I will type and suddenly the whole thing will blue highlight and get erased. Or the cursor will jump back to the middle of the sentence. It started about 2 weeks ago and at first I thought I had hit a wrong key or something. Now it’s almost all the time. My mouse (mighty mouse) also sometimes doesn’t work, but that’s probably a separate issue. Any ideas? I hope this gets out there…
If you’re using the built-in keyboard, I’d guess that the heel of your hand is brushing against the touchpad. If you have the “tap to click” setting on, it’s pretty easy to accidentally move the cursor or select a block of text.
What’s wrong with the mouse? Is it wired or Bluetooth?
That’s just it–it is the built in keyboard, but this happens even when I’m not touching any keys or so I thought… 
What is the “tap to click” setting and how do I get rid of it? (that is the most likely thing so I’d like to know how to change that setting–I didn’t choose that setting!)
The mouse sometimes won’t move the cursor and sometimes it won’t highlight (but if the tap to click thingy is on, then it wouldn’t, would it?) The mouse is wired.
Help me, O Wise Wombat. I will bow forever to your MacBook skillz! Thanks.
I’m going to have to look up the setting this evening when I’m at home. I’m stuck on this silly Windows computer during the day today.
The touchpad settings take care of this situation: My son has “tap to click” (I may have that name wrong) turned off. He prefers to move his fingers over the pad and then push the button to “click.” I have it turned on so I can move the cursor with the pad and then tap it to “click.” Depending on how you hold your hands when you type (and how big your hands are), the heel of your hand can easily end up “tapping” the touchpad.
When a wired mouse sometimes won’t move the cursor, I can only think of two reasons off the top of my head. Either there’s an almost-broken wire that breaks the connection in certain positions, or there’s something resting on the touchpad while you’re moving the mouse.
You may want to disable the touchpad entirely if you aren’t using it, and see if that helps.
I agree, your thumbs could be within the sensitve area of the Trackpad, and randomly brushing against the pad will cause the cursor to jump around, if Trackpad Clicking is turned on, that can also cause problems with inadvertent trackpad brushes
here’s how you check the settings;
Dock>System Preferences>Keyboard and Mouse
in the keyboard and mouse pane, select the Trackpad tab
Turn OFF;
Clicking, Dragging, and Drag Lock
Turn ON;
Ignore accidental Trackpad input
close System Preferences and you should be good
OK, wait a minute. I’m kinda stupid.
There are times I need to use the touchpad to move the cursor etc–can I ONLY turn off the (ignore) the accidental trackpad input and not the other one? I think that’s what I want to do…
And thank you both for helping me.
The mouse ball doesn’t track sometimes and then I know to “clean” it. I don’t think any wires are loose or that fragile. It’s intermittent, so most likely it’s me that’s actually causing this stuff. Urgh.
Ok–wow! I never accessed that bit (the mouse etc in Systems Pref) before. I have accidental trackpad stuff already on ignore. Yikes…(?)
Meh, I’ve had the same problem happen with my MacBook, and it’s generally one of my thumbs resting on or near the trackpad, so the OS sees it as a legitimate touch, Ignore generally means the random occasional “glances” your thumb makes over the TP
another weird thing I’ve found is that, depending on the intensity of your innate electrical field, and the humidity of the environment, the trackpad sensitivity varies, since it uses inductence/capacitance to sense your finger, you can move the pointer with a power cable , or any conductive device (like a mylar anti-static bag), sometimes, when your innate electrical field is stronger, you can move the pointer by just barely touching the trackpad, there have been times that I’ve moved the pointer without even touching the pad, my electrical field was just that strong that day
the strength of the human electrical field is measurable, I can take my Illuma-Storm plasma globe, set it on it’s widest setting with lots of streamers, and slowly bring my hand towards it, once I reach a certain point, the streamers will start to migrate towards my hand, and I haven’t even touched the globe yet…
I have resigned myself to the belief that when this happens to me, I am somehow being punished by my old high school typing teacher for not maintaining proper typing posture and form. :o
OK, one last problem/question.
My trackbar used to actually CLICK–that is, when I depressed it, it sank a bit and I could feel a click (no idea how to express that). Now it does not–I press on it, but it does not depress–I feel like I’m pressing on a touch screen instead.
What the hell is that and should I take it to the Apple store? I have not changed any settings in Sys Pref, btw.
I have NO idea what that one’s all about, Eleanor.
Eleanor, sounds like the trackpad button has gotten something in it, grit, or something, you can try some canned air and spray it around the edges of the button to try and dislodge any grit, make sure to keep the canned air vertical so as not to spray the cold propellant on the top case
It sounds to me like your 'Book may just need a top case replacement, assuming you’re under warranty/AppleCare, this should be covered, a top case replacement is an easy repair, I can do them in under 5 minutes, take it to your local independent Mac reseller, or an Apple store, and they can replace the top case, they’ll probably have to order the part, but generally speaking, parts typically come in the next day, and a simple top case replacement shouldn’t take the tech long to do
Hey, MacTech, maybe you can answer a question for me.
Some months ago, I had a problem with one of the keys on my MacBook Pro keyboard, and managed to break the scissor pieces when I removed it to try and fix it myself (sigh).
We don’t have an Apple store anywhere near here, but there’s an authorized repair center about an hour’s drive away. I stopped at an Apple store in Boulder, Colorado on vacation, and they said it just needed a replacement keyboard–a quick repair, but they didn’t have one.
I talked to the repair center near my house and they said they could do the repair easily: I just need to drop off the computer and they’ll get the part on order. Should be three days.
I told them to order the part and call me when it came in, and he refused. He won’t order the part until he has my computer in hand, because he said Apple rates his shop on turnaround time from when he gets the part until the repair is done. If he orders the part and I don’t bring my computer in for a week, he gets a bad rating with Apple.
I really can’t be without this computer for three days right now, and I don’t want to do that hour drive (each way) twice. Any ideas?
MacTech–I just got a new cover thingy–this summer! :eek:
I will try the air spray (that sounds weird). Thanks.