iBook touchpad freaking out, help.

[tsg68]

Lately my G3 iBook's touchpad has been freaking out and the cursor jumps around like crazy or doesn't completely respond to movement. It usually only starts when I'm online, and I ran a hardware check with everything checking out. Could it be a software glitch? Any help would be appreciated as there isn't much info in the manual or in Machelp. Thanks in advance.

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[James S]

Is it just a matter of it being over sensitive when you're typing? There is an option in the prefs to ignore it while you're typing so that you don't get spurious clicks and movements just brushing it with your palms. I have this turned on in my powerbook to good results.

You could isolate a trackpad vs something else problem by plugging in a mouse for a while and selecting the "ignore trackpad while mouse is present" in the prefs. If the mouse still jerks around then something else is happening software wise, if it behaves itself that way then we continue to narrow down the problem to the trackpad itself.

There is also a preferences file you can delete, but I can't seem to find it on my machine at the moment. I'll dig some more and post later on with the title.

The last thing I would do before surfing through Apple's support boards would be to try out an alternative driver. I use a lot a program called usb overdrive to add more functions to the thing. it's at usboverdrive.com you can at least download the demo and try it out to see if it makes a difference before purchasing.

Good Luck,

 

[Greta]

TSG... I have had this happen with my laptop (windows). Usually it involves some graphics program that I was running or a combination of certain programs at the same time. See if you can notice the "conditions" when this happens... what programs you're running together, what programs you ran recently, etc. Perhaps that will help to pinpoint the problem.

 

[Atrick-Pay]

Touchpads seem to take alot of CPU time
so they can freak it you're running low on CPU power.

Otherwise I've seen some that I think were just broken
and did just that! I hate touchpads! Accupoints RULE!!

 

[tsg68]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I think I will try an external mouse to see if it stops. As for conditions, I haven't noticed anything different unless my wife started running something new so I'll have to ask her and keep a lookout. I will also try apple support online if it persists, right now it's behaving.

Thanks again,

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