Apple release update for MacBook keyboard freeze

Well Apple have finally got an update out for the keyboard freezing issue. I've not tried it yet, but it would make sense that this will just work given the volume of reports there have been.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookmacbookprosoftwareupdate11.html

Reply from Apple re freezing keyboard under Leopard

Update on the Leopard keyboard freezing issue - I've had a reply back from Apple Worldwide Developer Relations. It confirms that this is a known issue (something that the Apple Genius Bar staff denied). My bug report was marked as a duplicate of bug 5561784. 

I can't get see that bug for some reason but it's mentioned elsewhere on the web, so we have to trust that Apple are working on a fix.

My original post on this bug is here.

MacBook keyboard freezing randomly since Leopard installation

I am suffering from the serious issue on my newish MacBook where the keyboard freezes randomly under Leopard. I've finally got around to reporting the issue to Apple, and I thought I'd copy my bug report (which is pretty comprehensive) to this blog. 

If they get back to me then I'll update this post with any feedback or pointers I receive.

Update: reply from Apple! Summary here.

Summary: 

My MacBook (13 inch white 2.0GHz) keyboard freezes randomly ever since installing Leopard.

I have been to a genius bar (Manchester Arndale) and the "genius" simply denied all knowledge of the issue, as per his training. I presented him with the MacBook and it froze several times during general use, no particular pattern/frequency. It had been in and out of sleep mode over the last few days, not rebooted. He told me it was the first and only one they'd seen. He suggested I reinstall Leopard (done, no effect) and that a keyboard replacement would have no effect on the issue.

I showed him a list of threads/blogs/comments from around the net that I had prepared, including your own site. He admitted after googling it in front of me that there were "one or two" matches - there are tens of thousands of posts about this issue.

This occurred both before and after the 10.5.1 update.

If I reboot into Vista (boot camp) then the machine does not suffer this issue at all. If I downgrade to Tiger, the issue goes away. An "archive and install" (suggested by the Apple "genius") from the Leopard DVD had no effect.

It seems to be worse if the laptop has been in/out of sleep a number of times since the last reboot, and by extension also when the laptop has got an uptime of > 4 days or so during normal use. A reboot reduces the recurrence of the issue to the point where it's tolerable for a day or two, but slowly the frequency of keyboard hangs increases. 

Sometimes the keyboard freezes for minutes at a time, sometimes it freezes for a few seconds. This seems random. At its worst, the keyboard is frozen for the majority of the time. A reboot is generally the only solution, although closing and reopening the lid sometimes helps.

When the keyboard is frozen, the caps lock/num lock lights on the keyboard are unresponsive (pressing caps lock while frozen does not cause the light to come on - after a freeze, the light comes on if you press the button as per normal)

During a freeze, the touchpad remains completely operable.

In this case, contrary to some online reports, the keyboard does NOT disappear from system profiler during a freeze. Some reports stated that the keyboard hardware appeared to disappear from the profiler list during a freeze, and then reappear after the freeze finished.

This happens in all three user accounts on my MacBook. Only my account is administrative.

Steps to Reproduce:

- Turn on laptop

- Wait a while

- Keyboard stops working randomly

Expected Results:

- Keyboard not to freeze up.

Actual Results:

- Keyboard freezes up.

Regression:

This NEVER happened under Tiger. 

This does not ever happen when booted into Windows Vista via bootcamp.

This happened for the first time minutes after upgrading to Leopard 10.5.0

This still happens regularly with the 10.5.1 update in place.

Notes:

Here's a load of links that all talk about the same problem.

The thread on discussions.apple.com has grown so large that it crashes Internet Explorer 7 on Windows. Please don't simply deny that this issue is occurring.

http://fredericiana.com/2007/11/27/osx-leopard-keyboard-problems/

http://news.softpedia.com/news/MacBook-Pro-Leopard-Keyboard-Problems-Surface-70882.shtml

http://www.applegazette.com/leopard/reports-online-of-macbookmacbook-pro-leopard-keyboard-problems/

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1206602&tstart=0

http://aralbalkan.com/1086

http://digg.com/apple/MacBook_MacBook_Pro_owners_suffer_keyboard_freezing_with_Leopard

http://fredericiana.com/2007/11/27/osx-leopard-keyboard-problems/

http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/leopard-bringing-macbook-macbook-pro-keyboard-freezes/

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1277373&tstart=0

http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/11/21/leopard.frozen.keyboards/

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82598

http://www.uberreview.com/2007/11/control-option-doh-leopard-upgrade-causes-random-keyboard-freezes.htm

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1217703&tstart=0

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=377143

XP Service Pack 3

Just about to get my hands on the new Windows XP SP3 release candidate. If any issues come up I'll blog about it on this post.