MacBooks have a few notorious problems with their keyboards. My MacBook is one of the unlucky few that wasn’t fixed by the software update from Apple, which made me think that it is a hardware problem. Occasionally, some of the keys crap out. It’s always the same ones: Delete, the arrow-down cursor, and the space bar. I have been fixing this by wedging a piece of card between the bottom right corner of the case and the desk, but even that now fails. So, with a shiny new MacBook Pro to work on, it was time to take the old MacBook apart and see what was going on.
This is the patient, pictured next to some dime-store screwdrivers (actually bought this morning to add 4GB RAM to the MacBook Pro). It turns out that these screwdrivers are junk, as you will see.
First, go to iFixit, an amazing resource for Mac repairs. IFixit sells Mac parts, but the site also carries detailed step-by-step instructions for all kinds of teardowns. Even for a first timer, the guides make it possible to strip and rebuild a Mac with hardly a screw left over, and they’re free. I picked the guide called "Installing Upper Case ", which is nothing to do with the Caps Lock key, though it might sound like it. It’s a good idea to print the instructions, even if you have a second computer to view the guide: the photos make great places to stick the screws you remove, so you know where they go later.
I won’t post a picture of each stage, as iFixit takes care of those details. But look here: This is the inside of the battery compartment. The little L-shaped bracket is the first thing you remove. it’s also the cover for both the hard drive and the RAM, both of which can be swapped out in minutes. And the screws you see? Captive, so you can’t lose them. Which is more than can be said for the ones inside. In fact, the screws you see still in the back panel were almost impossible to remove because of the cheap screwdrivers I used. The screws actually stripped the Phillips heads.
The screws. As you can see, I haven’t followed my own advice and taped them to a photo. They are, however, organized. I moved from left to right and then, when I ran out of space, top to bottom. Kind of.
The guts. It seems that the MacBook isn’t quite as dust-sealed as one might like. It’s a mess in there. At the bottom edge, you see the RAM, in the middle, the fan, on the right the optical drive with the hard drive tucked underneath. And right in the center is the bit we want: the keyboard connector:
If the theory is correct, the keyboard connector had somehow come loose and was causing the intermittent cut outs. After a bit of dust removal, the keyboard will be plugged back in and the MacBook reassembled.
Just before that, here’s a picture of the underside of the keyboard/upper case unit. It’s pretty well sealed, although there are some holes in there. It won’t protect your computer’s innards from a cup of coffee but it should ward off smaller spills.
All back together. If you suspect you might have a loose connection, you could try just pressing on the keyboard above the connector. It’s exactly between the F and G keys, towards their top edge.
Now, how did the surgery work? The machine booted, as normal, but the keys are still dead. And all the time, now, not just intermittently. It looks like, instead of fixing things, I made them worse. Which is why this post isn’t in it’s natural home, the Wired How-To Wiki, but here at the Gadget Lab. Don’t try this at home.
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