"The usual suspects for this crime is something was spilled into the keyboard: Liquid of some kind or food crumbs. I've seen staples as well as paper mess-up a key or two. The last possibility is the battery as sometimes they swell up pressing from the bottom.
For crumbs: Use a can of can'ed air you could try blowing in small bursts along the keys (don't let the liquid spray out!).
For a spill: You could pop the keycaps off and carefully clean underneath them hopefully saving the expense of replacing the full keyboard.
For a swelled battery: Its time to replace! To see if thats it you'll need to pop off the bottom and loosen it. Does the keyboard work then?"
"Problem in my friend's early 2011 macbook pro was unworking row of keys QWERTYUIO so I decided to figure out what was wrong there.
1. It was very dusty inside so heatsink was almost clogged and machine seemed to be very hot. I noticed heatsink sticked to keyboard black foil. But it wasnt that bad.
2. I removed keyboard (66 or so screws, yes) and disassembled it completely, every single key :-)
3. Next I took a close view on contact layer of keyboard and figured out what traces are responsible for non working keys and finally find a trace break! Im wonderin' how that break could happen, but it's a fact. There are at least 2 conductive layers separated by thin plasic layer, everything glued together so be careful when diggin' into...
4. Then I had to reestablish that trace so conductive paint was helpful. I used Mechanic MCN-DJ002. Looks kinda terrible but worked. Dont forget to check if you successfully fixed that via. Be careful, that factory traces are very fragile.
5. When my broken trace was fixed I assembled back machine and now every key works fine.
PS this fix is very hard to do but in comparison to changing top cover for 300$ this costed me few hours of time and just 4$ for conductive paint. Its much faster just to replace the whole keyboard - this is my advice for everyone.
PPS when you got multiple keys non working - the first that you wanna try is to check your keyboard connector and flex. If it doesnt work and you know how - check pcb vias from keyboard connector to chip that is responsible for that stuff, you need to get schematics and board view. If that was OK - you just get your new keyboard and install it, don't bother with diggin' so deep as I did."
"I had this problem with the row ""z"" to ""m"" and a few more around. They stopped working from time to time and then recovered.
Then once I noticed they had stopped working after the MacBook was on a table but supported only in the centre of its base. Hence I wondered if the compression in the centre was somehow harming the contacts of the keyboard.
So I decided to give it a stretch! I put my thumb in the middle of the row (between the keys) and the other fingers on the left and right borders for the macbook and I pressed with my thumbs. And voilà! It worked!!! Sometimes the keys start to fail again and I repeat the exercise; it has worked all the times!
At least for now I have saved 500 euros in a new keyboard. I guess my backpack is the culprit, as it somehow unnoticeably bends my System!"
"Here's the problem and the solution (on my 2012 MacBook Pro):
I had this issue and found that pressing down hard on the E key before the problem keys or the lower case to the right of the trackpad got it working again for a bit sometimes. It also worked fine using a USB keyboard.
took it to a repair place and they got it working for a couple weeks but then the problem returned.
What the real issue turned out to be was the battery was swollen after two years.
If you have this problem, remove the battery and run the computer from the power cord only and see if the problem goes away. In my case it did, so I ordered a new battery and installed it, and with a new (unswollen) battery, the problem didn't return and the computer works just fine.
I didn't change the keyboard or the top case, just the battery.
Are there any news regarding a official fix for this problem? I have a Macbook Air 13 Mid 2011 and unfortunately I have the same problem with the ""qwertyuio"" buttons row. It seems a problem with the software (maybe a bug?), because when rebooting the mac usually the row never works ... To run the keys, I have to press repeatedly (and randomly) all the keys from ""q"" to ""o"" many times. Once they take the input, the keys work correctly until the mac spend some time in standby...
Do you have any solutions or tips? I've already checked, opened, cleaned the mac and internal parts (battery is ok, not a single crumb or spill) and tried all the fixes that I could find on the internet. But unfortunately the problem continues to be there! I would not want to change all the keyboard then find out that the problem is always there :(
Thank You and regards!
Update (06/10/2017)
Hi, I'm writing some sort of update... Maybe I found my problem!
Yesterday I opened the Mac, removed the battery and cleaned the logic board with some ethanol... Until I realized that it was not the logic board causing the issue with those keys but the one-way-pin starting from the keyboard, goes from the trackpad and connects everything to the motherboard.
I cleaned these three connectors (attached picture) : https://postimg.org/image/5e6rzygwr/
And now, It works!
My considerations? Perhaps, the old battery was inflated a bit and pressed abnormally on the trackpad, where the two connectors (keyboard + trackpad) reside. When I changed it a year ago, I probably didn't notice this difference!
So the fix is: If you have a keyboard problem and you have a macbook out of warranty, I advise you to clean everything sparingly (pins, connectors etc.) before replacing any hardware part! ;)
