Trackpad doesn't work

Did you read the post from the guy who broke his glass trackpad, picking up his new MB (or MBP, i forget which)? Rigidity of the case if great, but using glass for the trackpad opens up another issue--broken trackpads and since the fellow says it's not tempered, possible lawsuits.

Allegedly it was on a MacBook, and from such a reliable source with 2 posts to his or her name.

Whatever next, a Level 3 Troll?

Number of posts does not indicate either a troll or an expert.

Very true. But perhaps those of us with more experience of this forum should take a more considered view before passing something on as gospel.

Or, conversely, one might consider that their own longevity on a forum doesn't give them clairvoyance, or makes them superior to someone who just signed up moments ago. I keep an open mind when someone explains a personal experience. Simply because I didn't experience that same result hardly qualifies me to dismiss their experience.

I think it's off putting to see someone being labeled as a "troll" simply because they either are new, OR said something another member with "seniority" doesn't believe to be true.

How about we not cast aspersions on each other, including the newest of members?

Agreed, no offence intended.

None taken!

I prefer definitive answers to wild speculation and off topic meanderings, and since my macbook was also plagued by this mysterious non-responsive click at the top of the trackpad I felt the need to get some answers.

So, is the whole trackpad supposed to click in the first place? Well, Apple's says:

"All-new, smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad.It’s redesigned with even more room for even more gestures. Now the entire glass trackpad is also the button, so it’s clickable everywhere." (see apple.com/macbook )

And further:"The amazing new trackpad doubles as a button — just press down anywhere and consider it clicked." (see apple.com/macbook/features )

Admittedly Apple has taken a somewhat different stance here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3211 where they say "Unlike typical trackpads, this MacBook and MacBook Pro trackpad is a button in itself; you can click almost anywhere on the trackpad."

With this information in hand I took my Macbook back to my local apple store (toronto eaton centre). At first I was greeted with much distain. "No", they "told me, you are not supposed to be able to click at the top of the trackpad".

"To which I replied but what about this information on the website?" I said.

"Oh well, you can TAP anywhere, but the trackpad is not clickable everywhere" They said.

Of course I pointed out that this is not how the website describes the features, so this turned into a bit of a discussion. Mac "geniuses" became involved, a manager at the store... The decision: "Store-wide, the top of the trackpad is not supposed to be clickable" (not his exact words, but something to that effect).

To be fair the employees did allow me to exchange my macbook, subject to the fact that I would have to pay a restocking fee if i opened it and wanted to return it again.

Feeling a bit worried (from reading these forums) that my replacement macbook would also suffer from the same defect, I felt I needed to reconcile the difference between the store's position and whoever writes the words on apple.com/macbook.

I called the store again, spoke to a manager, tried to get an explanation as to how they could take a position that was different from what the website reported, and is this a manufacturing defect or is the machine simply not supposed to be clickable at the top of the trackpad. The store stuck to their position that the machine is not designed to be clickable at the top of the trackpad, but hey, we understand your confusion, if you have to return it, we wont charge you the restocking fee, even if its opened.

Happier about the fee, but still unsatisfied, I called the folks at apple care. They would know the answer, right?

After communicating the above information, the apple care tech took some time to review the materials provided by Apple and confirmed that indeed the tackpad SHOULD register a click at the top, and if it does not, there is a problem. He was bemuddled by the position of the Toronto Eaton Centre Store, but assured me that if my new machine had the same problem, it could be returned or exchanged.

That's my report on the issue, take what you will from it. Hopefully this answers some questions or concerns. For myself, I'm still debating if I should wait for that second revision of the Macbooks sometime next year, given this issue.

Did you actually talk to somebody at Apple, and not just some phone-tech person? Because from my experience, Apple customer care over the phone is much worse than Apple Store/Genius support. I think that technically speaking, it makes sense that the top of the trackpad acts as a hinge, so that it will be (and is, at least in my case) nearly impossible to "click" at the very top 0.8 cm or so, and that clicking will be harder to do all the way down to around the middle of the pad.

Think about it; if the entire trackpad were to be clickable it would make it very, very difficult, engineering-wise, to make the resistance strong enough so that you won't be constantly clicking against your will to do so. But then, if resistance level was sufficiently high, it will make clicking a pain to do.

