Erratic cursor using trackpad or USB mouse

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Erratic cursor using trackpad or USB mouse

My wife has a white MacBook 13", it's fairly old but has been very reliable until yesterday. It's running MacOs 10.6.8. All of a sudden the cursor is all over the screen. It's virtually impossible to get control of it. I even thought at first that someone had hacked into the Mac and was controlling it from a remote location, but it's the same without wi fi turned on. It does this whether we're using the trackpad or the USB Mac mouse. The cursor will jump erratically, mainly up and down, and won't keep still even if you're not trying to move it. It's making the Mac almost impossible to use. Do we have a serious problem here?

MacBook

Posted on Jun 25, 2019 3:53 PM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

68,426 points

Jun 25, 2019 9:02 PM in response to John the Greek

You can try an SMC reset & PRAM reset (hold the PRAM reset for at least three chimes).

Try a Safe Boot which loads minimal drivers and disables Startup & Login items. An even better test would be to boot to your OSX 10.6 install DVD to see if the problem still exists.

Many times the jumping & erratic pointer is due to a faulty Trackpad. A wet Trackpad can also cause problems. The only way to be sure would be to open up the laptop and disconnect the Trackpad Cable from the Logic Board.

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Answer 2

Jun 25, 2019 10:48 PM in response to HWTech

OK, so I've tried just about everything. Looks like a hardware problem then. It happens whether I'm using the mouse or the trackpad. Oddly, when I reboot, it behaves for a while, then begins to go haywire after a couple of minutes, with the cursor eventually jumping half the height of the screen without me touching anything.

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Answer 3

Jun 25, 2019 10:21 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks, that's given me plenty of things to try. I'll let you know if I get somewhere.

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Erratic cursor using trackpad or USB mouse

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