MacBook Trackpad button (& left mouse button) not working

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I have a MacBook (OS X, 10.4.11) and the trackpad button just stopped working last week. I've rebooted multiple times (with and without the battery) but nothing. I attached a mouse and I can right click...but the left button does nothing. However I can click 'some' things by clicking the scroll button on the mouse. For instance, I can click the system preferences button using the scroll. I can click on one of the options (ex. Keyboard & Mouse) using the scroll button but when the Keyboard & Mouse window pops up I can't click anything in the window. The trackpad is not set up to click unfortunately. I also could scroll click to pull up the 'About this Mac' info but now I can't close the window. Any ideas what I can do?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro, Power Mac G4, iMac G3, iPhone 3GS
Uhm... somehow remove the mouse preferences file. I guess it wouldn't be that hard. If you can navigate to Home > Library > Preferences, you can use the arrows on the keyboard to highlight something like com.apple.mouse.plist (I think.) Then use Command+Delete to send it to the Trash.

Restart. All of your mouse preferences will be blasted.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro, Power Mac G4, iMac G3, iPhone 3GS
Yeah. I went and looked. Not there... >sigh<

I'm not sure. Anybody else have some thoughts?
 
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Lake Elmo, Minnesota
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook - 320 GB HD, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram, + Magic Mouse
Does it have AppleCare? I know my MacBook's mouse button wasn't working on the righthand side, and I took it in, and they replaced the whole keyboard mouse piece - if you know what I'm talking about.
 
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Lake Elmo, Minnesota
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook - 320 GB HD, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram, + Magic Mouse
How old is it? It could still be covered under the limited warranty.
 
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Lake Elmo, Minnesota
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook - 320 GB HD, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram, + Magic Mouse
I personally don't know what to do then. Sorry.
 
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Die Fledermaus
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Ok I checked on Apple forums and found someone else with the same problem. They noticed that if they used a mouse *without* touching the trackpad that the mouse would work fine. I restarted my macbook and only used the mouse and could click with no problem. But (like the other person) the moment I touched the trackpad the mouse would have the same problem not clicking again. I restarted again and clicked 'ignore trackpad when mouse is attached'. Unfortunately there was no resolution on the other forum for the trackpad--I'll have to use the mouse for now.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 15 inch 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4 Gigs of ram
The only advice I have is to take it to a local, certified, mac store and have them check it out.
 
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I had a problem where my track pad button stopped working. I took it to Genius bar and they actually were geniuses. The battery in the macbook pro had expanded substantially and pressed on the rest of the case such that the track pad no longer clicked. The battery was replaced for free even though it was 4 years old and the trackpad clicks now perfectly and I have a new battery.
 
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I had a problem where my track pad button stopped working. I took it to Genius bar and they actually were geniuses. The battery in the macbook pro had expanded substantially and pressed on the rest of the case such that the track pad no longer clicked. The battery was replaced for free even though it was 4 years old and the trackpad clicks now perfectly and I have a new battery.

Thanks, this solved my problem. Couldn't understand why my machine started heating up recently and my trackpad was unresponsive. The battery case was a little misshaped but I assumed it was just old and a result of normal aging. Took the battery out and everything works great. I just hope I can get Apple to replace the battery.

Thanks for sharing your success.
 
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preference file

hey everybody, this thread solved the problem for me...

DieFledermaus... the file you want is. com.apple.driver.AppleBluetootheMultitouch.trackpad.plist


it is in your user/Library/Preference folder...

i actually found a total of 3 mouse-related apple driver files right there... and deleting those three via safe mode and restarting the computer fixed my trackpad mouse problems!
 
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I had a problem where my track pad button stopped working. I took it to Genius bar and they actually were geniuses. The battery in the macbook pro had expanded substantially and pressed on the rest of the case such that the track pad no longer clicked. The battery was replaced for free even though it was 4 years old and the trackpad clicks now perfectly and I have a new battery.

Thanks for that, just had exactly the same problem. I was aware the battery was bulging, but never made the connection it would affect the mouse.
 
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My solution

I was having this problem for a few days, after reading this thread I realized my problem was a bluetooth mouse I left on (or got switched on accidentally) in my laptop bag. Once I found the mouse and turned it off the problem was solved.

-Mike
 

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