MacBook Pro Unibody - stuck trackpad button

cwa107


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I just ran into this about a half hour ago and after a quick disassembly and inspection, I found a couple of interesting tidbits that I thought I'd share...

First and foremost, it is possible for a grain or two of sand to become wedged into the seam between the trackpad and the palm rest - and no, it stayed in the beach house all week long during my vacation. So, somehow I transferred some sand to it from my hands :)

This is a real bummer, because if you want to "unstick it", you pretty much have to remove the battery.

This is accomplished by removing the three "tri-wing" screws that secure it. Note that one of them is hidden by a portion of the label on the battery, so you have to lift it a bit (the screws are all in a line at the top of the battery, nearest the electrical connector - the covered screw is closest to the HDD/SSD). You'll also need a special screwdriver (you can get it from iFixIt.com). Fortunately, I had one of these screw drivers from the time I replaced the case on my son's Nintendo DS Lite.

Once the battery is out of the way, you can apply pressure to the back side of the trackpad, which will hopefully help dislodge the gunk (it did for me).

Even more interesting is that you'll notice that there's a single hex head screw at the base of the trackpad (on the bottom). If you remove it, you'll find that this isn't really a screw - it's actually a threaded grommet that allows a bit of adjustment for the tightness of the trackpad button. With a few turns either clockwise (tighter) or counter-clockwise (looser), you can adjust how much effort it takes to "click" your trackpad.

I made my adjustment and although there is some blue thread locker compound on the grommet threads, it's not enough to keep the adjustment totally permanent (at least it wasn't in my case). So, I took just a tiny scrap of electric tape and placed it over the screw head. This should keep the adjustment (which I actually made a bit looser than it was from the factory).

Anyway, hope this helps someone - and any questions, please reply.
 
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I have also found that the screws become loose on the track pad causing it to jam as well.
 

pigoo3

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I can see trackpad cleaning tip certainly coming in handy.

That trackpad clicking adjustment sounds interesting...too bad the adjustment with the threaded grommet isn't more permanent.

I wonder if the clicking adjustment is made more "loose" (more clicking movement)...if that would allow more dirt (or sand) to get into the gap.

Thanks for the info/tips "cwa"!:)


p.s. After reading your trackpad adjustment screw post...I did a search...and came across this article that adds some additional info:

Unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro owners: Got a screw loose? Tighten your trackpad! « TERAVOXEL
 

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