11" Trackpad/Cursor Freeze

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Level 1

90 points

11" Trackpad/Cursor Freeze

I searched but couldn't find any posts discussing this exact symptom. Periodically my two-week old 11" MBA trackpad will stop responding to swipes of any sort. The cursor freezes on the screen. It only happens once in a while (maybe every few hours) and only lasts for about two to three seconds but it's frustrating and I've never experienced that with my older MacBook, my Magic Trackpad, etc. It doesn't seem to be associated with any particular application. I've tried rebooting, etc. but it continues to happen.

Build:

1.6GHz
4GB RAM
128GB SSD
(No Adobe Flash)

Other than that I absolutely love my new MBA!

Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same thing?

11.6" MacBook Air, iPad 3G 64GB, 24" iMac 3.06 and two Mac Minis all w/4GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Nov 21, 2010 4:27 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 21, 2010 7:44 PM in response to richsadams

Hmm my wife has reported a similar problem I was assuming it was after coming back to it after it went to sleep. I am going to spend a little more time with it and see it i can reproduce the freeze. She also said it happens rarely and loves how fast it is, but she was using a G4 ibook until about a month ago!

Build:

1.4GHz
2GB RAM
64GB SSD

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Answer 2

Dec 3, 2010 3:19 PM in response to Pdubkilla

Same problem. I close the lid, go to work and upon returning, the trackpad is unresponsive. No clicks, swipes or whatever.

Rebooting by holding down the power key succeeds, but the trackpad is still dead - which is way to obscrure for me!

It seems to wake up after 5-10 minutes, but I haven't had the patience to time it.

This REALLY ****** me off, because if I turn this thing on, there is a reason associated with my salary - this makes it important!

This is a vanilla machine. The only suspects are parallels (which is almost never active, as was not active when this happened 20 minutes ago) and Caffeine. I am deinstalling Caffeine to see if that helps

Actually, I think this traclpad ***. It seems to have a mind of its own when deciding what to do on "physical click". I have right-lower set as right click, but left-lower (my default nayural click position) results in very variable things. Maybe it's just me 😟

I expected better 😟

This is the second crap problem I have (dfonts.exe goes bananas and eats a CPU regularly, caused by FF as far as I can determuine)

pjl

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Answer 3

richsadams Author

Level 1

90 points

Dec 3, 2010 4:02 PM in response to Philip Lewis

Philip Lewis wrote:
Same problem. I close the lid, go to work and upon returning, the trackpad is unresponsive. No clicks, swipes or whatever. <snip>

That sounds very frustrating and quite a bit more serious than what I'm experiencing. My cursor freezes for just a few moments, maybe a second or two and only now and then...mostly when I'm on a website. It feels like the computer is doing something in the background and can't respond for a moment, then it's back to normal. As mentioned it only happens once in a while, but it's kind of annoying when it does.

Your issue(s) seem to be much bigger. I'd certainly take it into the Apple store or give them a call...something's not right.

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Answer 4

Roy80

Level 1

0 points

Dec 3, 2010 6:14 PM in response to Philip Lewis

Philip , until recently i was plagued by a similar problem - unit freezes upon wake up .. i think i found a solution to that and posted in my thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2643412&start=30&tstart=15 .. i hope this helps..

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Answer 5

Dec 12, 2010 1:50 AM in response to richsadams

I've had this problem since day one. It seems to only happen when I'm editing text in any app (Safari, TextEdit, Skype, etc.). When I touch the trackpad (like to reposition the text-insertion caret), the cursor or pointer will appear, but it freezes and will not respond to trackpad input for several seconds.

I haven't noticed a pattern, such as what processes are running at the time, but it has happened even with all other apps closed and external drives dismounted. This is über annoying, and I would love to find a fix for it.

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Answer 6

Dec 12, 2010 2:43 AM in response to Mr. Mellow

Too late to edit my above message. I just noticed my trackpad froze right after I hit send on an email message in Mail, so it's not just while editing text. I'm not sure if sending mail (wirelessly) had anything to do with it, but it's something. The console log doesn't show anything happening at that time.

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Answer 7

richsadams Author

Level 1

90 points

Dec 12, 2010 9:17 AM in response to Mr. Mellow

Editing text...yes, that seems to be when my cursor freezes most often! In my case I've noticed it while using Safari...responding to and editing posts on various forums. I haven't actually timed them but the freezes usually last about two seconds or so. It happens with or without anything running in the background.

It may be a coincidence but it seems to be more common when I'm editing text on forum sites using the Invision Power Board program.

It happened about six times yesterday as I was working on posts and responses. It appears to be getting worse for me now.

