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2.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz) with 3 MB shared L3 cache. Released February 13, 2013.

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Certain keys only work when I hold down "W". (2, F2, esc, ~, tab)

A few months ago while playing a game I noticed that for some reason I was unable to click 2 while simultaneously holding w. It worked with other keys I tried but never 2. Eventually after looking into it more I realized that F2, esc, ~ and tab also were unable to be pressed with w. Pretty minor issue at first but it got worse. Now I am unable to press any of those keys at all unless I either hold down w, or apply a lot of force to the w key temporarily allowing the other ones to be pressed.

I am certain this is a mechanical issue since it occurs on multiple accounts and the lock screen. My main concern is that this isn’t an issue with the keyboard, rather something worse like the motherboard. Though the fact that pressing down w hard temporarily fixes the issue seems to suggest otherwise.

I have tried cleaning the keys with isopropyl alcohol, there was a fair bit of dust. I also ordered new keycaps, retainer clips and rubber cups for a few keys since they were getting faded anyways. When physically pressing the w rubber cup it does work better however the problem still occurs so it mostly likely isn’t the retainer clips or keycaps that are the issue. Right now I plan on replacing the rubber cup on the w key but I wanted to get insight on the issue before taking any steps that could potentially make the problem worse.

I have also never replaced the rubber cup before and haven’t been able to find much about for this model of key so help with that would be much appreciated.

Hope you guys can help, this is getting really annoying :)

Thanks!

Answer this question I have this problem too

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1 Answer

To be sure you have a bad key follow this Apple macOS guide section: If your Mac doesn’t respond to key presses

For the parts figure out which type of key assembly and click on the one here that matches yours MacBook Pro retina Key Cap Parts

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1 Comment:

Do you have any guides for replacing the rubber cups? I already have the correct parts but haven't been able to find a good guide for it.

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