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keyboard not working, how to format and reinstall without ?!

O

ouadzi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 12, 2010
10
0
Hello everyone,

The keyboard of my Macbookpro doesn t respond anymore for strange reasons..When I try to access the system preferences, I have an error message when clicking on the keyboard icon.
I tried to reinstall Mac OSX, using the CD, but I can t pass the admins password confirmation as my keyboard is not working.. I tried to use an external keyboard, but it s not working too.. I wonder if there was a problem with the keyboard drivers..

Strangely, the arrows buttons work perfectly, as the whole F1....F12 line
Also, when I reboot, I am able to access the safe mode pressing C which is usually not responding, same for the eject button, it works perfectly the first seconds after a restart..

Any ideas of what to do? or how to enter the admin password without keyboard in order to be able to reinstall Leopard.. :x

Thank you in advance
 
Thank you MarkMs,
I didn t know we could do that, I just tried but it s unfortunately not changing anything..;(
 
This may seem like a somewhat trivial thing to do, but have you tried plugging in a usb keyboard and trying to change some things from there? Maybe that'll work.
 
Oh.. I mentioned in my first message that I tried.. but it s not working too, exactly the same buttons!
I also noticed more than not being able to access the keyboard icon in preferences system, I also don t see any language&keyboard icon on the left of the date (up/right of the screen)
 
I wish that worked for you. One last thing, is there anyway you can make a new user account? If not, have you tried to see if booting into Safe Mode helps?

Safe Mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

Other than that, I'd give AppleCare a call and see what they think.
 
I tried to reboot in safe mode, the keyboard is working, unfortunately, as for making a new user account, I always need to enter the admin password to proceed further on, which is not possible because of the non-working keyboard..
I feel stuck in a vicious circle..
 
Have you tried doing this with the USB keyboard? When you reset the PRAM, you heard the two dong sounds? If not, try with the USB keyboard. Shutdown the Mac, insert USB keyboard and also try Safe Mode again.

Honestly, I'm out of ideas. This may help, but most of the tips include logging into OS X. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1381

By the way, is this one of the old MacBook Pros? The non-unibody ones with silver keys? Or the newer unibody ones with black keys?
 
It s new one, with black keys, probably bought around one or two years ago.. (not by me)
As mentioned in my previous answers, yes I tried the external USB thing, same buttons are not working..
I think the PRAM reset worked because I heard the mac restarting twice..
I would like to reinstall Mac OSX and format but canno t use the damn keyboard and type the admin password necessary for this kind of operations ;(
 
Okay this is a weird unorthodox suggestion, Im not sure how it looks when you create a new user, but... If you can make a copy of something cmd+c and then paste it, you can use your trackpad to create your adminpass by finding the various letter/numbers in your pass and pasting them into a searchfield or somewhere, build your password and start to create a new user, if you pass the admin prompt, if you can find other things to copy for a user name and pass or if possible just use the pass as a username and leave pass blank. As I said, this is a shot in the dark to try and create a new user and some has suggested, I have used the same way on an old windows pc i had an issue with and managed to solve it that annoying way. Good luck.
 
Absolute last two remaining tips I have.

1. Try ruling out if it's a hardware issue. Run the Apple Hardware Test. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
I doubt anything abnormal will show up since you can use the keyboard fine when it's booting up, using function keys or ejecting discs.

2. When you try to reinstall OS X, try this. Boot with installation disc, then when it boots up choose your language. Then on the menubar, go to Utilities and Password Reset. See if you can keep the new password blank so all you have to do is click on your user account picture to log in. Here's hoping this works by letting you log in. If not, hopefully it lets you reinstall OS X.
 
I'm at the same point. Built in keyboard not working, monitor not working, using display port to an external monitor, an extra USB keyboard not working. The owner got into the problem when the OS system preferences didn't recognize the built in with High Sierra. I'm at the stage of creating a boot USB by disconnecting the internal drive, making it boot externally which bypasses the old config.
 
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