Chosen Solution
Hi there, I have a very strange problem with my MacBook Pro that I can’t find reports of anywhere else online. I would really appreciate any ideas, because I am running out of them for sure! The core problem is: the keyboard and trackpad don’t work. But there are many weird things about it, as follows: -when the problem started, it was fixed with a simple restart for a couple of days. Then an NVRAM reset was needed at every boot to fix it - strangely enough, the combination (CMD-ALT-P-R) worked on the in-built keyboard. The SMC reset combination also worked (SHIFT-CTRL-ALT), but nothing else did. The P and R keys, used for the NVRAM reset, didn’t work for typing either. -This worked for a week or two. Then the resets stopped working too, leaving it in its current state of needing an external keyboard and mouse to operate. A short while after the resets stopped working, the NVRAM reset combination stopped registering on the in-built keyboard. -Reverting to an older OS, reinstalling the OS, and factory resetting the Mac did nothing to help. At this point, I thought, must be a loose ribbon cable… -…then I discovered that they work absolutely fine when booting Linux from a USB stick, and on a Linux partition on my SSD! I added this partition when I found that they work on a USB stick, so I could use the laptop portably for some things. -And a final point… the keyboard and trackpad can wake the Mac from sleep when on macOS, but cannot do anything else! This makes no sense to me. I can’t seem to think of a logical explanation. The fact that they work on Ubuntu proves that it can’t be hardware, right? Thank you so much for your time! EDIT: I have now looked inside the laptop. Am I right in thinking that this is the trackpad cable, running over the top of the battery and connecting to the trackpad here?
There’s no water damage anywhere and I gave it a good clean out. One thing I forgot to mention before was this error in verbose mode (I think it was that - might have been single-user). Does this give any clues as to what the problem is?
Open it first, and check for any obvious liquid damage. The trackpad on the 2015 13" MacBook Pro (assuming it is a 13") must be recognised by the MacBook in order for the keyboard to work. If the trackpad is unplugged, or there is an intermittent fault with the cable, both the trackpad and cable will not work. I have never tried booting into another OS when I come across one with this issue, but I imagine Mac OS uses some signals transferred through the trackpad cable Ubuntu does not, which is why it may work fine on another OS. There is a common fault with the trackpad cable on this model, which is easy to replace. If there is no liquid damage inside the Mac, I would recommend trying this first since the cable costs around £10. This issue can be very intermittent, so ones which I see will sometimes work fine, then stop working when put to sleep, or vice versa.
