Existing admin user - no dock bar; New admin user - no touchpad activity

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Existing admin user - no dock bar; New admin user - no touchpad activity

I've been working on repairing a MacBook Pro recently. The existing admin user account has full usability of the touchpad (can click on anything), but no dock bar appears (I've looked at settings, and it isn't set to auto-hide, tried left, bottom, and right, tried running apps to see if it would appear). To see if it was a corrupted profile, I created a second admin profile. This one has everything as expected (dock-bar, etc), but the touchpad is limited....the cursor moves as expected, but cannot actually click on anything. Additionally, when I log out of either user, and the login screen appears, the touchpad won't click....I have to use tab and arrow-keys to sign into a user profile.

What would cause one profile to have a working touchpad with no dockbar?

What would cause another profile to have a working dockbar with a half-functioning touchpad?

What would cause a logout from either profile to display a login screen with a half-functioning touchpad (cursor movement but no click functionality)?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Aug 15, 2015 7:34 PM

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Answer 1

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Aug 16, 2015 2:56 AM in response to nebnetjeruiti

What version of OS X are you running?

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Aug 17, 2015 6:34 AM in response to nebnetjeruiti

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode

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Answer 3

Aug 18, 2015 8:16 PM in response to Eric Root

Thank you Eric! Booting into safe mode let me discover that the flashmall virus was running under the user's profile. It was a quick fix that allowed everything in their profile to load.

I am perplexed about one thing though. The user stated recently (after I posted this) that they had spilled liquid on the keyboard, and that because of that an external mouse was necessary. However, I noticed that the trackpad works great under their profile. Create a NEW profile, however, and I have cursor movement, but no clicking. Any ideas?

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Aug 19, 2015 6:01 AM in response to nebnetjeruiti

You are welcome. Not really sure what to think about the trackpad issue, but the below fixes some weird problems.

Restart the computer holding down the command - option/alt - P - R keys before the gray screen appears. Continue to hold until you hear the startup chime for the second time.

Reset NVRAM/PRAM

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