Keyboard and Mouse Pad not responding

Hey ..

one day i turned on my MacBook 13" 10.5.6 version, but this time nothing was responding. It all started good, and the boot screen showed up, it was all good till the login screen, it showed me the user name and I was supposed to type the password.

when trying to use the mouse pad to get to the password field, the mouse pad wasn't responding. Then I tried using the keyboard and also it wasn't working. Even the caps lock button is not working (figured that bcz its green light wasn't turning on when clicking the button).

I don't know what to do about it ?
Can you help me with this ?

do you have a mouse you can plug in and try? if you can click the "go back" button you can restart it and see if that fixes it.

if not you might have to hold the power button to force shut down to see if it fixes itself.

didn't work !!

I did that already. I did push the power button for several seconds to shut it down, then i turned it on. but still the same problem, its not working. I tried plugging a keyboard and a mouse (normal mouse, not bluetooth nor wireless) but still the MacBook is not responding to any of the devices I plugged in, even after restarting the system.

So, I dunno how to fix this problem !! I use my mac on a daily bases, and now it has been down for almost two days. Please anybody, help me with this problem !!

I had the exact same thing happen. Everything was working fine, I shut-down my Macbook, took it to a meeting, booted it up, and the keyboard and mouse would not respond (including bluetooth and USB).

I was able to boot into safe mode (holding the shift key right after the tone), which led me to believe it was a software issue, and not a hardware issue.

I booted using my Leopard install DVD, and backed up to the most recent Time Machine image that I had. Everything worked, but when I rebooted, the mouse and keyboard were locked again.

It got me thinking, a few weeks back I upgraded to 10.5.6, and a couple days ago, I had installed the USB patch to allow my iPhone to connect in DFU mode. I'm thinking that patch messed something up with my computer. So, I restored to an image earlier than the USB patch and now everything is working fine (I've rebooted several times).

I did spend some time on the phone with Apple Support, and although they were friendly, they had no idea regarding this issue (although it has showed up on some forums, generally with Macbooks and Macbook Pros).

Just wondering if your experience is related to mine at all?

msadah07 said:

I did that already. I did push the power button for several seconds to shut it down, then i turned it on. but still the same problem, its not working. I tried plugging a keyboard and a mouse (normal mouse, not bluetooth nor wireless) but still the MacBook is not responding to any of the devices I plugged in, even after restarting the system.

So, I dunno how to fix this problem !! I use my mac on a daily bases, and now it has been down for almost two days. Please anybody, help me with this problem !!

Click to expand...

Assuming your system software, like key and mouse driver got corrupted, and you can boot your MacBook into SAFE mode (see edge777's post), why don't you try an "Archive and Install" from the MacBook Install CD. When it works (which depends on how bad things are with you), all your installed programs are preserved and your data is untouched, while a copy of our old system is saved to a folder called PREVIOUS SYSTEM in case not everthing got migrated properly. Assuming you can work your keyboard and touchpad in SAFE mode, I would do a system backup (I believe I ran a Time Machine backup successfully in SAFE mode) first, just to preserve your data for a worst-case scenario. All sounds are extremely low, iTunes, iMovies and iDVD (and probably many other stuff) doesn't work in SAFE mode. So you do need to restore your system.

My MacBook Pro froze on normal boot last November. After researching the problem on these forums, I booted into SAFE mode and did the Archive and Install, which restored my system. It's all good now.

When I went into safe mode, the problem still persisted.

I wanted to do a archive and install, but didn't have the option off the install disk (where do you find that). However, I did still have the Time Machine backup which worked (took a few hours).

I was screwed over by that **** kext 'patch' as well as many others.

(Side note, do NOT install that kext patch in order to get access to DFU mode, it really DOES disable your keyboard and mouse).

Being a trusting idiot, I used that automated patch and now have no access to a keyboard or mouse and it also disables the usb port on my Macbook air.

I'm out of luck at the moment since booting into safe mode doesn't give me access to the keyboard or mouse and since this is a Macbook air, I don't have a cd drive with me at the moment to reinstall osx. *sighs*

Bummer, that sucks. Well, one good thing, and too bad we had to be the guinea pigs on this one - When I first tried to search for a solution to this problem, I came up with several others having the same problems, but no answers. At least others now know the problem is not hardware related, and how to fix it.