I think the subtle difference between Apple's claims and your expectations is thus: Apple says that the entire trackpad IS the button; you expect that the entire track pad should be clickable. However, you can have a button that is not press-able everywhere on its surface. As a matter of fact, most mouse buttons are exactly like that -- it's definitely harder, if not impossible, to click a mouse button near where it hinges. The exception is, ironically, Apple's Mighty Mouse, which is pretty much clickable everywhere. The problem with Mighty Mice, though, is precisely one that's analogous here -- it's very easy to click when you have no intention of doing so.

I'll add something here; I went to the local Apple store and played around intensively with 8 of the Macbooks on display. None of them displayed a similar behavior as the one I'm having right now, which is that a physical clicking on the trackpad will be ignored by the OS on a fairly frequent basis. I clicked, double clicked, and triple clicked on dozens, if not over a hundred objects and screen locations per Macbook, and click registration rate was nearly 100%. So, I'm now not so convinced that it's an inherent software issue (which should be shared across the board) but may still not necessarily be a hardware issue, either.


One thing I want to try out is to run this on a fresh install of Leopard. I migrated all my data from a previous Macbook -- nearly 200GB of data, so I'm wondering if that may not have some impact. Unfortunately, upon purchase, I immediately sold off my RAM chip and purchased a 4GB RAM kit from Transintl.com, but they arrived DOA (won't even get past the boot screen), so my new Macbook currently is a brick on my desk, and hence I cannot test this 😟

The replacement memory will arrive tomorrow, at which point I will do a clean fresh install from the OSX DVD that came with the MacBook and see how the trackpad responds. If the same problem persists, I'm going to call it a hardware problem and will get it replaced. In the mean time, it would be great if any of you could corroborate; any of you have this same exact issue on a fresh install of OSX? Any of you who have problems try booting from a fresh copy, or maybe even just a new user account?

I would tend to think it's software too. I think it is software, because I sometimes I can click away with no response 10 times in a row, but I happened to have two fingers on the pad, and it immediately did bring up a context menu. Remember the old "Ignore accidental trackpad input" option in System Prefs? They took that out (I always turned it off, I don't like "input device intelligence"), because they obviously felt that their trackpad driver worked perfectly with regards to detecting such anomalies. Extrapolate this idea to include the need to detect accidental clicks, because the entire trackpad is a button, and I can easily see how this issue could be software. I would imagine that during testing Apple had a big machine that had some sort of prosthetic finger which probably clicked the glass trackpad some hundred million times, and compared the registered number of click with the cycles of the machine. I just can't imagine they would have missed this. I can't say I would be surprised if it was hardware though. After spending my entire career in network engineering, nothing surprises me with regards to machines.

I have, at this point, had a G4 Powerbook, a white MacBook, a 1st generation iPhone, a 2nd generation iPod. All of these were replaced at least once. Hey, once the stuff works, it's the best, right?

I too have been having this issue, and it's been driving me CRAZY. I work in Parallels frequently for a college course, and I've noticed that the non-registered clicks happen the most while using Windows. I'm not sure if that is of any relation, but that's definitely the case on my end. Either way, this problem is driving me nuts and while I would consider swapping for a replacement, I'd rather not go through the trouble. Hopefully this is a software issue and will be corrected soon. If anyone finds out anything else please report it back here.

One thing is for sure, this is not an isolated incident. I have a suggestion, which may speed up the process of getting an official solution.

For all of the Mac users with this issue, open this very discussion in Apple's Safari. When it's open, click on Safari in the menu bar, and click "Report Bugs to Apple ..."

In the simple form that pops up, type that you too are experiencing this issue and want it resolved.

Whether you are a member of this site or not, and if you have this same issue, submit the bug report to Apple. Apple may monitor these "discussions" from time to time, but that takes action on THEIR part .... sending the bug reports puts your complaint right into their laps!

I had a similar problem. you can't use your thumb in that position anymore because it registers as a two finger click (right click). If there is nothing to right click it will do nothing when you press down. Also if your thumb is resting on the trackpad while you move your finger around it will register as a two or three fingered gesture. So you need to keep your thumbs away from the pad at all times. Or use only the tip of your thumb not the side.

I was at the Apple Store on Thursday and one of the geniuses said that he heard about 2 people with broken trackpads. They both dropped a ceramic coffee mug on it.