cursor jumps in snow leopard

It's driving me crazy. I'll be working away and suddenly the page refreshes to another page. If I am in mail, it will suddenly jump to the next message; If I am filling out a form in Firefox, I will lose all of my entries and it will jump to the previous page; if I am reading news (not touching the mouse) it will suddenly jump to a page I had visited previously.

Does anyone have any idea why this happens? At first I thought it was isolate to the browser (Firefox) but I've seen it happen in Mail as well. I'm trying Safari now to see if it happens there, too. I began to notice it some time after installing Snow Leopard, I think. I've only had the IMAC for a year and it didn't to it at the beginning.

MBP...have you disabled the touch pad temporarily, just to test?

Might be worth resetting some of the hardware:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

I'm also having this same problem. The cursor randomly seems to jump. It's seems to be worse in Adobe CS apps and in Safari or Firefox when on Facebook. Thought it was the mouse driver at first, but it's actually when typing on the keyboard. It's driving me crazy. Typing code in Dreamweaver is nearly impossible now.

This happens to me too. Doesn't have anything to do with typing; with me, it just leaps to somewhere else (where is unpredictable) while I'm sitting there doing nothing. I've never had it happen before Snow Leopard.

I find it interesting that despite the MANY posts, here and elsewhere, about the cursor-jumping problem, it has never been acknowledged by anyone with close ties to Apple and there apparently have been no Snow Leopard updates released to solve the problem.

I have no advice to give, just sympathy. I came here to vent about the blasted trackpad on my new MacBook. I hate it. And I hate that you can't just click on links and go where the link is to, and selecting text is so hard now. It is all making me ill.

Do you have a trackpad and do you, without knowing, slide your arm or sleeves across it (or close to it)?

I've had this happen on non-Mac laptops (which I have to use for work, unfortunately) as well.

I'm not entirely sure which answer in this forum "solved" this problem. I have the same problem. I'm 95% sure it's a hardware issue. I can reproduce it on my MBP 15" Core Duo by pressing two fingers down above the Superdrive, almost exactly in the centre of the area bound by the right of the trackpad, the keyboard and two sides of the computer (i.e. without any other contact with the computer). I thought toggling some new Trackpad options might resolve the issue, but they don't. I may have to open it up to see if there's a trackpad cable frayed or pinched. I do find this a little bit puzzling, as it doesn't look like this cable runs to the right of the trackpad at all (http://s2.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/jfTTAfCwyiyNGGnG.large).

As of today, it seems as though the "cursor jumping" problem is solved on my iMac. I don't believe it's happened for several days; maybe one of the upgrades eliminated it.

Of course, I don't have a trackpad. I just muddle through with the usual ole mouse.

i've had this problem too since the installation of snow leopard, and it's rather maddening. it only happens when i'm typing on the keyboard, but it will cause the cursor to jump around seemingly at random, often causing the computer to highlight and replace chunks of text. it's frustrating having to revise myself so frequently even when typing simple emails.
i wish apple would acknowledge this problem and issue a fix!

As a test, try using the keyboard with the battery out, on AC power only.
Put the battery back in and, as a test, put a quarter under each of the front pads to lift the battery off the table.

This solved my problem- apparently the slightly bulging battery is placing pressure on the guts under the trackpad. I can put the battery back in and, if I elevate the unit slightly so that the battery doesn't touch the table, the problem goes away.

I notice scratches on my battery and that it not longer fits flush to the bottom of the unit, indicating a poor fit, bulged battery, and the fact that there is pressure from the table through the battery to the underside of the chassis where the trackpad is.

The problem is intermittent, I haven't figured out a permanent fix (maybe thicker rubber foot pads, but at least I know how to stop the cursor jumping around, highlighting and deleting text, and the other maddening things it has been doing.

Hope this helps!

This is happening to me too. All of a sudden the cursor will start jumping, making it impossible to use the mouse, therefore the whole computer. It's the second time it happens after I had to reinstall Snow Leopard because of the same problem.

I don't know why Apple hasn't fixed this horrible bug already. The way it is now, I can't use my Mac!

I'm having the problem. Cna barelytype this message everytimeIhitthespacebarIgetwindowaskingmeifIwanttonavigatefromthispage.

CursorjumpedotbeginningoflineinWordandinMail.Nothingchanged,nonewaps,peripherals etc.!BeenusingSnowLeopardfor3weeks.Suddenlythismorningtheissue.

Well d'oh how about the obvious? My extended keyboard needed cleaning.. something got under some of the keys. All is well now. The shop vac worked very well. : )

I installed Snow Leopard last night, and am fully updated to 10.6.3. I immediately noticed the mouse cursor jumping around, doesn't matter what app I'm running -- it even happens in Finder. The arrow cursor will jump a third of the way across the screen, and in random directions. No way it's hardware, because I've not changed the hardware at all, and this never happened with 10.5.x. I'm not touching the computer at all; I'm using a detached keyboard and mouse.

I hope Apple acknowledges this and fixes it!