Q: macbook pro trackpad problem

Hello All,

I had this same issue and I think I found the problem. It is the battery. Apparently it can swell up larger that the space available and push up on the trackpad from the bottom. I took my battery out and sure enough. It works like new. It now clicks correctly and it does not auto-select everything. Also the fan stopped running all the time which was another issue I was worried about.

I did have a warning message when you clicked the battery meter "service battery" that I should have paid attention to. I just assumed it just meant it was getting old and would not hold a charge much longer. Aparrently not.

Don't know if it is your problem but I hope this helps someone!

Took mine down to local apple service station and they told me and showed me photo that liquid had got in and shorted out the track pad. New track pad ordered. However when they gave me it back and waiting for new track pad it started working properly again. Unfortunately still have to pay for new track pad as liquid damage of course not covered by warranty. In reality I believe that may have been some dirt got between the battery and track pad.

Is less than 6 months old and no sign of battery bulge.

Here's my take on this and it's weird.

I had the problem of the trackpad being stuck on right click, so, I used a USB mouse. I recently bought a Magic Mouse and used it with no problems. 

One time I forgot the mouse in the other room and once it lost contact with the MBP, it reverted to the trackpad. Guess what? Now the trackpad works and the Magic Mouse has the trackpad problem requiring a restart and a USB mouse plugged in as it restarts.

The keyboard gets buggy too after the switch.

I was experiencing multiple trackpad issues. Found a post that said to turn off Bluetooth, which worked like a charm. Original functionality is back. I too started having issues after getting an update.

ok, here's a new idea: uncheck all boxes on the trackpad panel and click with 3 fingers HARD (which I'm doing now). but, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! why do we have to come up with such idiotic solutions?  why doesn't Aplle live up to to it's reputation and fix this problem as in RECALL!!! my next move is to buy a USB trackpad tomorrow. I'm not gonna spend 1,300 every 2 years. all their laptops that Ihad sucked. (not that the Windows are better).

Same problem - it is like there is a poltergeist is in the track pad and it moves around opens things on its own.  Here is the weird part. Took it to the Genius Bar and nothing wrong - worked fine (they did reboot it, turned off bluetooth and checked the battery - though not whether it bulged or not).  Took it home and back to the same problem. Removed all electronics near laptop (phones).  Still acting goofy.  Will check battery myself (I can, right?) and do the tapping trick but this is most annoying.

I'm facing the same problem, I tried to format and reinstall and the problem remains so I don't think it's a software problem. However I have some theories in my personal case. Actually I'm living in India and here I have to deal with two problems.

One it's called ants...they go all around and even inside of the computer, when I saw that, I tried to clean the best way I could and now I try to be sure that there is no ants around the place where I put the computer. But I wonder if there is not maybe one or two inside dead that are doing something to the system.

The second reason are monkeys...as crazy as it sounds one day they came into the house and when I arrived home there was some water around the computer so maybe this came and spoiled something inside. The computer is fine but after this two events the trackpad started to behave in a weird way.

In any case I think it's related to some dirt or humidity I will have to see with the apple store and the animal control... 

This has been happening to me as well.  Looks like everyone is having the same issue at the same time.  My trackpad is doing something a little different- slow, then fast, moves and clicks on its OWN, jumps all over the screen, I tried to use a mouse- and had the same issues- rebooting doesn't seem to help, nor does changing my trackpad preferences seems to help.

I thought it was

1. Dropped some drops of water on the trackpad that was condensed on the outside of my glass.

2. I just upgraded to Firefox 6 which is the only really new thing I did.

I had to retype this about 6 times since my cursor kept jumping to different places and locations.

Christina

this worked for me as well.

Cm

YES! This has had me going bananas for about a week. Thanks! I'm hearing the satisfying 'CLICK' again and not having my cursor eating up fonts like PacMan. Love it!

Got here through a 'trackpad not working' search. Definitely was my battery. Buttons felt mushy and had the random selection problem. The battery wasn't bulging much, and I didn't notice because I use a Speck hard case. Once I took out the battery, however, placing it on a glass tabletop, I could see it was deflected about 1-2 mm. New battery=nice, crisp clicks!

Same problem here. When my trackpad goes crazy I press the ESC key and it solves it for a while.

Trackpad would start acting like a it was being pressed, especially when my late 2008 MacBook Pro 15" was warmed up.  Went to my local Genius bar -- the (removable) battery had swollen up and was pressing on the trackpad from inside.  They *gave* me a new battery -- problem solved.

Definitely check the battery for intermittent trackpad problems, folks!  And if your MBP still has the removable kind, you can easily pull it out yourself to test -- and FWIW, the swelling on my battery was glaringly eveident -- looked like it was preganant with triplets.

After reading butchfromorland park's post I discovered that my magic mouse (which I thought was turned off in my backpack) had accidentally been turned on which made my trackpad act strange. Once I turned it off everything worked normally again.

I'm one more person with the same trackpad problem. I hate the trackpad anyway and use a wireless mouse, but the same problem can start without me even touching the trackpad - then neither the mouse or trackpad works properly until I force reboot.

The problem comes right back. Sometimes I get a good hour of work in first. Other times just a minute or two and I have to be physically restrained from loading up a carful of bricks to lob through an Apple window somewhere.

Does Apple read these comments and EVER reply???

An acknowledgement that they are aware of the problem and working on a fix is not much to expect.