News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

December 17, 2007

troubleshooting

McBook keboards skpping leters

Posted Dec. 17, ’07, 12:35 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Troubleshooting

macbookkeyboard2.jpgThere’s nothing more gratifying than having a problem with my Mac and finding out others are having the same problem, thus vindicating the belief that I am not totally insane — despite several psychiatrists’ claims to the contrary. (I don’t believe any psychiatrist who doesn’t have his own radio show and isn’t played by Kelsey Grammer.)

This problem comes in the form of keyboard naughtiness (sorry, first word to come to mind); Engadget sums it up:

For the uninitiated, the problem manifests itself in many ways, and was present before Leopard but showed up in more machines after the Leopard upgrade. Symptoms can include randomly skipped letters (specifically the first letter), fully frozen keyboards, funky capslock or numlock, and mild indegestion

My problem is the first: the keyboard at times completely ignores input, often leaving me with words missing their first few letters, or sentences missing their first few words. I didn’t notice the omissionness until I upgraded to Leopard, so I’m going to blame the cat* and hope a software update will remedy the repetition-required annoyance.

Engadget is running a poll on the issue, and so far about 8% of MacBook users and 10% of MacBook Pro users are experiencing the keyboard quandary — nothing too significant, but enough to suggest that the problem is actually real. Any of you noticing the same kookiness? Sound off in the comments.

(*Anyone get the veiled “H.M.S. Pinafore” reference? Anyone? No? Sigh.)


13 Comments

krye said:

No, there's nothing more gratifying than others having problems that I am not!

December 17, 2007 12:44 PM
Dan Pourhadi said:

@krye - You are very right. I stand corrected.

December 17, 2007 1:09 PM
Noble said:

yep... i get it on my 2.2 ghz 15" MBP. Only the first letter though. never really ignores whole WORDS....

December 17, 2007 1:27 PM
Pete said:

I get the first letter ommission also (2.2Ghz 15" MBP).

December 17, 2007 1:55 PM
John C said:

trying clicking on "ignore accidental trackpad input" in the control panel and see if it fixes the issue

December 17, 2007 3:10 PM
Trausti Author Profile Page said:

I've had 3 friends with MacBooks with the problem of keyboard freezing for 30-60 seconds 2-3 times every hour. Running leopard 10.5.1. Using a MacBook Pro myself and havent had any problems sofar.

A single line of sudo code fixed it for them all...

December 17, 2007 3:33 PM
Lee Hauser said:

I have a problem with the "g" key primarily, and it has been much worse under Leopard than Tiger. In fact, typing in general seems more error prone under Leopard (MBP 2.0 Ghz).

December 17, 2007 3:38 PM
Emily said:

My new MacBook Pro's keyboard often doesn't respond at all. I'll be in the middle of writing something and the whole keyboard will freeze, or I won't notice it until I try to use keyboard commands to close a window or shut down a program and then, suddenly, nothing. Oy gavalt.

December 17, 2007 5:15 PM
HoOn said:

I have this issue too with my 2.4 GHz 15" MBP. I sent it in to AppleCare and received it still ith the problem.

Apple please acknowledge that there is a problem!!!

December 17, 2007 5:18 PM
schininis Author Profile Page said:

I have the freezing Keyboard on a MacBook and it started right after Leopard was installed.

@ Trausti . . . what was that solution your friends used . . . there are a bunch of folks on the apple discussion groups that would love to get a fix . . . me too!

Apple DOES know there it a problem and according to the folks I talked to they are working on a software fix.

Some people have had success switching back and forth from the Canadian to the US keyboard to get it to thaw.

December 17, 2007 8:22 PM
Schneider said:

Yup, i am having the same issue with the first letter dropping off. MBP15 2.2

December 18, 2007 7:21 AM
Ascendant Sith said:

This is happening a lot on not only my first-gen MacBook, but also on my new aluminum iMac that comes with a very similar keyboard to the one built-into the MacBook.

A lot of times, my entire keyboard freezes up and a few times, I had to restart the machine.

I hate to say it, but Apple's quality has really gone down-hill this year; from their customer service, unfriendly consumer policies (like not being able to choose songs you paid for already as ringers on your iPhone) to just products that have never-ending glitches.

Is anyone else having a lot of stability issues with Leopard??

December 18, 2007 9:02 AM
Trausti Author Profile Page said:

Don't think this matters anymore since Apple released a fix for the issue :P

@ schininis : The code I used is simple...

sudo update_prebinding -force -root /

Type your password, wait for the prompt (username) to appear again and restart the computer.

It might take a few minutes, just be patient

It worked for several other people on other forums. I published this on a few forums and have gotten nothing but positive reports.. But either way, hope the update / code helps.

December 19, 2007 11:54 PM

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