I love my MacBook Pro, but it’s not perfect. Over the past week, my sweet machine’s keyboard and trackpad went unresponsive intermittently, but my USB keyboard and mouse worked fine. (For the record, this is a 10-month-old, refurbished, 2.2Ghz MacBook Pro.)
It’s a hardware problem
It’s not software related, but due to this ribbon cable being curled/bent.
Putting the laptop to sleep, removing the battery (while plugged in), and pressing down on the ribbon cable brings it out of sleep mode and gives life back to the keyboard & trackpad. Astounding. I discovered how to do this, thanks to a thread on the Apple Support forums.
The fix?
I rolled up a sticky note and placed it on top of the cable. When the battery is locked in place, it puts pressure on the cable, and makes the keyboard and trackpad functional.
Sticky note under battery saves the day
Isn’t that a little unsafe to put a piece of paper under your battery? Won’t it get hot down there? Yes and yes, it will get hot, but if my battery is hot enough to burn paper, I’ve got bigger issues to worry about than a toasty sticky note. So I’m not worried about it, for now.
One of my colleagues, Tony, put it nicely, “You don’t have to worry about sunburn if the sun explodes.”
19 responses so far ↓
1 Danny Swanson // Dec 1, 2008 at 9:31 pm
That is incredible. Thank you so much for this input! I thought my computer was dead and I would have to take it into the apple store. Awesome advice and now my computer mouse and keyboard work!
2 Jason Robb // Dec 1, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Oh, I’m so glad it helped you out! It was seriously mind boggling, glad I’m not the only one. But, on the other hand, I hope Apple has resolved this with the new MacBook Pro’s.
Peace!
Jason
3 JUAN VARGAS // Dec 3, 2008 at 3:41 pm
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!, HAD THE SAME PROBLEM IT WAS DRIVING ME NUTS… WITH THE LITTLE STICKY NOTE THE PROBLEM IS SOLVED.
THANX TO SITES LIKE THIS YOU HELP A LOT OF PEOPLE… I DID MY RESEARCH IN APPLE SUPPORT AND FOUND NOTHING HELPFULL …. THANX AGAIN MATE
4 Jason Robb // Dec 3, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Juan, thanks for the note. So happy your MacBook is back in action!
How did you find my site? Google search?
Take care,
Jason
5 Adam S. // Dec 3, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I´m absolutely amazed the sticky note just fixed my computer. It happened to my MBP yesterday, and I´ve already phoned Apple Support and they had no answers, I came very close to paying 250$ earlier today to get in front in the line at the Apple workshop and have it repaired, because I desperately need the computer now. I browsed through loads of mac forums before I found your site.
I found your site on Google.
You totally saved my life pal, thanks a lot.
6 JUAN VARGAS // Dec 4, 2008 at 7:29 am
by Google search found your site.
Best regards,
JUAN
7 LlamaJuice // Dec 5, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Hey there, I found this a few days ago when my keyboard and trackpad were slightly working and I’m so glad I did. My laptop is now functioning and I’m able to post this.
Thanks so much, there isn’t an applecare store within a few hundred miles of where I am right now… so yea.
I can’t post videos on youtube without a keyboard or trackpad :P.
8 Jason Robb // Dec 5, 2008 at 4:39 pm
@ Adam, I’m ecstatic that I saved you from waiting in a line!
@ LlamaJuice Thanks for the note, Anthony! I’m always happy to save someone a few hundred miles of travel
It’s quite surprising that so many people have this problem. It’s even more surprising to see who’s finding my blog with the answer!
9 Zach O. // Dec 9, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Just reiterating everybody: THANK YOU!! This is the first solution to actually work and it’s been so frustrating. The new MBPs were having trackpad issues as well and THAT got fixed with a patch, so I was beginning to think our problem would get lost in the shuffle, or the solution confused or forgotten. But you totally saved me a trip to the Apple Store! Can’t thank you enough friend.
10 Stu // Dec 11, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Thanks for your tip, unfortunately it did not work for me though.
