Forums | MacLife

Are you using a 3rd party power adapter? I've had issues with my Macally iBook power brick. If my USB mouse is not plugged in, my curser randomly jumps around when charging is near completion.

There is the possibility that the touchpad is defective, but just to be sure:
1) make sure that you yourself are properly grounded. If conditions are such that you can easily build a static charge (cotton clothing and plastic chair, for example), then you can have minor discharges through the touchpad even when your hand isn't that close to the pad.
2) have your tried to clean your MBP with a liquid cleanser, especially by spraying your MBP directly? You may have put some at the edge of the touchpad and that cleanser is causing false "touches" on the pad if and when you change the weight on the case next to the pad. Not much can be done about this short of letting it dry out, then remembering to spray your cleaning towel lightly with the cleanser in order to clean your laptop (or any computer equipment for that matter).
3) when you type, does your wrist or arm come close to the touchpad? It can be awkward but you may have to learn to type with your arms raised off of the keyboard so that your hands and arms are not close to the touchpad. This can be compounded by the problem in 1) above.

It's not defective.  You don't actually have to touch the trackpad to cause input -- your body's electric field may be strong enough to do it from quite some distance away.  Do as FutureDreamz says:

Last edited by Daniel (2007-08-28 2:52 pm)

Well, so far, since i've disabled the touchpad, the keyboard has been fine. No jumping cursors or highlighted words, etc.  I still don't get the reason why i would have a problem. Remember, even if you use the touch pad, it doesn't move the cursor until you click the button. So, i don't know why it would jump otherwise.

Thanks, steve

This thing sounds broken to me. I'd send it in for repair