Electronics

[gardenman]

I was confused why they would be replacing the case and battery, but a bit of research showed that the case flexing or the battery expanding prior to failure were common causes for this problem. Sadly, in many cases even replacing those items doesn't fix the issue.

Here's a list of troubleshooting tips I did discover to try and fix the issue however.

• Troubleshooting steps:
  - Unplug all USB devices (ensures it's not a problem with your mouse or interference from another device)
  - Turn off Bluetooth (ensures there aren't any wireless mice messing with stuff)
  - Try turning off your AirPort (seems unrelated but some people report this helped)
  - Try unplugging your AC Adapter (could be caused by unclean power or a faulty adapter)
  - Try removing the battery (not an option with the 2010 MBP, the battery is not removeable)
  - Under System Preferences, Trackpad, make sure "ignore accidental trackpad input" is checked
  - Under System Preferences, Universal Access, Mouse & Trackpad, turn on "Ignore built in trackpad when mouse is present", plug in a mouse. (if the problem goes away, this proves the trackpad is at fault)
  - Try booting from the system restore CD that came with your computer (if the problem still exists, this proves it's not a software issue)
  - Clean the trackpad with a lint free cloth, small circles, light pressure
  - Clean the trackpad with a lint free cloth and rubbing alcohol

  Oddly enough a lot of people seem to have issues with bluetooth devices causing their cursor to jump around. Bluetooth and other wireless forms of communication apparently are causing a lot of the trouble. Things like video game controllers, wireless speakers/headphones, even cordless phones can all apparently make the cursor wander about. This has been going on for years with Macs so Apple should have a pretty good handle on how to fix it, but the problem seems to persist. I suspect they need to shield an internal component better from outside interference. It's an interesting problem. Good luck in finding the right solution for you.

  Apple seems to be hunting and pecking at the issue and hoping for the best. If you take the computer to a remote location far from anything that could interfere with it and the problem doesn't recur there, then it's something specific to your home or surroundings. Possibly a stray voltage or electrical sginal from something inside your house. (Good luck in tracking that down!) It could be something like a CFL lightbulb, which have been known on occasion to create weird electrical impulses. Plain old fluorescent bulbs can do the same on occasion. Even something like a big appliance, like a fridge or electric oven, coming on can sometimes do wacky things to sensitive devices. Some older cars (pre-electronic ignition) can affect sensitive electronics. If you have a neighbor with a ham radio, that could be affecting it. Even a radio signal from  a passing police car, ambulance, etc, could possibly affect it.

  I've found this issue dating back to 2010, so Apple should have some sort of a handle on it by now. My best guess is it doesn't recur in their labs/tech centers so they can't figure it out, but my money is on something not being shielded properly and being affected by an outside signal. If you could see the electro-magnetic fields around you these days you'd be stunned at all of the stuff that's floating around. We're largely immune and blind to those fields however, but many of our devices aren't. It sounds like Macs aren't immune to them and at least some are very sensitive to the issue. 

  I'd definitely try taking it somewhere remote and away from any likely/possible source of interference and see if the problem recurs. If not, then you know it's something external that's causing the problem. (If it's something external then taking it back to Apple is fruitless as they'll never fix the issue.) If the problem persists in the middle of no where, then it's an Apple hardware/software issue and back it should go. You could wrap the computer in grounded foil to help shield it from external signals, but that's a bit awkward (at best.) If the problem only occurs when plugged into an electrical outlet then there are line conditioners that will smooth out the voltage and electrical signal that comes into the device before sending it to the device which could help if the issue comes through the electrical feed. Good luck! You're going to need it!

  My gut says this is a design issue and something internal isn't properly shielded and in certain places, under certain conditions, a stray signal/voltage leaks into the device causing the issue. Taking the computer to the middle of no where and using it there can determine if that's true or not. 

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman, thanks for taking the time to do this research.  The issue is better than it was but it is still not gone.  I will take some time this week to try this in a location more remote.  I am about 20 minutes drive from a major city but there are electronics all around me so I will have to think on that lol. There are also cell phone towers close to where I live (within five miles).

I kind of have the feeling that it might be as good as it is going to get...LM

[gardenman]

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@Lilysmom wrote:

@gardenman, thanks for taking the time to do this research.  The issue is better than it was but it is still not gone.  I will take some time this week to try this in a location more remote.  I am about 20 minutes drive from a major city but there are electronics all around me so I will have to think on that lol. There are also cell phone towers close to where I live (within five miles).

I kind of have the feeling that it might be as good as it is going to get...LM

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You might find that the problem fixes itself down the road when you replace a lightbulb or appliance of some sort if it is a stray signal that's causing the issue. 

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman, I am thinking this might be as good as it gets.  What a strange situation.  I remember when I took typing the teachers would be horrified if you looked at the keyboard or the page.  Now I find myself trying to do that every so often just so I don't get caught putting text where it doesn't belong.  

I'll keep you posted.

LM

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman@Mz iMac@glb613, I went to my appointment at the Apple Store this afternoon.  They made some small adjustments to my settings.  I was there for an hour and tried to replicate the issue in Pages and in email which is where I encountered the problem.  No way could I get the computer to do what it was doing.  