After like 40 minutes of rebooting my MBP (about the same as yours, 1 yr old, 2.2 Ghz) it started working again, all of a sudden *sigh*. ~a frustrated apple user.
11 gab // Dec 12, 2008 at 6:20 am
LOVE U!!!
12 Jason Robb // Dec 15, 2008 at 9:20 am
Bummer Stu, not sure what to tell ya. Try this:
1. Plug in your MBP.
2. Put it to sleep.
3. Remove battery. (Keep it plugged it!)
4. Press down on the ribbon cable.
If that’s still the problem, your MBP should wake from sleep. And perhaps the sticky note isn’t putting enough pressure on it to be useful. Try folding it in half after rolling it up.
@ Gab: Glad to help! =)
13 Heet // Dec 20, 2008 at 12:06 am
Just beware - mine started out like this but eventually became unusable. Finding the “sweet spot” on the ribbon became an exercise in finger dexterity. After finding it, I’d have to slip a piece of card onto the spot and quickly slap the battery back in. It rarely worked.
So, I think most machines will need to be repaired - replacement of the “topcase”. For those out of warranty, that sucks. Mine has one month left so I dropped it off today. What do I do when this happens again? Suffer with yet ANOTHER apple hardware design flaw (I have two white ibook G4s that suffer from a surprisingly similar fault)?
14 Mark Mac // Dec 22, 2008 at 7:07 pm
well.. it worked when i tried it.. thanks! but alas.. only for one day..
i reverted to plugging in a keyboard and mouse.. to get work done.. now ive tried again, and got it working again, with a folded over biz card.. yes, find the right spot on the ribbon, it wakes up.. i just dont rust this method.. it’s a way to get out of a jamb- but what to do if you are on the road, and need to go though the exercise.. you need a remote keyboard and mouse to put the machine to sleep, not to mention it has to be plugged in..
so i bought the extended warranty.. $249.. probably worth it, not how long can i live with the machine in for repair.. ?
15 Goran // Dec 29, 2008 at 5:39 am
Hey all,
After searching through the Mac support forums, taking apart my laptop top case and finally figuring out that the little ribbon as pictured above was the culprit I came across this post!
Would have saved me hours upon hours… only thing was the I was initially searching “macbook pro keyboard trackpad intermittently stop working” and this post came up when I searched fix macbook pro keyboard ribbon!
Anyway, this definitely looks like a temporary fix, so in the mean time I’m going to look at buying a new top case.
p.s. it feels good to be finally able to type again!
p.p.s. for those of you who have the same problem, I found that my Bluetooth mouse and (I assume) an external keyboard will work while this is going on.
Now it’s time to update some of those mac forums with a link to this page!
16 MICAH // Dec 31, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Thanks for the fix… I had done the same thing you did and it didn’t work… But then i folded it over one last time and now it works like new. Why would you have to replace the top case though, wouldn’t you just replace the ribbon?
17 Chris // Jan 4, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Thanks, Jason.
So Apple is or is not acknowledging this problem actually exists? My MBP (purchased new in April ‘08) has been behaving like this for the past two or three months — I’m going to try the Genius Bar first, just to see what they say about it. But it sounds like they (Apple and/or the local store support “geniuses”) are essentially clueless or purposely covering up. (Any lawyer types out there?? Room for a class-action??) If it’s a fairly common problem due to an obvious design flaw, why wont Apple fess up and straighten out the problem voluntarily?
If I get no satisfaction from Apple, in the short term I’ll try the sticky note!!
18 Jason Robb // Jan 4, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Chris, I don’t know if they know about this. I don’t have the time to send it in for repair. So I haven’t done anything about it. Do share what you find at the Genious bar or elsewhere. Thanks for the note.
19 damian // Jan 6, 2009 at 12:49 pm
This is totally incredible. My laptop did this when I was home in Savannah Georgia over the holidays and without the close proximity of an Apple store. Now that I am recently back home in Boston I stumbled upon this and behold: IT WORKS. I am still going to take it into the Apple store, but I totally wished that I would have found this over the 5 days I was at home without a functional computer.
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