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Keyboard issues rMB 1.2

AidanCornelius

AidanCornelius

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 20, 2012
27
0
Adelaide, Australia
So I put my computer to sleep two nights ago after working on it all day with no issues. Woke it up yesterday afternoon to do some more work, and I was unable to login at the lock screen.

Fine, I thought – give it a few minutes, I know it can be unresponsive when waking from sleep. After keeping the machine awake using the trackpad (yeah, that was working) and still being unable to type after about 5 minutes, I decided to reboot the machine.

Power cycle happened normally, and up comes the (file vault enabled) login as normal. Click on my face, go to login, nothing happens when I press keys! I didn't have a spare USB keyboard with me yesterday, but I'm back in the office today with one, connected through the USB->USB-C adapter, and it's working okay.

The internal keyboard will now type a few random letters when I press anything - usually xxxxxxxxcxxx or, you know, some weird combination.

Strange part, I can't seem to get the machine to boot to Apple Diagnostics? (d). It'll boot recovery, and the keyboard issues persist - in both recovery, a normal session (after using a usb keyboard for login) and guest mode.

Is it normal to not be able to use an external keyboard to boot to Apple Diagnostics?

Has anyone else had weird keyboard issues, for seemingly no reason?

I've gone through the online support steps, and had a conversation with an Apple tech - who just did the same things I did. Now have a Genius Bar appointment for the end of next week (no other appointments!).
 
AidanCornelius said:
So I put my computer to sleep two nights ago after working on it all day with no issues. Woke it up yesterday afternoon to do some more work, and I was unable to login at the lock screen.

Fine, I thought – give it a few minutes, I know it can be unresponsive when waking from sleep. After keeping the machine awake using the trackpad (yeah, that was working) and still being unable to type after about 5 minutes, I decided to reboot the machine.

Power cycle happened normally, and up comes the (file vault enabled) login as normal. Click on my face, go to login, nothing happens when I press keys! I didn't have a spare USB keyboard with me yesterday, but I'm back in the office today with one, connected through the USB->USB-C adapter, and it's working okay.

The internal keyboard will now type a few random letters when I press anything - usually xxxxxxxxcxxx or, you know, some weird combination.

Strange part, I can't seem to get the machine to boot to Apple Diagnostics? (d). It'll boot recovery, and the keyboard issues persist - in both recovery, a normal session (after using a usb keyboard for login) and guest mode.

Is it normal to not be able to use an external keyboard to boot to Apple Diagnostics?

Has anyone else had weird keyboard issues, for seemingly no reason?

I've gone through the online support steps, and had a conversation with an Apple tech - who just did the same things I did. Now have a Genius Bar appointment for the end of next week (no other appointments!).
Click to expand...

Yikes. I've had weird situations where a USB extended keyboard connected to an iMac has weirdly stopped working, even after a hard restart I couldn't enter my login so had to try a second hard restart. After that it worked again. Thought it was probably a weird USB issue, but it could have been an OS glitch. In your case, the symptoms sound like they point to a simpler diagnosis, which is that there's possibly some hardware problem with the keyboard or with the internal wiring it uses to connect to the logic board.

Definitely back up your entire machine before going in to your Genius Bar appointment because if you're lucky and they decide it's simply faulty, they may just want to swap it out for a new one on the spot.

Let us know how you go, it's always good to keep an eye on how new hardware is working out in the real world. If there are lots of reports online of technical issues with the new keyboard design, I'm sure it will make it easier for any of us to make an argument for an exchange for a new machine if there's a problem.
 
tbirdparis said:
Definitely back up your entire machine before going in to your Genius Bar appointment because if you're lucky and they decide it's simply faulty, they may just want to swap it out for a new one on the spot.
Click to expand...

I managed to get a walk in appointment today, and they've definitely decided it's a keyboard problem (go figure, haha). They're going to replace the top case w/keyboard.

The Genius tried to get it to do a network boot, and an ASD/AST boot to no avail – had to daisy chain USB-C adapters, and it just wouldn't do the network boot, so it seems the Genius Bar is under prepared for this particular issue.

I should have it back with a new keyboard in a few days, so all in all it worked out I guess. Hopefully it just doesn't happen again!
 
I would have probably stared them down as well and insisted on a replacement machine. I think it's pretty lame of them to think that you should be OK with going home with a brand new machine that has already been popped open and snapped back together to repair a fault that was nothing to do with long term wear or user error. I mean this line of computer has only barely come into existence and you got delivered one with inherent issues because you've simply not had it long enough for the keyboard to be going bad from overuse. The hide of them to treat your case like it's a regular warranty repair! I'm angry on your behalf.. :)
 
I had the same issue. But a few days later my keyboard just started working in time for my genius bar appointment, where they couldn't tell if anything was wrong and I really couldn't afford them to go without my macbook for any longer. So maybe this is a wider issue?
 
tbirdparis said:
I would have probably stared them down as well and insisted on a replacement machine. I think it's pretty lame of them to think that you should be OK with going home with a brand new machine that has already been popped open and snapped back together to repair a fault that was nothing to do with long term wear or user error. I mean this line of computer has only barely come into existence and you got delivered one with inherent issues because you've simply not had it long enough for the keyboard to be going bad from overuse. The hide of them to treat your case like it's a regular warranty repair! I'm angry on your behalf.. :)
Click to expand...

Hehe, I don't think the store had any to replace with anyway. But yeah, definitely a little annoyed. Thanks for the concern. :)

nearlycried said:
I had the same issue. But a few days later my keyboard just started working in time for my genius bar appointment, where they couldn't tell if anything was wrong and I really couldn't afford them to go without my macbook for any longer. So maybe this is a wider issue?
Click to expand...

Funny you say that, the keyboard was working better when we were looking at it in store this morning, still not working properly though. Maybe the is something else going on here. There really didn't seem to be anything that I'd done differently or anything that caused it. Hmmm...
 
My keyboard completely stopped working after I woke the computer up from sleep. Nothing works. I can't get into diagnostics, can't do a PRAM/SMC reset, can even turn caps lock on. No idea why this happened. This is the third time my MacBook requires repairs. While the keyboard design is great, it has some teething issues clearly.
 
kenbrinkman said:
My keyboard completely stopped working after I woke the computer up from sleep. Nothing works. I can't get into diagnostics, can't do a PRAM/SMC reset, can even turn caps lock on. No idea why this happened. This is the third time my MacBook requires repairs. While the keyboard design is great, it has some teething issues clearly.
Click to expand...

Wow yeah, sounds like exactly the same issue. Power button still working? What were the other issues?
 
kenbrinkman said:
Weirdly the power button works fine but I suspect that's on a different circuit for this very reason. No other issues really. Trackpad works fine
Click to expand...

The genius today was confused about the power button - thought they were on the same cable.

Maybe these issues are more 'wide spread', guess we'll see as time goes by.

Good luck with yours!
 
I got my machine back today, and the 'calibration' on the replacement keyboard/trackpad/top cover hasn't worked. Apparently they've also seen a few issues where the keyboard/trackpad fails on select machines, so...

They've now ordered me a new machine, so I have another few days without it.

Seems like I'm going to end up with a whole new replacement after all.
 
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