Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

keyboard/roomate issues

F

faukyu

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 29, 2007
3
0
So this morning I turned on my macbook pro. It booted up fine, but when I tried to type anything, maybe half the keys on the keyboard don't work. Some will even seem to be stuck down, randomly stopping and starting.

My roomate had been previously using it with me (watching south park and typing on msn). So, as far as I know working when he turned it off. It sat in my room unused overnight.

The guy who answered my call about the warranty and repair asked if I had spilt anything on it after hearing it was a keyboard issue. Months ago I did spill some water on it, but after flipping it and drying it off things seemed fine for months. Is there anyway I can check if the current issue is from water damage (the mac store is a good distance away, and I have no car to get me there)? I really hope this is covered by the warranty, but im worried even soemthing left from the spill months ago might void the warranty. How can I tell if my keyboard will be covered by warranty before I pay money to get to a store and have a technician look it over? Specifically, what evidence of water damage should I pray isnt on my keyboard?
 
as soon as i read stuck keys i also started to assume spilt liquids on the keyboard, but when you say water i don't know if that is the cause... might want to make sure your roommate didn't spill any beer or god forbid any other type of fluid on your computer...
 
I should rephrase that.
"Some will even seem to be stuck down, randomly stopping and starting."

means:

sometimes xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx etc will pop across my screen and continue as i mash the keyboard. sometimes it will stop on it's own, sometimes it will stop if I hit a button near it, and sometimes it will throw in a few ones like xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx111xx1xx11111111111111xxxxxxxxx



Also, in the past bits of things have dropped on the keyboard. there was a spot of jam on the "a" key that is now a slightly dirty spot for instance, but no recent liquids.
 
You seem to be a bit reckless with your notebook...no offense.

However, for your current situation, I suggest repeating the steps you took when you spilled water the first time. Ask your roommate if he remembers spilling/dropping anything on your notebook again, and if he swears he didn't, then drop it, because you don't want to start something with your roommate.

Out of curiosity, does the backlight still work?
 
Water won't cause buttons to stick (it may break the keyboard or anything else, but it won't cause them to stick).

If you have dropped jam or anything else that is sticky when it dries down there, that may have been the problem. You may also want to smell it. Jam, soda, beer, ect still smell when dry.

My question to you is, why are you eating over your keyboard? It's not a plate. ;)
 
I should clarlify, no keys are physically stuck.
on the screen, text is entered as though you were holding a single key down. The corresponding key on the keyboard is loose, will go up and down, and can even be removed entirely and the text will still appear on the screen.

the not pissing off my roomate is important, and I'm inclined to trust them. regardless, things do happen. One of us may not have even noticed if only a drop or two landed on it at some point.
I really want to know if there is a way to check on the keyboard if i was shorted or something so I could save myself the time of going to a mac repair place just to get turned down because of the warranty specifically not covering spills.
 
check ur browser history, see what sites he was surfing in that period of time. i'm serious!;)
 
I'm not sure if this is the case with Apple, but most consumer electronics that are covered by warranty have some kind of liquid-sensitve sticker that changes color after it gets wet somewhere on the product so techs can check for water damage. (I once dropped a phone in some water and was able to find the sticker beneath the battery and replace it).
I don't know if macbooks have these stickers or where they're located, but I assume they have something similar.
 
Putting aside the liquid-related stuff, if the keys aren't physically sticking and there's no giveaway smell of beer etc, maybe you have a loose connection on the ribbon cable between the k/b and the system board which is sending spurious signals and leading to the xxxxxxxxxxxxxx's you mentioned. If it's under warranty, go to the genius bar, if it isn't look on www.ifixit.com for instructions on how to remove the top case (wrist rest) and keyboard: this will show you where the connections are and how they work, you can try reseating the cable. Top left corner on their homepage: 'Guides'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back