Mouse problems

[Tank]

I've been having a ton of trouble with my school computer. It's an older mac laptop that has worked great, but on occasion the cursor would skip to some random place while i was typing and start in the middle of some other word. it was annoying, but i lived with it.

 

the click bar on the trackpad stopped working over a year ago. just won't click easily or regularly, so i bought an external mouse. it seemed to work fine.

 

this week it has been a train wreck. the mouse is suddenly highlighting random things and i can't undo it. it also has stopped working completely - the click buttons on it become useless. i've found that restarting my computer allows me to use it again for a little while, but then it starts all over again with randomly jumping to different places in the text, the highlighting thing, and being completely useless.

 

anyone have similar issues like this? were you able to fix them? i have an appointment at the apple store on friday and am hoping this isn't an expensive fix.

[gotbeer]

Check and disable the trackpad.  Might be what is causing the issues.  And you mean touchpad right?  I know on occassion, my touchpad on my pc all of a sudden gets enabled without me knowing, and when I'm typing I see similar things to what you are experiencing.  Since even a slight touch on the pad will set it off.  

[nate]

I've been having a ton of trouble with my school computer. It's an older mac laptop that has worked great, but on occasion the cursor would skip to some random place while i was typing and start in the middle of some other word. it was annoying, but i lived with it.

 

the click bar on the trackpad stopped working over a year ago. just won't click easily or regularly, so i bought an external mouse. it seemed to work fine.

 

this week it has been a train wreck. the mouse is suddenly highlighting random things and i can't undo it. it also has stopped working completely - the click buttons on it become useless. i've found that restarting my computer allows me to use it again for a little while, but then it starts all over again with randomly jumping to different places in the text, the highlighting thing, and being completely useless.

 

anyone have similar issues like this? were you able to fix them? i have an appointment at the apple store on friday and am hoping this isn't an expensive fix.

 

Along with what gb suggested, if the computer is that old it is feasible that the processor is being taxed so much that even typing is causing it to lock up.  You may want to see if the CPU fan is clogged/not working.  When the CPU starts to overheat it is underclocked until it stops overheating.  This would cause the performance to suffer.

[red321]

Also, make sure you try another mouse if you haven't just to make sure the problem still occurs

[Blarg]

Time to retire it and have your school provide you with a newer model.

[Thomas]

The school doesn't have an IT dept?

[gotbeer]

The school doesn't have an IT dept?

 

He doesn't want to take it to them, and have them snoop around his computer and find all the Trout Porn.

[nate]

He doesn't want them to find out about his James Madison account.  It is a website for History teachers that want to cheat on the Constitution exam.

[Blarg]

Damn, Nate, that was pretty good.

 

 

 

 

Of course it would have been excellent if you used Dolly Madison.

Edited August 20, 2015 by notti

[Tank]

The school doesn't have an IT dept?

We do but he's so taxed with repairing all the other aging teacher computers plus running the comp lab plus teaching a full load.

Admin is aware we need new computers and is working on a plan to acquire new windows based machines or next year. The problem there is that I'm not at all familiar with with windows (though I imagine it likely won't be too hard to learn) but every single document, handout, test, etc I've generated is in a Mac platform, and I have zero interest in taking the time to convert them to a new format.

[gotbeer]

We do but he's so taxed with repairing all the other aging teacher computers plus running the comp lab plus teaching a full load.

Admin is aware we need new computers and is working on a plan to acquire new windows based machines or next year. The problem there is that I'm not at all familiar with with windows (though I imagine it likely won't be too hard to learn) but every single document, handout, test, etc I've generated is in a Mac platform, and I have zero interest in taking the time to convert them to a new format.

 

Not that hard to convert them.  Heck, I'm sure word can read that format.  And if word can't, there are probably freeware out there that can read them, and convert them.  

[Vegas Halo Fan]

He doesn't want to take it to them, and have them snoop around his computer and find all the Trout Porn picture files sent by Jared Fogle.

 

Fixed.

[Tank]

Turns out the battery started swelling, and since its under the mousepad, it was screwing up everything. They had a replacement battery in stock, but for $99 I'm gonna pass. I'll just run the computer without the battery and leave it plugged in. That'll work fine for me.

[Blarg]

Why isn't your school taking care of it's own laptops. You shouldn't be footing the cost on a battery.

[gotbeer]

Turns out the battery started swelling, and since its under the mousepad, it was screwing up everything. They had a replacement battery in stock, but for $99 I'm gonna pass. I'll just run the computer without the battery and leave it plugged in. That'll work fine for me.

 

Look on Ebay or Amazon.  Probably can get one for a lot cheaper.  

[Tank]

Why isn't your school taking care of it's own laptops. You shouldn't be footing the cost on a battery.

 

agreed, but in order to get the ball rolling (instead of waiting around forever) i volunteered to take it in myself. my principal was wiling to cover the cost.