Macbook Pro keyboard (certain keys) not working

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Feb 2, 2008
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Akron, Ohio
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 15" - 2.0ghz - 2gb - 250gb - Snow Leopard 10.6.x
It started today and randomly the keys on my Macbook Pro (2.0ghz, running 10.6.3) stopped working. No matter how much (or hard) you press them, nothing happens. The weirdest thing is that only keys A-L dont work. The caps lock worked as well as the semi-colon and all the other keys on my keyboard. I tried rebooting and nothing solved it. Then randomly they just started working again. It happened this morning for probably 5 minutes and just again when i got home from work, again they were only "broken" for about 5 minutes or so. I did nothing to solve the problem & magically the keys A through L began to work again. Also they are not sticky and have not come into contact with any water, etc. as far as i'm aware.

Has anyone heard of this? I haven't done anything "new" to my system recently for them to just stop working this morning at random. Also i have checked all the settings in System Preferences & all is well. I'm guessing they will stop working at any time again...its super random. Please let me know if you have any info.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
iMac 20" 2.4 GHz Dual Core 3GB Ram 320GB Hard Drive 10.6.2 :: Ipod Touch 8 GB :: Beastly Gaming PC
sounds like there is a loose wire connection in your keyboard, although I'm not too sure about how one would go about fixing this...
 
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sounds like there is a loose wire connection in your keyboard, although I'm not too sure about how one would go about fixing this...

Yeah i wasnt sure if it was a loose wire connection or not, because as far as i know its only one connector therefore the whole keyboard would be out. But it could just be a little loose at one of the ends or something.

Let me know if anyone else has heard of this/has a solution!
 
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Not sure what model of laptop you have but older ones have a ribbon cable (flat thing about 2cm wide) connecting the keyboard to rest of the machine, if the keyboard is the old lift out type (there are instructions around on the net for these) you might try just lifting it gently out and unplugging then replugging both ends of the ribbon cable.

Haven't ever pulled a newer one apart so if its the kind with the new counter sunk keys each with its own hole then sorry no ideas...
 
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MBP 15" - 2.0ghz - 2gb - 250gb - Snow Leopard 10.6.x
yeah i have the "older one"...i'm just not sure if it's a loose connection that would cause a few keys not to work. Thanks for the help though.

Does anyone else have any ideas?
 
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Similar Problem: resolved

Hi there, just registered after years of reading these posts... I was having a similar problem (MacBookPro 2.33, 10.6.3, tab/space/delete not working, restart doesn't help, no SysPref settings issues), but had the additional caveat of having replaced the keyboard about a year ago. I had the suspicion that it had something to do with the cable, and read one of the replies suggesting that this might be the case.

My high-tech solution was to press on the top panel of the laptop (i.e. aluminum casing surrounding the keyboard). Voila! My keys work again... let's see how long this lasts.
 
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I got the same problem but I replaced it with a new one. I bought from this company laptopkey.com . They helped me out . you can also check
 
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Diagnosis with MacOS built-in Keyboard Viewer

Before opening up your chassis / lugging your computer to the Apple Store, do some diagnosis with MacOS's built-in Keyboard Viewer.

My issue was similar to those described here and elsewhere:
- delete key not working
- up/down arrow equivalent to page up/page down
- space bar not working intermittently

Use the Keyboard Viewer as follows:
1. Open System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard sub-tab -> check the "Show Keyboard and Character Viewer in menu bar" checkbox
2. Click the little window icon which appears top-right next to your battery meter, and select the "Show Keyboard Viewer" menu option
3. A small window will appear showing your Mac keyboard. Each key is highlighted with each keystroke.

Hey presto! Using the Keyboard Viewer, I could immediately see my problem - the Function ('fn' key) at the bottom left of my keyboard was sticking.

Since Macbook keyboards are really hard to get at (see Wired Gadgetlab), and what the **** - its an old computer - I just removed the function key and the keyboard is back to normal. Yay. Good luck!
 
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Dust-off success

Tried all the above suggestions to fix my computer with same issue. Grabbed some dust-off. Went crazy with it. Works now.
 

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