I`m in a crisis with Apple and OS X: Since some weeks I have to fight the problem that on my early 2008 MacBook Pro (MacBookPro4,1 Penryn 2.5GHz, 4GB, ) my keyboard and touchpad does not work anymore until I reboot. Often there is no indication of a problem in the systemlog. Today I had the “luck” to get a hint from the /var/log/syslog:
Dec 21 11:00:52 macbook-pro kernel[0]: USBF: 104371.780 [0x77e3600] The IOUSBFamily has successfully enumerated the device.
Dec 21 11:00:52 macbook-pro kernel[0]: USBF: 104371.796 USB Device IOUSBDevice is violating Section 9.3.5 of the USB Specification — Error in GetConfigDescriptor( wLength = 4)
Dec 21 11:00:53 macbook-pro kernel[0]: USBF: 104372.104 IOUSBCompositeDriver[0x106f1e00](IOUSBDevice) GetFullConfigDescriptor(0) returned NULL
Dec 21 11:00:53 macbook-pro kernel[0]: USBF: 104372.109 USB Device IOUSBDevice is violating Section 9.3.5 of the USB Specification — Error in GetConfigDescriptor( wLength = 4)
I posted this problem to Apple support forum. But I wonder about this name because I really never have seen an official apple post there.
There are many other thread for the MacBook, MacBook Pro with the same problem “Keyboard/Mousepad Freezes”, “keyboard does now work” or “touchpad dead”:
discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1210109&tstart=45
discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8567664#8567664
discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1196400
discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1190210&tstart=0
And you will find much more if you search for it…
You can see that some of these threads are very mature. It’s no new problem. And nothing can fix it. This is a huge problem like so many other probems that you might face when you buy apple hardware & software… I wonder why Apple is not able to fix this. A keyboard should never ever stop working. It’s so basic. This is simply not acceptable.
Even with the latest upgrade to OS X 10.5.6 the same problems is annoying me… When I switched from Windows to Mac I was so happy to get away from a never ending series of blue screens and frozen OS. I found a much better and stable OS with OS X with a wonderful GUI. But today I feel in the same situation as same years ago… while friends sticked to Windows for the mainstream desktop claim to have a rock solid windows now… Why is it me? Is it because I ran much more exotic software (heavy IDEs, VMware etc.) than the avarage user? That’s why I`m in a crisis with Apple and OS X now… Switch back to Windows? – never. Maybe a Debian based system for the desktop… I see no real options once you have seen the smartness of OS X but with the problems I have these days; it’s no fun anymore…
To complete and end my frustrated post, I copy in my unanswered help request from the apple forum here:
Same problem here! When I close the lid and open it up again, the keyboard and touchpad do work again. But only as long as I use them frequently. When I let keyboard and touchpad alone for a while (one minute or so) both are frozen again.
When this bug is there, I can repeat the sleep and awake method with the same result again and again. Nothing in the logs.
When touchpad and keyboard are frozen, I can still use the bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
Only a restart (reboot) will help me out.
I think it was not there before 10.5.5.
I have no idea what causes the problem.
I’m using VMware Fusion. Perhaps this might be a problem when running it was a WinXP VM. (when running debian in a VM it seems to be stable).This is AGAIN a big bug from Apple software (this seems to be no hardware bug).
I also suffer LED backlid bug (stripes from time to time).
I also suffer NVidia Softwarebug. (Graphic intense apps lead to crash. Especially when running with extern display on DVI).Seriously disappointed now! (My old G4 powerbook was more stable).
Apple has tons of dollars at the bank. I suggest to spend some money into keeping quality high! Since the iPhone is out, so many feel it’s going the wrong way with computers (let alone the missing option for mate displays).
Thanks Apple for listening and fixen these big problems.
(Steve, do a quick research for Apple freezing keyboards and touchpads – it’s huge…)
#1 by carolyn brown - Juli 16th, 2010 at 05:25
None of this works for me.
My trackpad and keyboard work fine IF I continually use either one. The freeze happens after 10 or 12 seconds of inactivity.
It also happens at start up because there is more than 12 seconds of inactivity while the finder gets going. If I press a key or use the trackpad continuously during start up it works fine.
#2 by carolyn brown - Juli 16th, 2010 at 05:27
And I don’t have an external mouse or keyboard so I can’t try that.
#3 by Pritam Pebam - August 12th, 2010 at 09:18
From a forum i went through, I’vent test it myself yet but it seems dat it works
“The solution that i found works is there is a small wire ribbon that is located under the battery. It is brown or orange color. with the plug in, take the bat. out and press on the uplifted brown ribbon wire and press the caps lock button. if your key pad works, place a small piece of tape on it and it should work”