MBP Random Keys Won't Work

[sclough]

A few days ago, all of a sudden keys on my MBP started randomly not working. For example, you might type h and no h appears. No matter how hard I would hit "h" I didn't get anything. If I typed other keys I started noticing that other random letters would not work, but most letters would still work. After a few seconds of typing other random letters all of a sudden "h" would work again.

The key that fails is not consistent, so this is not a "stuck key" situation. There is not change in the action of whatever key is acting up and hitting it repeatedly or harder does not do anything. When one letter fails, several others fail as well and I haven't figured out any pattern. One letter may stop working for a few seconds and 5 minutes later a totally different set of letters stop responding.

Has anyone heard of this or have any clue what could be wrong? My first thought was that this was a software issue and not a hardware issue because I remember the MBP and MB's having a keyboard issue last fall, but now I'm wondering. FWIW, it started before 10.5.5 was released. I installed the 10.5.5 update and it hasn't changed the behavior. My MBP mostly sits at home and mostly sits in the office so it wasn't dropped or anything.

Any ideas? I hate to have to take this thing back into the Apple store. I was just there a month and a half ago for a logic board replacement due to graphics issues. Just in case anyone else is having the problem, it's an early Penryn model bought the day they were announced.

 

[sclough]

As I'm currently working on a large writing project, this is getting VERY frustrating and I plan on being back at the Apple store next week. Anyway, I've noticed that when a key fails, it is always one on the middle row (a-l). When one of those keys fails, no other letter key on the middle row works (the other non-letter keys on that row still work though - i.e. caps lock, semi-colon, comma, return). The only way it works again is through a lot of rapid typing on various keys. I'm assuming from the lack of replies this is a very odd problem. I can't help but wondering if something wasn't put together quite right during the logic board replacement...

 

[gusious]

Well it may be dust under your keyboard or food or.... You got the point!

 

[hellomoto4]

Well it may be dust under your keyboard or food or.... You got the point!

Try cleaning as said above.

If not you'll most probably have to take it back to an Apple Store.

 

[sclough]

Well, I don't ever eat around the mbp and whenever it's not being used, I put it to sleep so dust shouldn't be a huge issue since it's only 7 months old. Anyway, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to try. For cleaning I'm assuming you just try to blow compressed air? The keys are so close together it's going to be hard to get in there.

 

[stevenkappler1]

Same Problem Need Help!

i have the same problem with my mbp its the 2.4 ghz one and it has a 15 in screen. and the middle row stopped working and i figured out that you can fix this by holding down a key that is not working for about 5 secs and then it will start working temporaly. but then they will stop working again i need help! i take really good care of my mbp also but can anyone help!

 

[sclough]

Well, I took my in to the Apple Store. Even though I couldn't duplicate the problem on the stop, the Genius immediately put it in for a new keyboard. Since the new keyboard, it's been working like a champ.

The moral of the story is: you need a new keyboard.