Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Reinstalling OS on macbook pro with no control over keyboard?

T

TheRdungeon

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 21, 2011
553
98
Hi all, I reinstalled the OS on my old 13" MBP to use it for travelling, and now the thing won't respond to the keyboard! The same goes for the mouse, I can move the cursor round but can't click on anything!

The issue doesn't change whether I plug in a mouse or keyboard, i.e. even on an external mouse it won't register clicks. I'd like to reinstall the OS but I can't click on anything in disk utility to wipe the HDD! It's incredibly frustrating, does anyone know how I can get control of this thing even for a few minutes so I can wipe the damn HDD and start again?

Any help appreciated

Cheers
 
Turn the computer off. With it off, hold Cmd-Opt-R with your left hand. Hit the power button then immediately hold P with your right hand (keeping Cmd-Opt-R down). Keep holding for several seconds and it should play the boot chime twice (several seconds apart). If not, then you have a hardware issue that a reinstall won't fix.

If it does chime a second time then reboot again but just hold Option at the chime. This should open the Startup Manager, which will list the bootable drives in your system. If you have 10.7 or 10.8 then you'll be able to get into recovery from here. With an earlier version, insert the DVD and wait a few seconds and it'll appear. Boot it up and hopefully your mouse and keyboard will work!
 
Last edited:
Nermal said:
Turn the computer off. With it off, hold Cmd-Opt-R with your left hand. Hit the power button then immediately hold P with your right hand (keeping Cmd-Opt-R down). Keep holding for several seconds and it should play the boot chime twice. If not, then you have a hardware issue that a reinstall won't fix. If it does chime a second time then post back here.
Click to expand...

Good advice here, I'd also try an SMC re-set if the above fails...Of that fails too, then it's a coincidental hardware fail.:


SMC Reset:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
 
Brilliant cheers will try that, hopefully the damn thing will recognise the keys. btw nermal I'm in wellington, good to see NZ on here

----------

Alright awesome it does the second chime, unfortunately a mate has the install disc atm and it's on 10.6 so will grab that off him, I have tried booting off the disc before and had the same issues with not being able to click on anything relating to the install but I don't think I used startup manager so will try that.

Another curveball is it has a 2nd HDD in the CD drive, but I have an external. Hopefully should still work?

Thanks again for your help, noone else has ever thought of that first thing when I mention it!
 
You should have no trouble with booting from the external drive. Do the SMC reset mentioned by Macman and see whether that makes a difference; the SMC controls various pieces of hardware and one of them could be the keyboard (I'm not sure).

I haven't been to Wellington for a while! I'm actually in Auckland at the moment for, um, a geek convention >.>
 
Nermal said:
You should have no trouble with booting from the external drive. Do the SMC reset mentioned by Macman and see whether that makes a difference; the SMC controls various pieces of hardware and one of them could be the keyboard (I'm not sure).

I haven't been to Wellington for a while! I'm actually in Auckland at the moment for, um, a geek convention >.>
Click to expand...

Haha nice man, that looks like a pretty Windows dominated expo eh? And yeah thanks macman unfortunately that didn't fix it, which makes sense seeing as I realised the external keyboard/mouse doesn't work. Think I'm gonna reinstall the OS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back