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The March 2015 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Pro Retina Display, model A1502, features fifth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and introduces the Force Touch trackpad.

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Keyboard stopped working but trackpad working fine

MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Early 2015. My keyboard stopped working but my trackpad is still working fine. The only thing that works on the keyboard is the power button. When i plugged in an external keyboard, it also didn't work but an external mouse works fine.

I took it to a local repair place in my country and they said that putting in a new keyboard did not fix the issue. They now want to replace the logic part on the mother board and reprogram it. I told them that it could be the cable for the track pad and they said that when they swapped the mother board, the keyboard worked fine so it has to be the mother board. Not sure what to do. Its turning out to be an expensive repair. Should I still try to replace the trackpad cable or is this definitely a motherboard issue?

Thanks in advance for the help.

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Apple has altered the design a few times so the way the signals route from the keyboard can be direct or indirect via the trackpad. In this case the signals route to the logic board directly so replacing the trackpad or its cable won’t effect anything.

The issue here is the keyboard connector on the logic board may have been damaged in the process of installing a new keyboard. Thats if they tried to install a new internal keyboard.

But you also made a comment on trying an external USB keyboard and it failed to work but an external mouse was working. Was it using USB or Bluetooth? I’m suspecting it was a Bluetooth mouse which uses a different method of access to the system. If you tried a Bluetooth Keyboard then the keyboards battery or it’s settings were not setup correctly. You’ll need to double check your USB ports to make sure they are not working! If that is the case then you need a new logic board and you may need to look at what devices you have plugged into the USB ports as one of them may have damaged your system. A common issue is external USB devices which have their own power supply. Sometimes people use the wrong power unit for the device!

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4 Comments:

Hi thank you for your response. The keyboard that I plugged in was a wireless keyboard so with a dongle that goes into the usb port and then connecting to the keyboard by bluetooth. The mouse was also a similar wireless mouse. The only thing I had plugged in to the usb was a iphone 5S which also ended having an issue with a short in its sim card holder on the same day. The place where I was using the laptop has a lot of power fluctuation issues which damages electronics and that night was particularly rainy with thunderstorms etc. With this information do you suggest I have them repair the logic board or troubleshoot further? Any idea what apple would charge for such a repair?

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Sounds like you really need a good filtering/fill-in UPS! Bad power can and will kill your electronics. Even in the City here we get poor power and needed to get UPS's for all of our systems in one building at it was so bad.

It does sound like your logic board has been damaged here. But you'll likely need a new MagSafe power adapter as these too can be damaged.

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I would invest into getting a USB tester which will allow you to check both the power being offered by the MacBook plus the power draw of the device you've got plugged in series with the tester.

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okay thank you for the help. Yes I have already replaced one macbook charger in the last few months as it started leaking some brown fluid lol. I will ask them to go ahead a troubleshoot the logiboard further and do what repairs they need to do. They have quoted me $150 for the logic board repair so not too bad overall.

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