Since I'm always using my MBA wirelessly as well I'm wondering if you've touched on something there. Posting/editing on forums in Safari requires data communications as does e-mail. Could there be a WiFi issue? I'll try to use Firefox for a while to see if that makes any difference, but now I'm thinking it may have something to do with WiFi.

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Answer 8

ringers

Level 1

8 points

Dec 18, 2010 12:02 PM in response to Mr. Mellow

As with Mr Mellow's post, my MacBook Pro trackpad seems to freeze when I am using Mail. I will type the email, and when I go to hit send the cursor has gone. Frustrating

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Answer 9

richsadams Author

Level 1

90 points

Dec 18, 2010 12:06 PM in response to ringers

ringers wrote:
As with Mr Mellow's post, my MacBook Pro trackpad seems to freeze when I am using Mail. I will type the email, and when I go to hit send the cursor has gone. Frustrating

The cursor is gone? Do you mean that it freezes for a few seconds or disappears? I and others here are talking about it freezing momentarily. Is that what you're seeing?

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Answer 10

ale.vivi

Level 1

1 points

Dec 18, 2010 3:56 PM in response to richsadams

Hello. I have the same problem. I think:
- Some of the issues, like complete freeze are away after update on EMC FW 2.0
- The trackpad is really bad handling grounding. Have you tried to use the mouse with the hand on the air?
- Have you noticed the lack of response from the trackpad happens after not using it for a few seconds? If you touch the trackpad and then keep using it it responds very well, This appears an issue with power management of the trackpad?

I have installed all updates and I think the trackpad is very crappy and something tells me is by design.
(Macbook Air 11" 2010)

Anyone agrees or have same issues?

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Answer 11

richsadams Author

Level 1

90 points

Dec 18, 2010 4:08 PM in response to ale.vivi

ale.vivi wrote:
Hello. I have the same problem. I think:
- Some of the issues, like complete freeze are away after update on EMC FW 2.0
- The trackpad is really bad handling grounding. Have you tried to use the mouse with the hand on the air?
- Have you noticed the lack of response from the trackpad happens after not using it for a few seconds? If you touch the trackpad and then keep using it it responds very well, This appears an issue with power management of the trackpad?

I have installed all updates and I think the trackpad is very crappy and something tells me is by design.
(Macbook Air 11" 2010)

Anyone agrees or have same issues?

I guess that's not what I and others are reporting here. The trackpad on my 11" MBA works perfectly with the exception that it freezes for a couple of seconds every now and then. In a moment it behaves normally again and it doesn't happen very often, but it's frustrating when it does. I never had this issue on my MacBook (13" white) or with my Magic Trackpad that I use with my iMac, so it's a MBA thing for me...and not all that bad, just annoying. Hope this gets rectified soon.

It sounds like your MBA has bigger problems. It's probably worth contacting Apple about it.

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Answer 12

Jan 4, 2011 9:50 AM in response to ale.vivi

I also think it's due to a grounding effect. If I'm using the MBA tilted while sitting on the couch, if the lower edge happens to touch any skin, the same effect happens. I think the effect of happening every few hours or so might be due to some buildup in static?

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Answer 13

Jan 6, 2011 11:24 PM in response to Pedro Pinheiro

You might be right, I read somewhere that trackpads can be sensitive to static electricity. So I wonder why the MacBook Air and not my PowerBook? I use them both on the same stable and grounded power outlet. My 11" MBA's trackpad is still doing this, the most recent freeze lasting nearly 10 seconds. That's a long time to bleed off a little static electricity.

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Answer 14

Feb 3, 2011 5:33 AM in response to ale.vivi

ale.vivi wrote:
Hello. I have the same problem. I think:
- Some of the issues, like complete freeze are away after update on EMC FW 2.0
- The trackpad is really bad handling grounding. Have you tried to use the mouse with the hand on the air?
- Have you noticed the lack of response from the trackpad happens after not using it for a few seconds? If you touch the trackpad and then keep using it it responds very well, This appears an issue with power management of the trackpad?

I have installed all updates and I think the trackpad is very crappy and something tells me is by design.
(Macbook Air 11" 2010)

Anyone agrees or have same issues?

Yup, same issue as you here - I've done a little searching and this seems a common problems on other models, including the old MBA. I've noticed I get this behaviour when plugged in to the power supply that came with my 11" MBA, but I don;t when using an older (larger, similar to my old MBP) power supply.

Putting my other hand on the case next to the trackpad seems to solve the prob, so definitely a grounding problem I think.

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Answer 15

Feb 3, 2011 4:02 PM in response to plasreconsurg

i just get the problem for a few minutes after I wake my computer from sleep mode. The problem is soooooooo annoying but it goes away. I wouldn't want to complain to apple yet. I hope they can just do a firmware update.

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