MacBook unibody keyboard ribbon cable won't go in

Sounds like tape might be the best way to get the cable back in, but if you don't have any tape handy, what worked for me was tweezers. I carefully inserted one side of the cable into the socket, and then with tweezers, gently coaxed the other side of it into the socket. Once it was lined up, I nudged the cable forward until it was all the way in, and then locked it in place with the locking tab. I also use a lamp with a built-in magnifying glass for stuff like this...makes a big difference.

Here’s another fix. I replaced the trackpad, hard drive, and RAM chips on my early 2011 17” unibody. Had to take out fans motherboard and battery. I got the machine back together and booted up but found that neither the trackpad nor the keyboard worked. The trackpad does click to enter but does not control the mouse. For the keyboard I had the same problem with the connector. I also managed to break off the locking lever. I tried at least five different methods, tape, plastic shim, etc. the end of the keyboard tape was starting to look a bit beat up from all of my attempts. I could see that the row of metal contacts on the top of the wire tape was not going completely into the connector socket. I had resigned myself to getting an external keyboard and in desperation tried one last thing. I took a straight edge razor blade and with a small piece of wood (tongue depressor) underneath as a cutting board I cut off the end of the tape, somewhere between 1/64” and 1/32”. I inserted the trimmed wire tape into the connector and the top row of metal contacts now disappeared into the housing. I put the broken locking lever back in place, put a piece of scotch tape over the whole mess, booted up and it worked! Keyboard back in action! If anyone has an idea about how to get the trackpad mouse to work, let me know.

I put a piece of spaghetti (thin and uncooked) under the cable which gives a bit more to push on and you can roll it in. This was after 3 hours of trying other methods though,

Bringing this thread back to life. I’m not sure if I damaged the cable or not, but once I was able to get the Mac turned on I am not able to use various keys - shift, command, option, caps lock, up, down, left, right, and a few others. Could this be caused by a damaged cable?

My problem (during replacement of the keyboard) was this: I took off the coloured piece of plastic (blue or red) at the end of the ribbon cable on the replacement keyboard (DON’T DO THAT), thinking it was some protective isolation. It was far enough in the socket but just too thin to hold for the socket lock. Magically worked after putting that piece of plastic back on. Didn’t need much for at all (or the tape for that matter which I tried as well). Hope it helps anyone, leave the plastic on!