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Keyboard & Trackpad freeze (MBA 13" 2011)
- Thread starter HunPro
- Start date
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I'm sorry to hear that, Greg.
I gave up and bought the current MacBook Pro Retina 15" at a crazy discount. ($1000 cheaper than the Hungarian retail price)
I hope you'll find the cause of this.
Things I was about to try:
- remove the bluetooth/wifi module, and use a USB ethernet adaptor for networking, to find out if that module is the problem
- unplug the keyboard ribbon cable, and have only the trackpad connected, to see if it's the keyboard
As my Mac is my production machine, I just couldn't take it anymore. It's too unpredictable to be fixed by a third party, as it may take 1-2 days of active use to reproduce.
Good Luck!
Ive been trying to fix this exact problem for months and months and its driving me crazy. Took it to the Apple Store and they replaced the Airport card, to no avail. Replaced it myself too, and nothing. Cleaned all connectors, etc. exactly as you did and nothing!
Keyboard and mouse freeze up intermittently (and usually when I most need them) and the Bluetooth is completely useless. A reboot can sometimes kick it into action but rarely.
Sorry to hear that you gave up in the end. Im going to keep fiddling away at it and see if I have any success, otherwise I think I may end up going down the same route
Keyboard and mouse freeze up intermittently (and usually when I most need them) and the Bluetooth is completely useless. A reboot can sometimes kick it into action but rarely.
Sorry to hear that you gave up in the end. Im going to keep fiddling away at it and see if I have any success, otherwise I think I may end up going down the same route
I saw this thread a few months ago and I think its about time I share my experience.
I also had a very similar problem with my MBA 2011 13" but not identical.
My MBA keyboard and trackpad would freeze after its been in sleep mode for an hour or so. It started happening last year. First it happens rarely then more frequently and eventually every time. I thought that its just a software issue and hoped it would be fixed eventually. Well, 2015 and its still there. And when it happens the only button functioning is the power button. When I restart, it will do an endless chime loop. Rebooting repeatedly does not work. When I let it chime on that grey screen for a bout half an hour and reboot, its works again.
There's nothing connected to my MBA except for the magsafe.
I tried SMC and PRAM reset. No effect.
Since it only happens after being in sleep mode for I while, I thought it might have something to do with sleep modes so I started changing the energy saving modes, tried no sleep at all and tried pmset so that it will not go to sleep. But it still happens when I leave my MBA for an hour or so.
I tried external mouse when it happens, turns out only the left side USB works when it happens. That's when I learned that everything is still working, its just that the keyboard and trackpad are gone.
I thought, maybe because it not warm enough and it gets cold when I don't do anything. I find that like a joke but I was desperate. With just an external mouse to control my MBA, I opened a youtube site and started playing hoping it will get hot enough. After about 30 mins, the kb and tp still don't work. But this time, if I reboot it will go straight away and not be locked in the endless chime loop.
I tried a clean install of Mavericks. Problem is still there and another problem I found before that was that my camera is missing in Yosemite but works in Mavericks. There was I time i thought its the camera that is causing the problem but when I got my camera back in Mavericks, I've excluded that as a possible cause. I wanted to try Mountain Lion but it was not free to download.
After a lot of research, I was also able to downgrade my EFI. I tried all versions for my MBA but the problem still persist. Unfortunately, I could not try the EFI version that comes with my MBA because there no version of it for download. More research and some tweaking and I was even able to downgrade my SMC. Also did not solve the problem. So for those thinking of trying to downgrade the EFI and SMC, now you have someone to tell you that it didn't help.
I was almost ready to open up my MBA when I saw this thread. Thanks HunPro. Now I know that disassembling and cleaning up inside does not help so I don't need to try it.
My most recent experience is that I brought my MBA to the office so that my friend could try something that needs Yosemite (I did a clean install of Yosemite). But the office is cold, it took much longer to warmup my MBA before I could start it and while working on it (slowly because I was in a conference), the kb and tp freezed. Really! Too cold in the office to run my MBA. I was not able to start my MBA again until I got home where I have better control of the room temperature.
A few more observations. When I warm up my MBA, that means turn it on, let it stay in grey screen for a few minutes depending on room temperature. The surface on the upper left part of the keyboard would have to get not just warm, but hot that it hurts a bit if you keep your fingers on it. Then I can restart by pressing the power button again and my MBA would start.
For so long I always insist that this should be a software issue. Or maybe a hardware issue that can be remedied by a software solution. But I'm very convinced now that it is indeed a hardware issue. Because if I want to reliably recreate the problem, all I have to do is to do something that will cool down the MBA. By letting it go to sleep, or not using it, or shutting it down or hibernate. All will cause it to start in a grey screen loop or freeze the kb and tp. And if I want to fix it, all I have to do is keep it warm so that it will not freeze the kb and tp by keeping it busy (play video or do some encoding). And it has to get hot if I want to start it by letting it grey screen loop until it gets hot enough.
So what caused this problem? I'm guessing mechanical stress when electronics gets hot and cold repeatedly might break soldered wires. When the printed circuit board gets hot enough, those wires could be moving just enough to touch a disconnected joint. Like a mechanical thermostat. Just a theory. Of course a good design and production would have taken this into account so I still blame Apple.
