14 DAY TRIAL // Various issues with Leopard continue to surface and while some may be relatively small, others are serious problems for those affected. MacBook Pro owners who are considering an upgrade to Leopard should be aware of a potential issue related to the keyboard that can affect its responsiveness.
Reports and details are, as usual, varied however there seems to definitely be a problem with MacBook Pros upgraded to Leopard. Users are reporting that trackpads and keyboards are behaving erratically, becoming unresponsive at the most inappropriate of times. Poster 'Cub man' describes his problem: "The keyboard will stop working and become unresponsive - the caps and number lock lights won't even turn on. Then after a few minutes, it turns on again and is fine until I let it sit for a while." Stefan Arentz tells a similar story: "This is on a MacBook Pro that I bought about a month ago. Now with Leopard the keyboard and trackpad stop working at completely at unpredictable moments. The only thing that helps is to connect an external keyboard/mouse and reboot." "Zero issues whatsoever until installing 10.5. Now, keyboard disappears frequently and intermittently. I would have finished typing this post sooner, but my keyboard was unresponsive every time I opened a new window," posts user 'kenji.'
The problem appears to be some sort of energy saving mechanism that kicks in erroneously, rendering the keyboard and track pad unusable. Users have tried various methods of stimulating the controls back to life, but so far these seem to be as haphazard as the problem that causes this to stop working in the first place. While the exact nature of the problem is still vague, all of the posts make it very clear that these problems were not present before upgrading to Leopard.
Apple's first update for Leopard is in the works, but it is unclear whether a fix for this problem is to be found within it and even so it will take some time before it actually makes its way into user's hands. Until there is official word from Apple, MacBook Pro users are better off postponing that upgrade.