Help! My keyboard and trackpad stopped working

[LouisM]

As the title says, the built-in keyboard and trackpad on my 2015 retina macbook pro suddently stopped working and it seems like I have tried EVERYTHING.
I'm seriously at my wits end and I am hoping a kind soul could help me out. Here is what I have done so far:

Reset PRAM/NVRAM
Reset SMC
Deleted various .plist files
Booted the computer up in safemode
Reinstalled a fresh copy of the latest OS

It really seems unlikely to me that it's a hardware issue as it stopped working from one day to the next at the exact same time.
I didn't update any drivers or install any updates either. What's puzzling is that my powerbutton works, but every other button tied to the system (like command and option key) seems dead, which is why I had to do everything with an external windows keyboard.

Thank you for reading this and sorry for any grammatical errors. English is not my native language

 

[oldscribe]

Hi louisM,

It really seems unlikely to me that it's a hardware issue as it stopped working from one day to the next at the exact same time.

I am almost 99.9% sure that the cable which connects the track-pad and keyboard will need to be replaced. You should book a GB slot and get apple to do this, unless you feel confident yourself.

 

[LouisM]

Hi louisM,



I am almost 99.9% sure that the cable which connects the track-pad and keyboard will need to be replaced. You should book a GB slot and get apple to do this, unless you feel confident yourself.

Hi Oldscribe, thanks for replying.

Maybe you are right and the flex cable is at fault, but it started out with the trackpad not working and after I rebooted the pc, the keyboard didn't work aswell. AFAIK, the cable connects both the keyboard and trackpad, right? If that's true, then it must be a software related issue. I can see now that I worded my first post incorrectly, what I meant by them stopping at the exact same time is that it happened approx. 5 minutes of eachother.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi louisM,

the cable connects both the keyboard and trackpad, right? If that's true, then it must be a software related issue.

Truthfully I believe this to be hardware related as I said, you could try connecting an external keyboard which may let you run Apple Diagnostic.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202731

But over the years I have found that many hardware issues are not reported by this tool.
Therefor I defiantly feel you may need to take a trip to an Apple Store

 

[LouisM]

Hi louisM,



Truthfully I believe this to be hardware related as I said, you could try connecting an external keyboard which may let you run Apple Diagnostic.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202731

But over the years I have found that many hardware issues are not reported by this tool.
Therefor I defiantly feel you may need to take a trip to an Apple Store

Hello again, Oldscribe.

I am taking a leap of faith and just ordered a new flex cable, let's hope it fixes the problem. I have already run the diagnostic tool, but it didn't report anything.
Fingers crossed

EDIT: I will update this thread once again when I have installed the new one

 

[oldscribe]

Hi louisM,

Yes keep us posted.

 

[LouisM]

Update:

Sadly, replacing the flex cable did nothing. At this point im sure it must be software issues. The trackpad still gets powered as far as I can tell since it still lets me click it (it doesn't feel like when its turned off).

So, if anyone out there reading this knows what it could be, please let me know!