Internal Keyboard and Trackpad Problems - Macbook Pro

Well-

Figured I would ask here in case anyone has run across this before. Has anyone had problems, or have seen references, to folks having problems with their keyboard and trackpad ceasing to respond at random(But VERY often) on them? I seem to be able to use bluetooth keyboards and mice fine, but the trackpad and keyboard that are built in seem to be having severe problems, making me wonder if I lost a USB drive chip down the line. If memory serves, I believe they are connected internally via USB, and they are no longer showing up in my system profiler. So if someone could confirm this for me before I have to rip my computer apart, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Seablade

Actually a second thought, if someone could not only confirm their keyboard and trackpad show up on the system profiler under USB, but also could confirm whether or not that USB controller they are on is seperatye from the Bluetooth controller, I would really appreciate it. For the record I am on a 15" 2.4 GHz Macbook Pro with an LED backlit screen and running 10.4(Yes I know about the issues with 10.5 but they aren't listed as affecting 10.4), so especially looking for reports from someone with the same laptop. This was purchased in August or thereabouts of last year.

Seablade

PS Before someone says it, I am completely broke right now and don't have money to afford the applecare which I don't have on this laptop.

August 07. But I think it is only 90 days of Applecare, not 1 year.

Seablade

Just checked, you are right, it is 90 days for phone and 1 year for hardware. Well then the next step is to actually drive the freakin 2+ hours to the nearest apple store to drop the bugger off sadly in all liklihood. Gotta figure out what I am going to do for a computer in the meantime, and what the hell I am going to do with my hard drive as I don't have any of my software disks out here to re-install anything. On the flip side it means I have until August to try to get this bugger repaired, or possibly save up the money for the Applecare.

Yea for being across the entire country from where you spend most of your year.

Seablade

Figured I would post an update on this. After taking apart my MBP to check all connections, there was really only three possible places. Also for the record, you can get to a couple of the connections, really the main ones you need to be worried about if your power switch is working, by just removing the battery. Short of bad connections, these were the options...

1. A partially dead ribbon cable. The power switch uses the same ribbon cable but does not go through some of the circuitry they keyboard and trackpad do, instead just merging with the ribbon cable.
2. A dead keyboard and trackpad. This is what it turned out to be. It was also the most likely thing.
3. A dead USB controller on the MB. This would suck.

At any rate it was the keyboard and trackpad. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, there is a full one year warranty on the hardware that I took advantage of(Mine expires in two weeks) and got them replaced. I looked at the cost of the keyboard and IIRC it was about $150, so I wasn't about to wait and have to do that myself.

I did find a local service center, DotFoil computers in Santa Fe, that would do warranty work. Took it to them, was told the normal turnaround time was 2 Days, so dropping it off Monday I expected to hear back on Wednesday. Heard back today(Tuesday) that it was done, so pleased in that regards. Sadly it looks like I need to take it back apart and clean up their work as it seems that my backlight is no longer working. If it isn't just that they forget to reconnect the thing though I will be taking it back again. But at least I can type on the bugger now. So bad marks for the non-working backlight on the keyboard, but I will likely fix that myself. Good marks for everything else with the place though, friendly staff, accomodating(I asked them if they ended up waiting on parts if I could get it back to use for work and they said no problem) and authorized warranty service so I didn't have to pay a dime, along with a fairly fast turnaround time.

Seablade

But I have absolutely no money whatsoever. At this point I am not even sure how I am going to pay to get back home across country in a month.

Another update on the topic, Yea they forgot to hook up the backlight. I suspect they got the keyboard, trackpad, and computer top all as a single package and replaced everything, so I will actually shift blame for not hooking it up to Apple's center, and just blame them for not checking it.

Sadly in hooking it up, after a bit of fiddling thinking that it was flakey, I think I have discovered there is to much leakage onto the ambient light sensor, causing severe problems with anything over the lowest levels on it. I will take it back apart and add a bit more black E-Tape substituting for blackwrap to fix this, but having already reassembled the thing 4 times today, I am not anxious to do so right now.

I will say I underestimated how useful the backlit keyboard was for me though as I spend most of my time in the dark, and even though I know my way through a keyboard to type blindfolded, in fact just to check this I am doing so right now, it comes in very handy when looking for shortcuts on the keyboard.

Seablade

Not the last revision of the Powerbook right? I heard the last one got essentially the same backlight as the MBPs have. Although even my powerbook has a backlight that helps out in the situation I am in, it literally is dark, no lights on, as I am in a show situation. So it shows up.

Seablade

Yep same as mine.

Seablade