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User profile for user: Enzo600
Enzo600 Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

Multi-touch trackpad gestures not working (Macbook pro 15" unibody)

Hi,

I have a 5 day old Macbook Pro and since yesterday ive been having an intermittent fault with the 3 and 4 finger gestures on the track pad. They stop working and don't even work on restart. the computer needs to be shutdown then turned on again for it to work. When it wasn't working, i created a new user account and switched to that and it worked fine, when i switched back to my account it carried on working fine as well. I do have parallels installed with windows xp but use that rarely and the problem hasn't occurred when i have that on (only reason i mention is is that i noticed the fault a few hours after installing parallels). One of the times the problem occurred is when the computer came out of standby.

Is this a software issue or hardware issue? Does apple know about it and are they making a fix?

Thanx!!

Macbook Pro 15" Unibody, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Nov 5, 2009 5:31 AM

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101 replies
User profile for user: adamfield
adamfield
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 27, 2009 10:52 AM in response to Enzo600

adding in a "me too" comment.

3 and 4 finger guestures work on every 2nd boot. strange little bug, isnt it?

a permissions repair / reboot seems to fix the problem, but this could be due to the whole 'every second time' thing. ie - boot. 4 fingers working. reboot - not working. repair permissions. boot - working.

im going to try the script posted, as well as do (yet another) permissions repair and see if that corrects this for good.

10.6 - no issue.
10.6.1 - every 2nd boot.
10.6.2 - every 2nd boot.
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User profile for user: adamfield
adamfield
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 27, 2009 1:28 PM in response to JCllama

tried the single user mode script also did a permissions repair, fixed the gestures until i rebooted.

rebooted once more, and gestures came back.

so the pattern is established - 3 and 4 finger gestures work with every second boot.

c'mon apple - im really lost as to what could be causing this!

...intermittent problems are the worst.
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User profile for user: MKTurcz
MKTurcz
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 28, 2009 7:02 PM in response to Enzo600

I have a more basic touch pad problem- after my last OS update my curser started to jitter after 5 minutes of use -- less if I have safari or firefox up-. Once this starts I cannot control it ether with the touch pad or the mouse.

Rebooting or a PRAM and NVRAM reset stops the jitter but after 5 minutes the problem returns. I now find that if I put it into sleep mode my curser will come back into control for a bit over 10 minutes until it gets shaky and moves by itself. I first thought it was the browser updates that caused this but now I think it was from the last OS update. I am hope the cure for your multi finger touchpad issue will also solve my one and two finger touchpad issue.
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User profile for user: keemoing
keemoing
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 29, 2009 6:29 AM in response to Wokke

I want to inform all af you that there is extra 2 problems happened after installing this update(10.6.2), the 3D sound effect of the internal speakers had stopped working(check a friend and there is no sound recording for the original user at "photo booth" during the video recorder, is there is any one have these 2 problems ?
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User profile for user: maverick777
maverick777
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 30, 2009 2:08 AM in response to Enzo600

I have the same problems. I can't use the 4 finger gestures on
my Macbook Pro 15 " (Late 2009).

After lots of reboots and a PRAM reset it works fine for 1 day.

Now I have the problems again. I've tried to cantact Apple Support but
after 20 minutes holding the line I quit.

Is there another possiblity to inform Apple about this malfunction?

Greeting
maverick777

Message was edited by: maverick777

Message was edited by: maverick777

Message was edited by: maverick777

Message was edited by: maverick777
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User profile for user: mt404
mt404
User level: Level 1
16 points

Nov 30, 2009 5:04 AM in response to Enzo600

Hi,

I was one of the earlier folks to report experiencing the issue in this forum, near the beginning of November. This probably won't be of any help to anyone but wanted to chime in to say that my 15" MacBook Pro began working normally after the first reboot and had not reencountered the issue since. I reboot daily, so it's not a function of every 2nd reboot... Strange indeed.
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User profile for user: MKTurcz
MKTurcz
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 30, 2009 5:47 AM in response to Enzo600

thanks Sera-- hope it comes soon. I was getting to the point of asking if is just makes sense to try to reload my original 10.5 but did not know if the updates for my other apps would clash with the older system. Now I will wait and see as I have to go into sleep mode every time my cursor starts to flutter across my screen.
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Multi-touch trackpad gestures not working (Macbook pro 15" unibody)

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