You are not going to believe this ... OMG, it just did it again.  GRRRRRRR.

 Anyway, in my conversation with Josh he committed to solving the problem even when warranty was past the one year mark.  If it repeats, the next step is to remove the OS and reinstall.  Hoping not to have to do that but it may come to that.

I'll keep you posted.  LM

PS, they don't want me to install High Sierra yet.

[gardenman]

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@Lilysmom wrote:

@gardenman@Mz iMac@glb613, I went to my appointment at the Apple Store this afternoon.  They made some small adjustments to my settings.  I was there for an hour and tried to replicate the issue in Pages and in email which is where I encountered the problem.  No way could I get the computer to do what it was doing.  

You are not going to believe this ... OMG, it just did it again.  GRRRRRRR.

 Anyway, in my conversation with Josh he committed to solving the problem even when warranty was past the one year mark.  If it repeats, the next step is to remove the OS and reinstall.  Hoping not to have to do that but it may come to that.

I'll keep you posted.  LM

PS, they don't want me to install High Sierra yet.

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Based on what I've read, I'm leaning more and more to it being a stray signal of some sort causing the issue. It's likely something in around your house that's confusing the computer. Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have been implicated in some instances and those, or some other radio signal, would be my most likely culprits.

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman, I am thinking the same thing.  Could be wifi.  Could be bluetooth.  Would you go through the entire process of deleting and putting in a new OS?  It could very well happen that I go through all of that and still have the issue.  LM

[glb613]

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@Lilysmom wrote:

@gardenman, I am thinking the same thing.  Could be wifi.  Could be bluetooth.  Would you go through the entire process of deleting and putting in a new OS?  It could very well happen that I go through all of that and still have the issue.  LM

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I rarely use pages on my Macbook.  The jumping curser almost always happens when I'm online.  This hasn't always been a problem.  I don't recall just when it started but, it's been within the last year. 

I went into the trackpad settings and I don't have the option to ignore stray movemet with the trackpad (or however it's worded) but did select turn off trackpad when a mouse is present.  I thought about it and decided that might not be a good move.  If my mouse failed or the USB port failed, I'd have no way to control the computer. 

I decided I need to watch while typing and if it jumps, redirect the cursor to the right spot.  My iMac is 5 years old and my Macbook is 4 years old.  I'm not sure how long they will continue to work. 

[gardenman]

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@Lilysmom wrote:

@gardenman, I am thinking the same thing.  Could be wifi.  Could be bluetooth.  Would you go through the entire process of deleting and putting in a new OS?  It could very well happen that I go through all of that and still have the issue.  LM

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The fact that the jumping didn't happen at a remote location really seems to validate the rogue signal theory of why it's happening and I'm pretty sure that would be more hardware related than software related. Reinstalling the OS wouldn't fix a hardware issue. It won't necessarily hurt anything and it might help, I just wouldn't get my hopes too high.

It seems like half the things in our houses chatter back and forth these days, with smart phones, cordless phones, smart thermostats, gaming consoles/controllers, smart TV's, cable set top boxes (my Comcast box uses Wi-Fi for the remote), wireless cameras, and more, all chatting away wirelessly, tracking down the culprit would be next to impossible. My suspicion is that some device in/around your home has a quirky signal that's causing the trouble. 

This has been going on with Apple computers for a long time. I could find posts about it dating back to 2010 without looking too hard. Modern motherboards are absurdly complicated devices and somehow, some way a rogue signal seems to pop in from time to time to move the cursor. It doesn't affect everyone, but my best guess is it affects everyone who has a certain make/model of device in/around their home. If you could round up a hundred people with the problem and have them list everything in their homes, you might be able to figure out the cause. "Hey, we all have exactly the same cordless phone!" Voila! There's the problem. Unfortunately rounding up a hundred or more people with the problem and getting an accurate listing of everything they have in and around their homes is not easy. And even if you did, it might be something on a neighbor's proerty that's causing the issue.

The rush to have the thinnest possible laptop has caused this issue in some cases where slight pressure on the top of the case was enough to move the cursor or the slight expansion of the battery as it's expiring was enough. In those cases replacing the top and battery solved the problem, but there have been quite a few cases where that failed also. It could still be top related and both your original top and the replacement were slightly out of tolerance, but that would be easy to check by seeing tf the cursor jumped when you pressed down on the top. It's entirely possible that Apple just tried too hard to make the computer as thin as humanly possible and made it just a tick too thin.

In manufacturing pretty much nothing is exactly a certain size. Parts tend to have an acceptable range of sizes which is typically called the tolerance. A part may be dimensioned as: 1.25" +/- .01." That means that a part could be 1.24" or 1.26" and still be acceptable. Now not every part made gets checked, but a random sample does so from time to time an out of tolerance part sneaks through. It's possible that the top part of your case is one of those that snuck through and so was the replacement top they tried. That could still be the cause of the issue.

Good luck in tracking down the issue or learning to live with it. Finding a solution for these types of problems is a challenge and a puzzle. 

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman@glb613, I think I will go through the motions with Apple.  I have backed up my data.  I have an appointment again next Tuesday.  Will keep you posted as I navigate through the issue.  LM