Macbook Air mid 2012 - Trackpad cursor and keyboard stutter every few seconds.

Question

Level 1

4 points

Macbook Air mid 2012 - Trackpad cursor and keyboard stutter every few seconds.

Hi,

I've had my MBA for as long as I can remember. I struggled with battery problems two years ago where my MacBook would only last for 2-3 hours even though my battery is in good condition as stated in the system report.

The battery issue remained unsolved and I ignored it. At the moment, I have a new issue with my MacBook that occurred recently. My cursor and keyboard would stutter every few seconds. So typing something makes it incredibly hard because it would freeze for a second or three, and then it unfreezes. My cursor is a nightmare because it would freeze halfway and then move again.

I have tried absolutely everything. I reset my SMC and PRAM, reinstalled macOS. I even updated to Catalina. I deleted caches and every unnecessary file on my laptop, and yet the issue remains.

I download etrecheck and did a scan on my MacBook. If anyone could take a look or tell me what's wrong with my MacBook, I would really appreciate it.

Here's the report:

Etre-Check-Report

MacBook Air

Posted on Mar 20, 2022 1:32 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tesserax

Level 10

158,280 points

Mar 20, 2022 3:13 PM in response to Teamkhaleesi

From the EtreCheck report you provided, it shows that this extension is located at: /Library/Extensions

You potentially have two methods to remove it:

The preferred method is to use the uninstaller app that came with the SiLabs USB driver ... of course, if one was provided.
The other method is to use the Finder app's Go > Go to Folder menu option, and then, enter: /Library/Extensions, and then, select <enter>. This should open up a Finder window with the contents of that location. Look for the SiLabs file. Then select it, and drop it into the Trash. Then empty the Trash. You may need to restart your Mac to complete the removal process.

I believe the SiLabs extension was a driver for a USB-to-Serial adapter. Did you use something like this in the past with this Mac? FWIW, I found this same extension on my Mac. It was installed when I used a HAM radio programmer that used a USB-to-Serial port adapter to connect my Mac to the radio.

Reply

Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,280 points

Mar 20, 2022 2:53 PM in response to Teamkhaleesi

Definitely, does not look like a CPU issue, based on the screen image you provided.

I normally would suggest paying a visit to your local Apple Store's Genius Bar, but being that this notebook is considered "Obsolete" by Apple, they will (most likely) not repair it should it need it.

Two other potential things:

Is the SSD, installed on this notebook, the original one? If so, and you want to keep this notebook, you may want to consider replacing it.
The other is that there is a kernel extension (SiLabsUSBDriver64.kext) that may no longer be required and, if so, remove it.

Reply

Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

158,280 points

Mar 20, 2022 2:00 PM in response to Teamkhaleesi

To be honest, after looking at the report, I couldn't find anything that stands out to be causing this issue ... other than the Opera browser is using a significant amount of system resources ... and has crashed at the time of the report.

My only suggestion would be to try the Brave browser if you don't like Safari. Avoid the Chrome browser as, it too, is noted to be a resource hog.

You may also want to run the Activity Monitor to see what, if any, processes that are using significant amounts of CPU processing. Be aware that 100%, in the Monitor, does not represent 100% of all of your Mac's CPU cores. So, for example, if you have a 4-core model, that number would be approaching 400%.

Reply