Trackpad sensitivity problems

Have not noticed a problem yet. Tried out 5 at the apple store and they were fine too.

Have you tried adjusting the trackpad in system preferences > keyboard & mouse > trackpad?

Check on or off some of the settings like ignore accidental trackpad input and see if that helps.

Yes. I am experiencing a disappearing cursor or a frozen cursor. It's starting to get real annoying. I will do something and move my finger on the trackpad but there's no cursor. Or if there's a blinking cursor it just stays where it is. A few times I've thought things were actually frozen. In a second or two it clears itself up, but I hope there's a way to fix it. A few tiems when the arrow cursor appears it's over at the side (which may be where my fingers put it when trying to bring it to life).

I'll check the trackpad settings as suggested and see if anything there might improve the bahvior. It's not restricted to Safari, by the way.

actuallly, this is nothing new. i've had several (i'd be embarrassed to tell you how many) replacements of the 1.67 last revision because of this.

it seems that if you turn off the "ignore accidental trackpad input" under system preferences/keyboard&mouse the problem goes away.

but obviously, you shouldn't have to do that. i mean, it's not like it's accidental trackpad input...it's plain usage.

i think apple at some point started manufacturing the trackpads themselves (not using synaptics or something)....and then started using synaptics again.

now, a theory from me, would be that the synaptics ones are flawless, while some of apple's own are having trouble with static electricity or something and freezes from time to time.

my guess, anyway.

Yes, I've noticed this problem. The track pad becomes completely unresponsive for a second or so. It can happen when starting to move the cursor or while moving it.

It's happened twice while writing this short note. I get the impression it's most frequent in Safari, but that may be because I use Safari a lot.

nu

Same problem here. I thought it was just me as well. I noticed it in different apps. Seems to happen more when I doing something heavy as well.

One more thing is that this trackpad is wider than my PB 1.67. I have big hands and I'm accidently putting my other hand on the trackpad while tracking with my other hand. This, of course, makes my trackpad halt. It's probably my hand that causes the trackpad to stop sometimes too.

I have got the same problem. Unchecking the "accidental trackpad usage" in System Preferences solves the problem, but then again, what is this option for?

Regards,
Roman

Roman,

Here's the text from the MacBook Pro User's Guide (page 32):

Note: If you find that the pointer moves as you type because you accidentally brush the trackpad, you can avoid this problem by selecting the “Ignore accidental trackpad input” option in the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences.

I have had and continue to have this problem on my 17" PB G4. It happens when my hands are dry or I have been using the trackpad for porlonged periods of time. I have found that rubbing my fingertips together tends to rough them up and I get greater responsiveness from the trackpad. I think it has more to do with how well the pad can read movement and static. By having a rougher fingertip their is more resistance to read and probably even has an affect on the static buildup that could provide interference. Unfortunately, not a new problem, I was hoping they had fixed it.

Hopefully rubbing your fingertips together will at least create a temporary fix until apple can come up with a software solution on their end (however, I think a hardware fix will be the only likely solution).

I have this problem much more than on my previous laptop (Powerbook G4). I agree that it happens most when my fingers are dry. Why is that? I'd appreciate any more suggestions as to how to fix it.

I'd appreciate any more suggestions as to how to fix it.

I believe that the most successful "fix" is turning off the "Ignore Accidental Trackpad Input." That has worked for me. Keep in mind that if you're like me your non-mouse hand gravitates toward the center, and the thumb can sneak its way onto the trackpad. This will freeze the cursor until you realize the situation.

I have this too, a 2 or so second stick when using trackpad about 10 times a day. When I turn off "ignore accidental trackpad input" it goes away, but then accidental input keeps clearing my iChat messages!

The iBooks here don't do this with the setting on

I was doing a little bit of research and testing on my powerbook trackpad and I realized that the trackpad is electrically stimulated (not heat, movement, or pressure as some have speculated). There are several ways you can test this such as use an eraser to move across the screen even try heating up a piece of cloth (or using your finger nail) and dragging it across the screen and it doesn't work. If you breathe on your sleeve and then put your finger on the other side and move it then you will get movement for a little bit and it will slowly fade back to no response (because a wet sleeve conducts electricity). This is because our bodies create a natural conductance of electrical energy at all times. When you touch a trackpad (or a touch lamp) there is a small discharge of electricity that can be read.

The reason for the explanation is that any interference or obstruction to the electrical charge will prevent the trackpad from properly sensing the movement. So as you use a trackpad more heavily (such as in web browsing or gaming) you slowly start to dry out your hands and get an accumulation of dead or dry cells on the tips of your fingertips. These cells are very poor conductors of electricity. Well as the cells accumulate your trackpad sensitivity will go down and eventually disappear entirely. When this happens you need to renew the electrical surface of your hands. There are several ways to do this. Rub them against a rough surface(like eachother) to scrape off the build-up of dead cells. Wash your hands with soap and dry them or use a different portion of your hand like a slight side of your finger.

I have discovered when I can no longer get my trackpad to work if I use the side of my finger or a knuckle then I get it to work so it is more so a human physiology issue (however, it could be fixed with hardware (reading movement a different way) or software (lowering the sensitivity - such as changing the status of the ignore accidental touches selection). You don't want to have usability problems with other programs (like firefox or ichat) so selecting an ignore accidental touches is not always a great idea. Instead just roub your finger tips together (or on your pants leg) for a couple seconds and keep going.

Hope that helps

I don't know if it helps you at all, but touchpads actually work due to capacitance. So your finger (or some conductive surface) rests against the touchpad which forms the other end of the capacitor. A capacitor is really made up of two conductive plates that are spaced apart. That is why with some touchpads you can turn up the sensitivity and you don't even have to touch the pad at all, just hovering your finger works.

Thank you for pointing out my error. You are correct and if you apply capacitance instead of conductance (even though conductance is a part of capacitance) you would have a more complete answer.

Essentially the capacitance decreases if you have a poorly conductive interface, so unless you want to, or can, change the trackpad sensitivity just rough of your hands to create a better conducting surface and therefore a better capacitance.