Jumping pointer

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Level 1

8 points

Jumping pointer

Hi all,

recently my macbook pro mouse pointer (I use a trackpad) started acting weird. It randomly jumps every 15-30 seconds.

Tried choosing Ignore your trackpad option in accessibility settings, restarting Mac in Safe Mode, reconfiguring SMC, NVRAM, and PRAM, got so desperate that I even wiped hard disk and reinstalled OS - Catalina. And it's still the same.

I'm using Avast security and it did find and cleaned some infected files before reinstalling OS (it was something related to Parallels Desktop). I've scanned my mac after reinstalling OS as well. Multiple times, using different applications - all good.

One thing I noticed, it seems to work fine when I turn the WiFi off.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 25, 2019 12:44 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

HWTech

Level 9

55,904 points

Dec 26, 2019 9:41 PM in response to raguona

Try booting into Safe Mode. The screen may flash or flicker due to the very basic video driver used in Safe Mode.

Unless you erased the whole physical drive, then you did not perform an actual clean install. Catalina has multiple APFS volumes and unless they are all erased something could be left behind. For the most part Safe Mode should be enough to tell if software may be an issue since Safe Mode disables all unnecessary drivers (Citrix in your case) and disables all Startup & Login Items.

FYI, to erase the whole physical drive you must click "View" in Disk Utility and select "Show all devices" before the physical drive is shown in the left pane of Disk Utility. It is a very annoying new default setting which I don't understand why Apple wants to hide the physical drives from the user.

I did overlook another cause which could be the battery is swelling. If Safe Mode still has a problem, then I think you need to take the laptop to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to be examined since you've done about everything possible.

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Answer 2

raguona Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 26, 2019 7:29 PM in response to HWTech

It jumps when I'm not even touching the trackpad. It's not happening constantly and I still can use the trackpad, but it's really annoying.

And never happens when laptop is offline.

Yes I did erase the full drive (except macOS base system partition) and did not restore anything from a backup.

It was ok for half a day or so, but started happening again.

I work on a virtual machine launched through citrix and did have a bit similar issues on using my other Windows computer (tiny/jumping pointer), it was due to some particular citrix receiver version.

report

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

55,904 points

Dec 26, 2019 4:04 PM in response to raguona

Uninstall Avast (following the developer's instructions) unless Avast is required by your employer or school since AV & cleaning apps are not needed on a Mac as they cause more problems than they solve plus they impact system performance. If you have a Windows VM, then just install & run your AV software within Windows.

Normally if the trackpad pointer starts jumping around on its own it is due to a defective or damp trackpad or possibly a system running extremely slow.

When you reinstalled Catalina did you first erase the whole physical drive? Did you test the clean install before migrating or restoring anything from backup? If not, then you may have brought the problem back.

Run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.

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Jumping pointer

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