curser sometimes disappears

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.

Bob --

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.

2. Have you cleaned your mouse lately?

Hi ~Bee and all,

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.'

I would get a new very plain mousepad, robert.
Thanks for the response that things are better.

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.

John

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.

*Hi David, Welcome* to Apple's Users Help Users Forums.

Mine behaves that way too. I have simply gotten used to it. 🙂

I too have a disappearing mouse. And once it's gone, it doesn't come back until I restart the machine. It's really annoying.

I think it started happening when I got the new Apple keyboard.