Same Problem

I have the same problem. I feel like its a software issue because I've replace the keyboard with a brand new one last week and that didn't fix the problem. I've considered the possibility that I got a bad replacement keyboard, but it seems unlikely. Please let us know if re-installing OS helps any. (I don't have a restore disk for this computer so I can't test that one myself.)

I lucked out and had screen sharing enabled on Mobile ME. So I used another mac to access the macbook air and install the combo update.

Reinstalling the combo update or the OS will help you brad (if you've got the same issue as us).

I'm not to sure what to do!
I have never seen this before.
Take it to apple!

edge777 said:

When I went into safe mode, the problem still persisted.

I wanted to do a archive and install, but didn't have the option off the install disk (where do you find that). However, I did still have the Time Machine backup which worked (took a few hours).

Click to expand...

It's been a while since I did it, but check out this Apple OS X Support Link..

Mac OS X: About the Archive and Install feature

I just fixed this problem on my MacBook Pro and thought I would share what resolved it. I had the same issue, my keyboard and trackpad were locking up after a period of use.. for no specific reason. I could power down with holding down the power button but the problem would continue at random during use.

I took it in to a Genius at the Apple Store and they resolved it in less than an hour by replacing the Topcase (the part your hands rest on including the trackpad but not the keyboard). Basically the problem is related to how the Topcase connects to the mainboard.

The problem was this: There is only one wire that makes the connection between the mainboard and the trackpad component. When that wire fails to connect or the trackpad has some problem with it, both the keyboard and trackpad cease to operate. You can test this by plugging in an external keyboard and mouse. If they work, its a problem with your Topcase.

Replacing the Topcase takes about an hour if staff is available and the part is in stock. It did cost me around $300 for it but its cheaper than a new MacBook Pro and I got a brand new trackpad and surface for part that goes around my keyboard (basically 1/4 of my mac is now brand new) so the price is pretty reasonable.

Hope that helps some.

- Nick

nickf, awesome!
What you described is pretty much exactly the problem I've been having with my MacBook Pro. I've been having to use an external mouse and keyboard, which works fine but is a huge pain. Sometimes my built in trackpad and keyboard will start working spontaneously, but most often they don't work.
I hope mine is the same problem you had and not something much worse, thanks for the post

Hi,

I just had this happen today, no changes to OS, just the keyboard and touchpad stopped working.

Booting into Single User (command+S) I was able to run applejack, ran all checks but the fix permissions, restarted and the keyboard and touchpad worked again. Saved having to do the archive & reinstall.

ResidentNerd

Update:
If you think the cause for your issue is your topcase, check your battery first!
I took mine into an Apple Genius to try and clear up the issue before paying to fix it. He of course suggested replacing the topcase, but he also mentioned it could be caused by the battery. The battery on the Macbook Pro is located directly under the trackpad, and if the battery gets bad and bubbles or warps, it pushes up against the trackpad and can cause it to fail.
I took my battery out the other day and ran it with just the power adapter. After being dead for 4 months, my keyboard and trackpad started working as soon as I rebooted. When I put the battery back in, they quit working again. It seems my battery is the issue, although it doesn't seem warped or bubbled.
Replacing a battery is quite a bit cheaper than a new topcase though

MacBook 10.6.2
Mouse and keyboard work fine until screen saver kicks in, then unable to wake up. Reboot and problem goes away until computer is at idle. Any ideas?

Oops seems like a lot people have the same problem. It happened to me yesterday. I was in a right flap.
Seems to be fine now. We shall see.

I am just glad that I had some info of why it happens and how to rectify it.

Is there any way to avoid the buying of a new upper case, its 300 bucks, not cheap! would it be possible to fix the cable shortcut between the keyboard and the upper case?

cmd+alt+p+r

Since yesterday I had a similar problem on my MacBook Pro. Everything looked normal, but the keybord and trackpad are not responding. I did try to plug in a usb mouse (didn't try a usb keyboard since I don't have any) and it worked well. Then, I did try to repair the authorisations, didn't help. However, resetting the PRAM (restart computer holding cmd+alt+p+r until after the third consecutive startup Mac sound) did solve the problem. If you have the same problem, try this before reinstalling anything...