Users report trackpad, keyboard lockups with Apple's newest MacBook Pros

Owners of Haswell-equipped Retina MacBook Pros have taken to Apple's user-to-user support forums en masse, complaining of repeated keyboard and trackpad freezes that can be remedied only with a hard reset.

The largest thread related to the issue features more than 250 replies spanning 17 pages. Users have reported seeing the problem with every hardware configuration of the slim notebooks, with both 13- and 15-inch models seemingly equally affected.

Most users say that a hard system reset is the only cure when the systems freeze, while there are sporadic reports that cycling sleep mode by closing the lid and reopening it can reanimate the input devices. Several users who have tried the old standby troubleshooting step of resetting the laptop's System Management Controller via a keyboard combination on startup say that it does not provide any relief.

A conflict between OS X Mavericks, the latest revision to Cupertino's desktop operating system, and the new MacBook Pro hardware has not been completely ruled out. Owners of previous-generation Retina MacBook Pros, however, do not report similar issues after the Mavericks update.

Apple updated the Retina display-equipped MacBook Pro line last week, migrating from Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture to a new Haswell-based system featuring the Santa Clara company's Iris Pro integrated graphics chip. The move has reaped performance increases of two to eight percent across the board, while adding hours of battery life to the laptops.

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84 Comments

bergermeister

said about 10 years ago

This fall's launches are not looking to be Apple's best. That might be the biggest understatement I've ever made.

The Pages thread is 45 pages long with 665 messages detailing a disaster.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473697?tstart=0

Keynote, iMovie, Numbers are all getting hammered in the forums and on the store.

Though I know the media likes to focus on hardware, Apple is also a very big software maker. Will AI write an article about software?

Overall, I am getting the feeling that Apple is in a post-Steve slump and are stumbling a bit. Quite a bit?

MacPro

said about 10 years ago

There are a few wrinkles in Mavericks to iron out for sure. I have seen only this morning several apps apparently still running in Activity Monitor and Force Quit palette even though they showed as not running in the dock. Trying to empty the waste basket alerted me as it said a document was in use by Preview, yet I'd quit Preview I thought. Sometimes Force quitting Finder will fix this sometimes it takes a full reboot. For me with an SSD this takes a few seconds so no biggie. I expect a Mavericks update any day now for these sorts of things.

machead4ever

said about 10 years ago

I don't think the reported keyboard and keypad lockups are related to the Haswell chips. I am running Mavericks on a 2011 iMac and I do experience lack of response from keyboard and mouse on a Windows 7 virtual machine. Fortunately, the VM does respond to a restart sequence and the problem goes away after a fresh restart. However, I was able to recreate the problem while using VMWARE VSphere 5.5 Client in this VM. I thought it was a buggy VMWARE client, but maybe it is a bug in Mavericks after all.

drblank

said about 10 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bergermeister

This fall's launches are not looking to be Apple's best.

The Pages thread is 45 pages long with 665 messages detailing a disaster.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473697?tstart=0

Keynote, iMovie, Numbers are all getting hammered in the forums and on the store.

Will AI write an article about software?

Overall, I am getting the feeling that Apple is in a post-Steve depression and are stumbling a bit. Quite a bit?

www.apple.com/feedback is where people should be posting their frustrations. They can do it on the support site, but this stuff gets actually routed to the right people as well, maybe even faster.

I'm not worried, they'll get it together. Software is pretty easy to fix. They did it with iTunes where they left some features out and then they brought some of them back. I can't explain why they do it, seems a little odd to me.

Maybe they hired some ex-Microsoft or Google employees that don't understand Apple. (Just joking, well maybe I'm not too far off)

Actually, here's what I THINK might be going on. They had a major announcement date which doesn't change. And to get all of the hardware/software updates ready on the same date? Yeah, right. I think what happens is they give them a date to release new s/w and the developers can't always have everything ready, tested, and with all of the features because a specific release date was mandated by upper management, so they release what they feel most comfortable with (even though features might have been left out or not fully tested) and then they complete everything and THEN they release an update and things get resolved. I don't know how much better they can do it because of these mandated announcement dates, but MAYBE if we send enough submissions to the feedback, they'll improve.

It's just the nature of the computer/software industry. Apple isn't the only one that does this. I seem to remember that Windows 8 had some problems and they had to wait about a year for 8.1. I don't think we have to wait a year for most of these software problems to get fixed.

Relax. Deep breathes, Serenity NOW!

MacPro

said about 10 years ago

[quote name="Bergermeister" url="/t/160435/users-report-trackpad-keyboard-lockups-with-apples-newest-macbook-pros#post_2425701"]This fall's launches are not looking to be Apple's best. The Pages thread is 45 pages long with 665 messages detailing a disaster. [URL=https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473697?tstart=0]https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473697?tstart=0[/URL] Keynote, iMovie, Numbers are all getting hammered in the forums and on the store. Will AI write an article about software? Overall, I am getting the feeling that Apple is in a post-Steve depression and are stumbling a bit. Quite a bit? [/quote] The do seem to be simplifying a lot of iWork features, I assume for cross platform and iCloud collaboration reasons. Those are major steps and not to be written off too lightly. I do hope now that has been achieved Apple can start adding back missing features and indeed add more. That said I have always felt both iLife and iWork apps all deserve Pro equivalents as we have with iLife. If we can have Logic, Final Cut and Aperture / Garage Band, iMovie and iPhoto ... why not a suite of pro versions for Numbers, Pages and Keynote? I'd also love to see collaboration added to pro apps. Logic Pro X with collaboration would 'rock' ...pun intended. Regarding iWork, The solution for now is to keep the '11 versions for when needed. I notice the updates put those in a folder and didn't over write them. My overall feeling is I have never felt Macs were more powerful and software so awesome in (nearly) 30 years of using Macs.