Trackpad Sticking (cursor grabs an item and doesn't let go)

Question

Trackpad Sticking (cursor grabs an item and doesn't let go)

I'm having problems with my MacBook pro trackpad "sticking" for want of a better word. Every now and again when I place my cursor over things the cursor grabs the item and won't let go whatever I try to do.

It seems to have been getting worse over the last week or so. Just wondering if this is a known fault, or whether I've missed a setting in the trackpad control panel that might fix this.

Also, in Photoshop I've been noticing a compass occasionally appearing at the centre of the window without me doing anything. I've never seen this compass before - not even sure if it's a Photoshop thing or system wide. Anyone know?

Thanls!

MacBook Pro 2.8ghz intel core due, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 28, 2010 2:26 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

klointheridge

Level 1

5 points

Nov 2, 2010 7:37 AM in response to Duncan Kenning

X2 here. I read in another post where someone suggested pressing and . Next time it happens I'll try that.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 18, 2011 12:18 AM in response to Duncan Kenning

I'm going to keep posting this information everywhere I can until somebody with service experience and knowledge of MacBook trackpad controls tries to track down the posters with these issues. From Duncan's description and my experience, his computer is probably belly-up by now (nine weeks since his post). Once the ratio gets down to one productive pointer action to five frantic attempts to get the thing to let go, you know you're a fool to try.

The cursor grabbing and not letting go is behavior I suspect is due to the trackpad hardware, less likely the driver, but that's possible. Grounding issues are also mentioned for another problem in the Apple troubleshooting info, recommendation to replace power adapter with one using a three-prong plug. (Funny, did anyone out there get grounded plugs with their computers? Maybe the mfg decision for 2-prongs was made by the same people who insist on shipping everything with those oh-so-elegant no-button mice, millions of which are at the back of drawers because their owners took one look and immediately bought Logitechs.)

I'd like to know how many people see this set of symptoms:

- panels on the screen stick to the cursor and move around with it until you click something else (sometimes Esc works for me, more often the right half of the lower trackpad plate after four or five tries).

- when drawing the cursor over free space on the desktop (no buttons clicked) you see a translucent box like you'd see if the same thing were done holding the left mouse button down. In this state, you cannot select objects or links, and if the dock is set to hide when not used, it will not reappear when the cursor moved to that edge of the screen

- when you are sure that you've clicked the top of a window on the desktop only once, occasionally it will slide off the screen and can be found in the dock

- when working on a text file or Word file, clicks on the text randomly select whole words and whole paragraphs so often that it exceeds the Microsoft standard (Colossally Irritating and Thoroughly Counterproductive®) and poses a real threat to one's sanity. Furthermore cursor skips occur where chunks of text actually move with the cursor, often ending up in the middle of a word on another line.

I suspect the trackpad is sending noise or unselected pulses to the processor, which places the cursor in a "mouse-button-stuck-down" state. People who report these problems generally also report that if they use a mouse or external trackpad the behavior is the same. As far as I can see (there's not much there) there is no way to disable the track pad in the System Preferences to test this. s there a way to do it from the Console? (Shutting down the trackpad on my wife's notebook PC a couple of years ago eliminated similar problems and allowed her to substitute a mouse and continue to use the computer for over a year.)

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 20, 2011 4:24 PM in response to klointheridge

Try this workaround:

1) Make sure a mouse or external trackpad is plugged into your USB port

2) Go to: System Perferences/Universal Access

3) Check the box that says" Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present" (The trackpad will immediately stop working.)

4) Check your symptoms - you should be able to move the cursor without catching links, panels and other items on the screen

Mazeltov!

Reply

Answer 4

Feb 14, 2011 7:57 PM in response to James Kilgore

I have the problem with a mouse connected via USB. Even when I use the disable feature for the trackpad that you suggested, anything I grab sticks (except for a window, which seems to let go with no trouble).

I'm currently using the Evoluent 2 Mouse and the USB Overdrive driver, but seems to happen no matter what driver I use.

Mark

Reply

Answer 5

janimcdo

Level 1

0 points

Mar 30, 2011 5:18 PM in response to Duncan Kenning

Me too. It hasn't become worse but geez, it is only about 6 weeks out of the box! I found that if I tap the track pad, I can move the mouse pointer but it interfers with the flow of my work. I love my Mac - I hate this problem. What should I do?

