Cursor disappears

Question

Level 1

4 points

Cursor disappears

I've got a early 2009 Macbook Pro with 10.5.8.

Every couple days of use, my cursor just disappears. I am unsure if it is one program all the time. If I'm doing something where the up/down keys would normally work (like using text function or clicked on a webpage for up/down scrolling, I can navigate, but most of the time I can't do anything.

All I can do is use the force quit function to quit programs using keyboard. Then I end up having to restart.

It's done it off and on for about 6 months. I searched and can't find much on this particular problem, so unless you guys have heard of this problem, I'm going to call AppleCare.

Anybody else having this issue?

iMac 24" 2.33 ghz intel core 2 duo, Mac OS X (10.5.8), MacBookPro 15" 2.9ghz; iPhone (2007), other older macs

Posted on May 6, 2010 8:52 PM

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Answer 1

May 10, 2010 3:07 PM in response to Dennis Bolt

My MacBook Pro is from 2008 and this is happening to me as well. Although it comes back if I wait long enough. Some of my keys are also sticking. Looking for an answer, but have not found one yet.

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Answer 2

May 10, 2010 3:15 PM in response to Dennis Bolt

I find that between the windows I have open and my desktop backgrounds, the cursor is fairly easy to lose. Try slowly pushing it to the menu bar and see if it shows up near the top of the screen.
Also, I have noticed that the cursor will fade out while typing or scrolling.

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Answer 3

Jun 8, 2010 2:46 PM in response to Dennis Bolt

My Macbook also loses the cursor and it's functionality intermittently:
I'm running OS X 10.5.8 on a Macbook 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Late 2007 model).
I had never experience this problem until two days ago:

I had never experienced this until two days ago after installing and using
an external display USB adapter (USB-DVI-VGA adapter) with it's driver
software. Although I can't be certain whether or not the issue is
connected to the use of an external display, there are other users who
have had similar problems under the same circumstances.

Reference:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=114002

When this happens I can still display the Force Quit Menu or toggle between
application pages, hence there is no "complete system freeze" involved.
I have been able to Force Quit applications when this happens and also
can use the up/down arrows navigating within an application. In some
cases after "resting" the cursor functionality will return. Re-booting
restores the cursor, but just re-launching Finder may or may not cure it.

If different machine hardware (Mac models) produce the same problem
under OS X 10.5.8 then I would suspect that this is a bug in the
operating system, after seeing that others have had similar problems.

Can anyone post similar instances?

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Answer 4

Jul 4, 2010 3:29 PM in response to Fun_Runner

i have the same issue on a bone stock 27 inch imac running latest snow leopard. using a bluetooth keyboard am magic mouse. Drives me nuts, have to logout which normally will fix the issue... Running growl, which is the only thing i can think of that would be messing with things..

Cannot reproduc regualrly but when i come back to my machine after a day or to, no mouse cursor. I can still use the mouse, just cant see the cursor.

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