Comments on: Keyboard freezes in Leopard: possible link to changing batteries?

By: mik

mik — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:29:24 +0000

I had a serious issue like that on my mac mini. 10.6.2. It persisted over multiple power cycles and seemed impossible to get rid even after trying different keyboards. Finally I found that the Bluetooth was on, even though all the keyboards I was trying are USB. There was also an entry for a BT board I used to use in the option so I deleted and turned it off – Back to normal!

By: Armstrong

Armstrong — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:58:06 +0000

I’ve had the exact same experience as Vincent. Whenever the battery is in my Mac Book Pro, the keyboard and trackpad freeze. The only way to run my computer is plugged in sans battery.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:51:19 +0000

Like Rupert, the problem seems to disappear if/when I remove the battery and restart the computer.
Last week, I spoke to someone at the Genius Bar, who insisted that it was a software, not hardware, problem (conveniently enough, since a software problem is not covered in the warranty). He suggested that I delete and then re-install all the software to the laptop. I’m not ready to do this, and from what I can tell, others have tried this and the problem still re-occurred.
I might add that when I told him that the problem seemed to disappear when I removed the battery he suggested it was a “coincidence” since the battery, he said, would affect the trackpad, not the keyboard. Until I find another solution though, I’m sticking with this one. I’ve also ordered an external keyboard.
I hope some less annoying/cumbersome solution is coming down the pike – and from Apple.

By: Rupert T

Rupert T — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:15:36 +0000

Hi I’ve been having this problem and discovered that if I take the battery out and run of the mains it works perfectly – annoying as I’m in the middle of a trip half way round the world! As soon as I put the battery back in it freezes.

By: Hylton Spencer

Hylton Spencer — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:20:43 +0000

I have found that this is a Microsoft issue, under Leopard.

I only have one battery for my MacBook Pro, so freezing not linked to a battery change.

By: Mark O

Mark O — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:18:54 +0000

I’m sorta relieved to find others are having this experience. I’ve had a flawless OS X experience that never required rebooting until installing leopard. I’ve had keyboard freezes in mail and safari, both of which unexpectedly quit, along with finder crashes. There is no relationship at all between these freezes/crashes and any other action. I have one battery, no peripherals, and it doesn’t matter whether the sites i surf to are flash or text, new or familiar. Hard restarts are sometimes necessary, and sometimes not effective at resolving unusual behavior, and fixing permissions might help, but not for long. I initially encountered this after trying to open an xls file that tried to open with the trial version of office04 that came with leopard, rather than the office04 i already had installed. not sure if that was actually related, since the keyboard freezes and crashes occur without excel open.

By: Kathleen M

Kathleen M — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:39:09 +0000

Mine freezes too. A couple times I hit Numlock and it started working again. The next couple of times, Numlock didn’t work. I hit the Function keys, and it started working again. It all worked fine before I installed Leopard. Hmm… I thought about uninstalling, but I think I will try working with it. But yes, it is rather annoying.

By: David G

David G — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:02:29 +0000

I also have been experiencing keyboard freezes. I only use one battery in my mac book pro. The keyboard seems to cut out more when I am on battery power. After about 10 seconds or so the keyboard always starts responding again. This problem is rather frustrating and I sincerely hope it gets resolved soon.

By: BE

BE — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:03:51 +0000

Folks, phoned apple tech support up here in Canada, and received confirmation that it is a known issue and that apple is “working on it”. No guarantee for a release date as it was explained that not much information is being given to them regarding this issue. Quite disappointed that Apple would release prematurely the OS without a reasonable testing period as evident from the number of issues in 10.5.0 that were resolved in 10.5.1.

Just to add to the confusion of potential sources, backing up with TimeMachine removed the issue for a day…then it returned. I have also plugged in a usb keyboard, and this apparently has solved the issue temporarily. Just left the usb keyboard off to the side and the MBP keyboard seems to be working again, but not holding my breath….spoke too soon, there it goes again.

Perhaps more to generate discussion than solve the issue, it seems obvious that there is a problem with the Interrupts. The keyboard events aren’t even being loaded into a buffer to be processed later (try holding down a key and see what happens when the keyboard wakes up again).

I do realize that this is one bad mark against a company with a solid reputation for quality, but this experience leaves a bad taste in ones mouth that seems to have a lingering and lasting effect which grows worse with every day that passes. It is well known that new release are buggy and the only way to debugg is to solicit user feedback from early adopters. This may suffice for conflicts between 3rd party application, different combinations of hardware, or a strange sequence of user generated actions, which would infrequently be generated. However, when there is such a significant and fundamental issue as keyboard access, this indicates that Apple has not performed the due diligence nor met the standard of care expected from a software/hardware producer. What is most shocking is that apple controls both hardware and software – there are no unknowns. There is a standard, predictable set of hardware configurations under which their OS will be used, and which can be tested against. How much can apple users take before they become too disenfranchised to say proudly that we are Mac users “and we couldn’t be happer”
see: http://www.t3.com/computing/desktop-computers/apple-imac-review?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=T3-Reviews-RSS

By: Aral

Aral — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:22:37 +0000

Hi Sigfpe,

Do you ever put the computer into deep sleep?