What can we do about it? If my theory is corrected, there should be a disconnected solder joint somewhere in the logic board. I will try looking for it when I have more time. Focusing primarily on the USB chips. Unfortunately they are behind the logic board so it will take a lot of effort to very carefully disassembling the MBA. Not to mention that they are very small. Will probably need a magnifying glass, or better yet a microscope to inspect it carefully. If a break is found, it can be fixed, hopefully.
Hope you guys find this post useful. And please post your experience and ideas.
I also had a very similar problem with my MBA 2011 13" but not identical.
My MBA keyboard and trackpad would freeze after its been in sleep mode for an hour or so. It started happening last year. First it happens rarely then more frequently and eventually every time. I thought that its just a software issue and hoped it would be fixed eventually. Well, 2015 and its still there. And when it happens the only button functioning is the power button. When I restart, it will do an endless chime loop. Rebooting repeatedly does not work. When I let it chime on that grey screen for a bout half an hour and reboot, its works again.
There's nothing connected to my MBA except for the magsafe.
I tried SMC and PRAM reset. No effect.
Since it only happens after being in sleep mode for I while, I thought it might have something to do with sleep modes so I started changing the energy saving modes, tried no sleep at all and tried pmset so that it will not go to sleep. But it still happens when I leave my MBA for an hour or so.
I tried external mouse when it happens, turns out only the left side USB works when it happens. That's when I learned that everything is still working, its just that the keyboard and trackpad are gone.
I thought, maybe because it not warm enough and it gets cold when I don't do anything. I find that like a joke but I was desperate. With just an external mouse to control my MBA, I opened a youtube site and started playing hoping it will get hot enough. After about 30 mins, the kb and tp still don't work. But this time, if I reboot it will go straight away and not be locked in the endless chime loop.
I tried a clean install of Mavericks. Problem is still there and another problem I found before that was that my camera is missing in Yosemite but works in Mavericks. There was I time i thought its the camera that is causing the problem but when I got my camera back in Mavericks, I've excluded that as a possible cause. I wanted to try Mountain Lion but it was not free to download.
After a lot of research, I was also able to downgrade my EFI. I tried all versions for my MBA but the problem still persist. Unfortunately, I could not try the EFI version that comes with my MBA because there no version of it for download. More research and some tweaking and I was even able to downgrade my SMC. Also did not solve the problem. So for those thinking of trying to downgrade the EFI and SMC, now you have someone to tell you that it didn't help.
I was almost ready to open up my MBA when I saw this thread. Thanks HunPro. Now I know that disassembling and cleaning up inside does not help so I don't need to try it.
My most recent experience is that I brought my MBA to the office so that my friend could try something that needs Yosemite (I did a clean install of Yosemite). But the office is cold, it took much longer to warmup my MBA before I could start it and while working on it (slowly because I was in a conference), the kb and tp freezed. Really! Too cold in the office to run my MBA. I was not able to start my MBA again until I got home where I have better control of the room temperature.
A few more observations. When I warm up my MBA, that means turn it on, let it stay in grey screen for a few minutes depending on room temperature. The surface on the upper left part of the keyboard would have to get not just warm, but hot that it hurts a bit if you keep your fingers on it. Then I can restart by pressing the power button again and my MBA would start.
For so long I always insist that this should be a software issue. Or maybe a hardware issue that can be remedied by a software solution. But I'm very convinced now that it is indeed a hardware issue. Because if I want to reliably recreate the problem, all I have to do is to do something that will cool down the MBA. By letting it go to sleep, or not using it, or shutting it down or hibernate. All will cause it to start in a grey screen loop or freeze the kb and tp. And if I want to fix it, all I have to do is keep it warm so that it will not freeze the kb and tp by keeping it busy (play video or do some encoding). And it has to get hot if I want to start it by letting it grey screen loop until it gets hot enough.
So what caused this problem? I'm guessing mechanical stress when electronics gets hot and cold repeatedly might break soldered wires. When the printed circuit board gets hot enough, those wires could be moving just enough to touch a disconnected joint. Like a mechanical thermostat. Just a theory. Of course a good design and production would have taken this into account so I still blame Apple.
What can we do about it? If my theory is corrected, there should be a disconnected solder joint somewhere in the logic board. I will try looking for it when I have more time. Focusing primarily on the USB chips. Unfortunately they are behind the logic board so it will take a lot of effort to very carefully disassembling the MBA. Not to mention that they are very small. Will probably need a magnifying glass, or better yet a microscope to inspect it carefully. If a break is found, it can be fixed, hopefully.
Hope you guys find this post useful. And please post your experience and ideas.
I used to experience the exact same problem with my Late 2010. It was an absolute nightmare. At some point, I read about the keyboard/trackpad ribbon cable getting twisted due to heat. It made sense, because things would stop working whenever the temperature of my computer soared. Out of desperation I ordered the appropriate screwdriver, opened my MacBook, removed the battery, and literally used electrical tape to try to keep the ribbon cable in place. Can't believe it, but it's been three months and I haven't had a single issue.