Level 1

19 points

Cursor is not responding and moving on its own

This problem started yesterday. I use an Imac and a macbook pro, and I was using my laptop when the trackpad stopped working. It was responding but the cursor was moving slowly. I decided to use my mouse and everything was fine. I thought it was just a little problem and I could figure it out later if it continued to not work. This morning I opened up my laptop and it was fine for a little bit, then the cursor went crazy. It was like my cursor was just running around and doing random gestures, opening random things. My applications were fine, but the cursor was just going around and opening them. It was very random, so I didn't think anyone was controlling my computer.

I did have control of my cursor but it wasn't completely responding. I tried shutting it down, putting it to sleep, etc. Nothing worked. I then decided to just turn it off for an hour and when I reopened it, it was fine. After a few minutes it went crazy again. I think my battery might be swollen, I don't know. Apple decided to use the smalled screws in the world so I can't open the back off, can anyone please tell me what's going on? I'm taking it to the apple store tomorrow but I want to figure out what's wrong first.

It's a MacBook Pro 13 inch

I've had it for about 2 1/2 years

thanks,

Dan

Posted on Jan 28, 2014 3:29 PM

31 replies

nicelyj2

Level 1

0 points

Dec 24, 2015 4:14 AM in response to Blublud02

So happy this thread was here. My trackpad went out of control soon after I changed a battery so I thought it was the battery. But after reading this thread, I used a metal spudger and lightly inserted it in the space around the trackpad. A bit of dirt came up and I can see it's a bit more evenly distributed rather than being snug on the left side. And...it's magically working better, just like that.

Shout out to The Bookyard here in the UK which has loads of Mac spare parts and was nice enough on December 23rd to rush out out another battery for me to test instead of waiting for me to send the old one back to them to test. Got it on Christmas Eve. What compassionate service.

DGAnand

Level 1

4 points

May 10, 2016 11:08 PM in response to surfer from woods hole

Surfer from woods hole: thanks so much for the tip. My macbook trackpad stopped working after I ran a slightly damp cloth around the top to clean it of some dust and fingerprint marks etc. Checked support on this and saw your reply. Tried doing the same, and it worked! I did not have to press hard around the edge, just ran my nail around the edge - there seemed to have been something stuck at the edge (a tiny bit of dust/dirt) which came out when I did this.Thanks for the awesome tip.

Yoda182

Level 1

0 points

Dec 22, 2016 12:24 PM in response to onlyin5d

Strange one here... both Late 2008 MBP, 15 inch, trackpad AND Magic Trackpad2 no longer click, single finger cursor movement creates a selection of multiple desktop objects as the cursor moves over them, tap does not work, but two finger tap will bring up the context menu... After reading this discussion, I removed the battery and voila, all trackpad & Trackpad2 functions returned to normal! Inspection of the battery revealed a gradual bulge - higher in the middle by about 2.2 mm. Guess it's time to buy another battery. Thanks for the help!!!

Yoda182

Level 1

0 points

Dec 22, 2016 12:31 PM in response to onlyin5d

Strange one here... both Late 2008 MBP, 15 inch, trackpad AND Magic Trackpad2 no longer click, single finger cursor movement creates a selection of multiple desktop objects as the cursor moves over them, tap does not work, but two finger tap will bring up the context menu... After reading this discussion, I removed the battery and all trackpad & Trackpad2 functions returned to normal! Inspection of the battery revealed a gradual bulge - higher in the middle by about 2.2 mm. Guess it's time to buy another battery. Thanks for the help!!!

onlyin5d Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 28, 2014 3:50 PM in response to sanjampet

Yeah I'll take it to the Genius Bar and have them take a look at it

Feb 3, 2014 1:09 AM in response to onlyin5d

Hi just wondering what did the genius bar do, could they fix the problem?

onlyin5d Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 11, 2014 8:15 PM in response to Blublud02

I spent 90$ fixing mine -_-

ChicKat

Level 1

0 points

Jun 19, 2015 3:01 PM in response to surfer from woods hole

This worked! Thanks, I was loosing my mind.
xo - Kat

Jul 30, 2015 8:43 AM in response to Blublud02

This fixed my problem as well. Thanks for sharing as it saved me time and $.

jayman16

Level 1

4 points

Aug 5, 2015 1:49 PM in response to Blublud02

MMoving it fixed mine!

calvindo

Level 1

8 points

Aug 21, 2015 5:24 PM in response to onlyin5d

Every time trackpad acts up, i find kicking my dog fixes the issue 😁. if that stops working, i'll try moving the trackpad slightly to the right

matosjj

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2015 10:07 AM in response to onlyin5d

I had the same issue and solved it by pressing down the four corners of the trackpad all at once.

MT62

Level 1

4 points

Dec 7, 2015 2:05 AM in response to surfer from woods hole

The pinky nail around the right edge as hard as possible seemed to have taken care of the issue!? Thank you!!!

Janei9

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2016 2:06 AM in response to surfer from woods hole

I tried this method and it worked for me. thanks. : )

jlhaley

Level 1

0 points

Mar 23, 2016 2:11 PM in response to ian_esq

Really weird but I just did this and it worked, so far!! What is it that it does to the computer?

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Cursor is not responding and moving on its own