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My trackpad is going crazy, cursor moves on its own

My trackpad shows no visible change, however my cursur moves on its own, clicks on things, drags icons, and at other times refuses to move. Sometimes for a moment it will work, but then it is back again. I highly suspect malware. My computer worked fine, there is no sign of hardware damage and I reset my Pram. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Apr 13, 2012 8:48 AM

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Posted on Nov 18, 2012 12:29 AM

Read my post and check. There is litterally 30-40 of these same posts on this forum and my solution works.


"Ok I have had this issue for months. I figured out that it was a folder workflow that I put on the machine."

48 replies

Jul 29, 2012 4:29 AM in response to wblackburn

I have 2 MBA from late 2011 on which I have installed Bootcamp and Win7. All works fine except the Trackpad!

It's been quite frustrating because both my wife and myself have been suffering from the same problem:

as we type, the cursor would suddenly go to a different position in the screen (where the arrow happens to be positioned) and as you continue typing you only realize later that you have typed in the wrong place and need to go back, cut, past back where you initially intended the text to be.

We have been using notebooks for years without any problem and the fact this is happening to both of us just suggests there's a magnetic or electrical (static or otherwise) interference that makes the Trackpad jump without being really touched.

I have seen many threads about this but no real solution from Apple.

anyone please as this is really annoying.

thanks.

Jun 26, 2017 6:21 PM in response to Pearldrummer28

It's now almost July 2017, brand new 2017 MacBook Pro--same insane jumping cursor problem. I can't even figure out what's triggering the insane jumping around. What does Apple suggest? Well, who knows instead I find myself here. Hit the track pad, reset SMC PRAM, no don't doesn't work. Go to Accessibility, tick the box that says turn off the track pad when mouse is present. Then turn it on again.... There's no excuse for this nonsense to go on year after year with no clear official response from engineers who've figured out the problem. It's like Apple has decided superstition and home remedies are better than science and engineering. I was going to suspend a video camera over the keyboard and screen, but I can't recreate anything like the problem when I try.

May 4, 2013 3:57 PM in response to Deheart

Give the trackpad a light hit, it should work, but take it to the Apple store or reseller for inspection and/or replacement/repair.



Had the same problem, and i got ****** and i tapped the trackpad hard a fiew times and it worked fine for about an hour, and i did the same again and i rarely encounter the problem anymore.


Ps, some water was spilled at the trackpad, might have been the cause of my problem.

But i do recomend to get it inspected tho.



Regards Patrick

Update what happends pls.

Jun 17, 2013 3:06 AM in response to wblackburn

It seems everyone has a different "solution" to the problem. SMC reset, PRAM reset, cleaning, language, folder workflow. Which means:


there is no clear solution!


So just to help (or not) even more, I'll add what worked for me:


  1. Cleaned up really good my trackpad
  2. Did a SMC reset
  3. Did a PRAM reset


None of this helped. Then this final step is what it *fixed* (at least for the time being) the problem (btw you need a mouse to make this work):


Go to system preferences > accesibility > mouse & trackpad > then check "Ignore built-in trackpac [...]"

Play around for a bit with your mouse, say 15 seconds, then come back and uncheck that box.


THAT solved the issue for me. Again, for the time being.


Why, how, what .... who knows!?

My trackpad is going crazy, cursor moves on its own

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