGE issue is addressed successfully.
I’m a fairly recent MacConvert and this is not doing much for my confidence in Apple to address serious matters in a timely fashion. I’m also a stockholder and this type of lack of support is most disappointing.
Come On Guys! Fix the problem!
This just started happening to me. I didn’t notice this until after I used my 10.4 install disc to install iphoto, iDvd and Garage Band.
I had to take the battery out and reset the power management hardware.
my keyboard has been consistently freezing on my macbook pro after a leapord install. I have to force restart every time the machine goes to sleep. really really lame.
and it happened immediately after the leapord install.
me to. I’m using an external keyboard… this really sucks. Apparently there is no fix at the moment.
I have found that if the keyboard is unresponsive, if I just wait for 10-30 seconds… it works again.
YES, the problem where it does not let you type, but the cursor is still moving and websites are able to be open. I got a macbook pro and had to swap it because i was having problems with the keyboard’s volume not working which was three days ago and now this one is randomly not letting me type. this is ridiculous, you pay over 2 grand for something that doesnt work any where near the price is costs, my old macbook 60GB worked way better than this one. i dont know what to do because this will most likely happen again if i swap it for a new one. APPLE IS GOOD BUT MOST OF THERE STUFF DOESNT WORK EVER.
I just bought new a MBP 2.6 a week ago today….I continued to miss my first keystroke over and over….thought it was just me then I tested it by letting it sit idle and then trying…no matter how hard I hit the first key (any key) nothing – about one out of 20. Then it began to freeze as mentioned above…I took it back to replace it tonight. The Apple Store tried to make me sound like it was just me…”I’ve never heard of that…blah blah..you must be doing something…). Now…the brand new one…only a few hours old is slowing starting to do it to!! What gives? $3500 … and this? Crazy…it pisses me off as I switched to Apple because of the Vista nightmare…now it seems they aren’t much better. Wouldn’t be so bad if they would just admit there is a problem and tell us there is a fix coming…but ignoring it? Way to lose customers. Sad really!
I have a two week old Macbook 2.2 Ghz with Leopard installed at the factory. The keyboard randomly stops responding although the mouse pad and a BT mouse continue to work fine. Logging off or rebooting solve the problem temporarily. It has happened as many as 5 times in a day with moderate use.
brand new santa rosa macbook with leopard preinstalled. keyboard dying several times today. sleeping helps. this is my first mac and i’m not pleased. where is the solution?
“brand new santa rosa macbook with leopard preinstalled. keyboard dying several times today. sleeping helps”
Same hardware as yours, unless problem is not so severe. Sometimes I notice the keyboard dying after sleep but only for a brief time period, then it starts to work again.
YES! I just bought a Macbook Pro a week ago and noticed the keyboard randomly freezing up for 30 seconds at a time. At first, it happend once every few hours, but after a while it was happening every 5 or 10 min!! On Monday, I exchanged it for a new one and last night the keyboard started freezing again!!! GRRRRRR. I am heading back there tonight to exchange again — this time I refuse to install Leopard until a fix is documented. Have any of you experienced this problem running the older operating system?
Wow. It took me ten minutes to write this thing because of the stupid keyboard freezing. Yeah I’ve had a macbook pro and nothing went wrong until i installed leopard.
I have the same problem with the occasional mouse freeze as well. It has started since I installed leopard. I am not happy about this.
Hi!
I have a new macbook that came with leopard pre-installed and have been having the same keyboard and recovery from sleep mode as a lot of you. Resetting my PRAM seems to have had no effect on it though. :S I also have troubles with the special characters paletter… it looks like apple did not even install it! A colleague of mine with a new macbook has had these same issues as well. Any ideas on how to fix the character palette without doing a new install?
Doesn’t seem like such a small number. I just began having this issue tonight. My wife’s MacBook also had the left-shift key problem I keep hearing about, but that was fixed by the Apple crew. Hope they figure this out.
It seems to only happen when the keyboard sits unused for a few seconds. Tapping a key repeatedly eventually “wakes it back up.” Odd.
Same problem (ITALY),
so … let me know: is a keyboard problem? Or is an OS problem?
I am a bit confused ….
Thanks
I have the same problem. It seemed to me more hardware related than software — sometimes tapping the computer around the trackpad seems to make it free up. Of course, now I am feeling that this is superstition, seeing how frequent the problem is, and how it seems to be Leopard-related. I am going to try the nvram reset, and see what happens.
I have had no problems when using the (sweet) extrenal Mac USB keyboard, and that’s how I usually use the machine anyway.
I have MacBook Pro and the same problem. I noticed that if I switch off the backlight (by pressing F8) the problem solves. May this is the cause?
Hi Emanuele I’m Italian, let me know if the things are going better after the reset. Mt MBP restarts to do the problem also with the backlight off.
it seems that the update to QuickTime 7.3.1 resolves the problem (at least for my case)
Hello Alberto,
Are you italian? Me too :o)
I try to phone an Apple Centre in San Marino and they tell me I am the first having this kind of problem!
Incredible …..
I’ll try to reset PRAM today ….
Hi Emanuele, yes I’m Italian. Let me know if the things are going better after the reset.
I’ve had the same problem since installing Leopard on my Santa Rosa MBP, and the trick I use to wake it up is to plug and unplug a USB connector. It doesn’t have to be connected to anything, but you may need to rotate the ports to ‘surprise’ it enough so that it wakes up.
Going to try resetting the PRAM and see if that works.
Got the problem here too. Have tried the reset-PRAM solution without luck. :-(((
Just hold any key down for about 10 seconds when your keyboard freezes.
your opinion: are there any keyboard-MacBookPro that goes right?
Or all MacBookPro have this problem?
Can we ask to Apple change our keyboards?
I have a MB Pro with Leopard and the only problem that I have seen is when I type a word sometimes the first few letters seem to appear late.
Looks as if I got a good one, thank you very much.