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 12, 2011 2:29 PM in response to janimcdo

At six weeks out of the box you should take it in. Shouldn't cost you anything.

Reply

Answer 7

Jun 25, 2011 8:16 AM in response to Duncan Kenning

My daughter developed the same problem on her 2006 MacBook Pro. After trying all kinds of suggestions gleaned from online, we went to the Genius Bar. Although the laptop passed the hardware diagnostic test, it was apparent when booting the laptop from an external drive that the problem was still happening and thus was a hardware problem with the trackpad. More specifically, the trackpad thinks that its button is depressed at all times, leading to the 'grab everything' problem.

We could have gotten a new top case (can't get just the trackpad) for $250 plus labor, but since my daughter is 12 and mostly uses the computer to synch her iPod and play The Sims 3 (and the computer is 5 years old), we decided to go with the $10 workaround of buying an external, wireless USB mouse and disabling all input from the trackpad when a mouse is plugged in, under Universal Access (in System Settings). She is happily playing the new Sims Generations beside me as I write, and her good old MacBook Pro lives on to fight another day!

I have to say, I spent most of a day trying to determine whether the problem was in the hardware or the software (we had even tried an external mouse, but hadn't known to turn off the trackpad so it seemed as if the external mouse also had the grabbing problem, when it was just the trackpad button always thinking it was pressed - very confusing). At the Genius bar, we were able to find out where the problem lay in about 15 minutes, so I was glad we asked. Thanks to Jason at the Nashua, NH Apple Store.

Reply

Answer 8

Jun 4, 2012 9:12 PM in response to Duncan Kenning

Same problem here. Macbook Pro. Tried USB mouse but have the same issue. This didn't happen until I started using Lion. I'm trying desperately to recover a broken hard drive that took me over an hour to get to mount, now I can't move things over because the mouse AND trackpad won't let go? Really? I used universal access to disable the trackpad when the external mouse is plugged in and I have the SAME issue. PLEASE help Apple. This is crazy!

Reply

Answer 9

Jul 20, 2012 3:13 PM in response to James Kilgore

James, you still having the problem with the cursor grabbing and holding onto windows, etc, you posted about a year ago?

I'm having a tough time getting any help with the problem. Did you find a solution?

Tom

Reply

Answer 10

Jul 20, 2012 3:16 PM in response to LeroyJethro

I am still having problems and think that the work around, namely closing the cover and putting it to sleep, then waking it up, works but is pretty lame. It would really help to have a permanent fix.

Reply

Answer 11

Jul 27, 2012 4:30 PM in response to mikkibarry

I've had this problem for a couple of months now. Can't drag files around because they always stick to the cursor. It's really a pain when working with multiple Photoshop file windows; can't drag one layer/pic into another file.

And you're right, the sleep trick works in terms of cancelling the action, but it doesn't fix the problem.

I just installed Mountain Lion (clean install) with the hopes that it might fix the problem. Nope.

This problem, while not widespread, has been going on for a couple of years now.

Reply

Answer 12

Jul 29, 2012 11:11 PM in response to Craig Sween

I was really hoping Mountain Lion would fix the problem. It didn't. Very disappointing.

Reply

Answer 13

ktobiska

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2012 9:50 AM in response to Duncan Kenning

I have this problem too, in Mountain Lion and previously Lion on MacBook Pro and on iMac. I have to restart the finder. This is definitely not a hardware problem but likely to be some corrupted file in a library somewhere. Thought 10.7 would fix this but it didn't.

Reply

Answer 14

Sep 21, 2013 12:05 PM in response to Duncan Kenning

Still have this problem! OS X 10.8.5 Maybe Mavericks will fix it!

Reply

Answer 15

Oct 3, 2013 4:38 PM in response to Duncan Kenning

I have this problem also, running mountain lion. 17 macbook pro 3.06 GHz Intel core 2 duo, 8GB RAM. Purchase the machine with 10.6 upgaded to 10.8 about three months ago. Just recently the mouse began to stick to every item I was dragging to another location. Tried all the tricks: close then wake, relaunching finder, restarting. It is beginning to drive me crazy!!

Reply