Q: Jumpy erratic cursor/arrow - Moves & Selects without touching

I had similar issues the past couple of days - the cursor was going between jumpy and non-responsive, mistaking single finger for double finger gestures, etc. It was almost completely unusable as a pointing device. I had used the trackpad recently with sweaty hands after a workout so I figured there might be some sort of conductive "deposit" that was affecting the capacitance of the trackpad. I took a dry Q-tip and ran it around the boundary of the trackpad, pressing down firmly enough to depress the trackpad and make it "click". My thought was to let the cotton fibers run between the trackpad and the metal case of my (brand new) 13" MacBook Pro since the clearance is very tight.

So far the tracking function is back to normal.

Hi

I have had a similar problem (slow bluetooth keyboard and drunk jumpy external trackpad) and found a solution via trial and error.

Some people suggested that the problem is due to interference from wifi and the bluetooth periferals...

I have confirmed this because the problems go away if you turn of wifi - so there is an issue there, this has only started happening with my new tp link router...

Of course its not much use if you can;t get online with your trackpad etc.

What I found is that in the router setup if I manually chose the channel rather than leaving it set to auto then the problems disapeared - so it looks like the scanning for the best channel (ie checking for interference) by some routers can cause your external bluetooth trackpad and keyboards to act very strangely...

This has been simple to cure in my case - well after a lot of mucking around so I thought I would share this solution around.

Matt

Hi Esor, 

I occasionally,over the past year, have also experienced the same wacky (unpredictable) behavior with my magic trackpad.

I too have tried cleaning the trackpad surface to no avail/improvement.

Today I figured out how to fix this flakyness, wild/erratic behaviour by the magic trackpad for me:  I was getting quite frustrated about this problem until I noticed my battery are not screwed in 100% tight! Since tightening the screw cap using a coin to tighten,  locking the fastening down as tight as it can go, the functionality has returned to normal/fixed itself.

I moved my iMac from one house to another & maybe the vibration loosened off the trackpads battery connection ever so slightly.

Hope you can have the same outcome.

Clearly, Apple has not stepped up to the plate here.  I've the same problem, and because it comes and goes, it's very difficult to get apple to pay attention. I've been an apple convert since 1985 - they should treat me (us) better.

Hi I had the same issue, I remembered that an update for Tekkit was installed around the same time as the issue occurring. I believe it may be a java app causing the issues for you all, I deleted the Tekkit java App and the issue has been resolved, after reinstalling the app there is still no issue I believe the app may have been corrupted through the install.

I hope this helps you all

Many thanks Dave.

I, who experienced the same problem with my track pad (mac book pro 2011) for some weeks now, thought there would be nobody out there with the same "anarchistic way of behaving mouse-trackpad". But obviously I was wrong. By trial and error I´ve noticed that it helped (temporary) to:

1. close the top, wait for a while and open it again.

2. let the battery get out of charge - totally - and recharge it (it helped for at least two days)

Now I use a usb-mouse until I can take it to service. I will sure show this thread to them when I get there!

This is excessively bad advice! What you are recommending really just amounts to ignoring the symptoms and hoping that the problem goes away. If this is being caused by a swollen battery, ignoring it could result in permanent damage to the computer. If it is actually being caused by someone accessing the computer remotely, ignoring it gives them more opportunities to do something malicious.

Same problem, read all through the threads in this forum. maybe this would work for others who tried all the options posted but failed to solve the problem even when doing so. This worked for me: If you have Folx download manager or any download manager in mac that is not supported already by the latest Mac OS X, uninstall it, remove it. Also remove input managers folder that came along with the folx downloader. hope this would work on others having the same problem.

Try doing the PRAM reset... restart your computer and press and hold option+command+p+r .... it worked for me. Apple genius bar will try to sell you a new trackpad (i hate how they do that without trying these things) but this may work instead.

I wonder how many of you had this problem after somehow getting the trackpad wet. Because that's when this problem occured with me: few drops of condensation from a nicely chilled glass of wine hit the trackpad and it went berserk. The problem persisted for days. After reading Nine Bravo's reply (one of the few that address moisture) I simply depressed the trackpad close to edge and ran my finger around the border (meanwhile taking care that this wasn't causing unwanted onscreen action). It helped immediately.

Possible explanation: the glass trackpad is so tightly fitted that water by cohesion will fill the seem causing some sort of short circuiting.

Bart has the best explanation I've seen. Ultimately for me the solution was to take my PowerBook back to the Apple store where they submitted it to a tracking responsiveness diagnostic - which it failed. Apple replaced my trackpad while I waited and now it works fine. I believe even a small amount of moisture can penetrate at the edge of the trackpad and affect its ability to sense your finger, sometimes permanently.

Nine Bravo

I just completely discharged the battery on my MacBook Pro 10,1 and it worked for me. The trackpad is working now fine. I think it's a bad idea with trackpad replacement, beacause the service center does the same as i did, they pull the battery out and then replace the trackpad with new one. It's crazy, if you need to pay for this

Well, my advices were not meant to be permanent solutions to this strange problem - just a way to keep the head above the water (to keep the machine running) until you know why the problem occurred in the first place and how to handle it. It would be interesting to know how long it will last for you, simalev.

But I also start to believe that this problem might have something to do with moisture -  at least I know that my trackpad got a bit wet as I used wet wipes to clean the whole computer after being used by my children. Maybe that was a bad idea...

I saw that someone in this thread suggested rice, how many of you have tried it and, the most importand question, did it work? I will sure go for it when I don't need to use the computer for about 24 hours.

i had this problem for 3 days, now the trackpad is working fine. i read different posts and tried almost every advice )) but nothing helped me. I never used wet wipes to clean the trackpad. I think if you discharge the battery completely or pull it for 10 seconds out, and it doesn't help, then may be your trackpad is really damaged by water.

So my advices are:

1. discharge or pull the battery for 10 seconds out

2. if it doesn't help, reinstall completely the operating system and clear PRAM, then do the first step.

3. Use only original power supply

4. If it doesn't help, replace your trackpad with new one

i hope it helps...

Hi,

After looking through the posts, and having the same recent jumpy erratic trackpad issues everyone else reported, I turned off Bluetooth.  Everything immediately calmed down and I'm back to normal. I suggest you at least try this first. Hope this can help someone.  bc