I posted this problem months ago and am still having it. The curser just disappears. It is there but not visable. If you move the mouse down you can see the icons in the dock jump. If you move the mouse around it will eventually appear again. It's really a nusance.
Bob
try System Prefs from Apple Menu. Universal Access. Mouse. Try fiddling around with the options BUT before you do make a note of the original settings by taking a picture of the screen (appleshift4) (drag hold down the mouse, drag over the window and let go) for later reference.
1. Does your mousepad have any decorations on it?
To test if it's your mousepad, just use a plain piece of white paper
under your mouse for a while. If it fixes your cursor problem, then
you need a new plain mousepad.
Is it not built in? If I move a page w 'page down' say or an arrow key the cursor disappears until I move it w the mouse. I just accept it as a 'feature.'
Sorry, my first reply got cut off.
I don't use the keys to page.
my mouse has no graphics.
I cleaned the mouse.
I am now trying the white pape thing.
The next thing I will try is a different mouse. I have two.
Thanks all
Bob
I spoke too soon. The problem is back or still there. I happened to be looking at exactly the right spot whrn I moved the mouse and the curser appeared like magic. It is if the curser goes to sleep and moving the mouse wakes it up.
This sounds like correct behavior. For example, in TextEdit as soon as you start typing the mouse cursor disappears. That is intentional, so in case it is over the TextEdit window it won't get in your way. When you jiggle the mouse, it reappears.
I am having the exact same problem on a MacPro quad core tower. Every once in while the mouse just completely disappears. I can use the keyboard to switch apps via cmd-tab and at the finder I can select items, open drives, etc. But the cursor never reappears.
In order to avoide a force restart, I have to restart the machine using only keyboard commands. To do this I first cmd-tab to bring each running app to the front and then cmd-Q to quit them. Once all apps are gone, I use control-F2 to activate the Apple menu. From there I press the down arrow repeatedly until I get to the 'Restart' command. Then I press enter to initiate a restart.
This is a very anoying problem that I hope Apple fixes soon. BTW.. I am running OS X 10.4.10. The only 'special' software I have installed is Xsan.
The same thing happens on my iMac G4 running 10.4.10. It has happened occasionally over the last few months. I thought my son had added a custom cursor program but he only adjusted Universal Access. Sometimes switching users helps, other times it doesn't. I've tried repairing prefs, and it usually works for a short time.
I'd love to completely fix this problem. It's annoying, and i know what I'm doing on this computer.
I'm having a disappearing cursor occasionally, and it seems to happen most when I'm using Safari. It is usually a temporary problem as I just move the mouse around a bit and it reappears eventually. I'm using a wireless super mouse, wireless keyboard, and have an additional monitor plugged into my MacBook, as well. Not a huge issue, but it would be better not to have this mysterious disappearance.