trackpad issues

Hi everyone and thanks for reading.
I have a MacBook Air 13-inch, Mid 2011 10.10.3 (out of warranty) bought in 2012 and I have been struggling with trackpad issues since January 2015 soon after receiving the warning "Battery Service" from my laptop (the message disappeared after a day or two an never returned). Basically, the trackpad behaves erratically, it's often stuck in select position, and makes quite hard to write an entire sentence without moving on its own. You would not believe how much pain this is causing, especially to my work. I considered the warning message about the battery, but it actually works fine: I have no problems with charging and it has 553 cycles. At the beginning the troubleshooting, VNRAM, SMC, PRAM was fine and the problem did not occur again until March 2015. In addition to the trackpad issues, the laptop did not connect with the projector (although the adapter was just new) and was not able to open more than 2 files at the same time.
I brought the laptop to a technician, who cleaned it up and said everything seemed fine to him. He said that the battery was not bulging at all. He suggested to upgrade to Yosemite, which I did. For a couple of days everything was OK, but the symptoms came back again.
I finally resigned to paying the 70.00 EUR for the service of a certified Mac reseller (I live in Southern Ireland, and there is no AppleStore here...). They ran some tests, saying that the battery failed. They did not identify the trackpad issues, which was weird, as it usually takes less than 10 minutes before the trackpad starts behaving erratically. They recommended to replace the battery (costing 150.00 EUR plus 70.00 EUR for the labour) because they battery failed their standards, but they explicitly told me that they could not guarantee that the replacement would solve my issues with the trackpad, since they were not able to replicate them. I was disappointed and discouraged by the price, so I decided to wait. I would be very grateful to anyone, if you have recommendations or suggestions. Thanks.

Are you running any 3rd party mouse/trackpad software? Do you have any other devices (mouse or trackpad) connected, either by cable or by bluetooth?

If you are still on 10.10.3, you should update to 10.10.4. You should also try resetting the PRAM and SMC.
How To Reset Your Mac's SMC & PRAM

Hi Lifeisabeach and thanks.
No, I don't use third parties, no devices connected and the bluetooth is off.
I have upgraded to 10.10.4 early today, resetting PRAM and SMC, but the problem persists.

ott2975 said:

Hi Lifeisabeach and thanks.
No, I don't use third parties, no devices connected and the bluetooth is off.
I have upgraded to 10.10.4 early today, resetting PRAM and SMC, but the problem persists.

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I don't know if this helps or not but I recently ran into a trackpad issue causing erratic behaviour only occasionally and ended up replacing the trackpad to fix it. In troubleshooting I even booted to an external OS to try to isolate the issue from software and it worked perfectly fine with that OS. I've heard that dust can get under the trackpad and influence them but I'm skeptical. I didn't see any indication of dust or anything else that would cause the situation. My only guess is possibly a poor cable connection with the trackpad.

Thanks Mad_macs. I have actually created a new user profile to test the OS, and the problem occurs even then. I would trust the technician that cleaned up my laptop, but...who knows?
I don't know about the structure of trackpad, so I don't really know about the cable getting to the trackpad. Nobody before addressed this issue.

It's so frustrating.

What happens if you use an external bluetooth trackpad? What happens if you use a wired or bluetooth mouse?

IOW, I'm trying to discover if the problem is with the built-in trackpad, or if it is a larger issue with the computer generally. Using a pointing device that doesn't depend on the trackpad's connection will help isolate the issue.

Thanks Chas_M. I don't have a mouse, so I don't know what may happen. The test run by the Apple service included the trackpad. Since the trackpad passed that test, I have never given a thought about trying a mouse. I will consider buying one today and see, if I happen to get a cheaper one.

No need to buy a mouse. Ask anyone you know if they have a spare mouse around -- most people do. Check the thrift stores to see if an old USB mouse can be had for a dollar or two. Any USB mouse should work for what you want to test, doesn't matter if it was originally for PC.

Sounds much like there has been a small spill on the trackpad.

Well, I've asked a colleague at work to lend me her Mac wireless mouse and everything seems to be smooth again. I'm quite surprised that I may have a failed trackpad and keyboard without the technician and the Apple service barely noticing them (I include the keyboard as sometimes the arrows buttons do not work either when the trackpad is frozen or erratic).

I'll keep trying with the mouse and switch to the trackpad again in the next 2 days and I'll see. I obviously need both trackpad and keyboard to work fine, so I'm already worrying about the amount of money they will cost to me. But, at least, the battery doesn't seem to be responsible of anything.

Thanks for all the comments.

As regards the spill on the trackpad, I don't know. I remember that some drops of water spilled over the trackpad almost a year ago, it was surely 2014. The troubles with the trackpad fist appeared in January 2015. Is it possible that those drops have caused some damage that has showed up only later?

ott2975 said:

As regards the spill on the trackpad, I don't know. I remember that some drops of water spilled over the trackpad almost a year ago, it was surely 2014. The troubles with the trackpad fist appeared in January 2015. Is it possible that those drops have caused some damage that has showed up only later?

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Yes, very possible. We advise everyone who has experienced a spill on their machine that even though it may seem alright now, there is no guaranty it will be OK in the future. Over time a spill can lead to corrosion and eventually damage.

That is normally what happens after a spill sadly.

Thanks everyone. A quick update: I've been using the mouse since this morning and it got stuck EXACTLY the same way as the trackpad. Now, it's utterly impossible to use the machine to work.

This laptop is driving me crazy, seriously. A few days ago, I gave up and decided to visit the closest Apple Center, which is 200 km away from my place. I booked an appointment with the genius, who kept the laptop for 1 day and asked me to pick it up today. It turned out that he replaced the inner cable connecting with the trackpad. I checked the laptop and everything seemed OK, so I went home. It was late in the night, so I watched an episode of an online series and soon the erratic behaviour of the trackpad came back again. I can't believe that. I'm wasting a lot of money and even more time without solution. I don't know what to do, and I am seriously worrying for my work. I can't work like this. What shall I do now?
Please, if you have any advice do not hesitate to let me know. Thanks.

Assuming you are in the US as your avatar does not say, with your receipt in your hand ring Apple Service and explain your problem, how much money it has cost and how you seem to be getting nowhere and what can they do for you.

I live in Europe, but I did just what you said. I've talked on the phone with an Apple technician. He made me do some troubleshooting without success, since the problem is still there. They want me to go back there and leave the laptop AGAIN. It's a nightmare. Since the trackpad, the battery and everything have passed the test, they don't seem to know what to do. I don't know whether I should simply throw away the laptop, but Apple has seriously disappointed me. It looks like they are not able to diagnose the real issue and it's horrible that I have to travel for 200 km each time just to be told that everything seems OK, when in fact it is not.

ott2975 said:

I live in Europe, but I did just what you said. I've talked on the phone with an Apple technician. He made me do some troubleshooting without success, since the problem is still there. They want me to go back there and leave the laptop AGAIN. It's a nightmare. Since the trackpad, the battery and everything have passed the test, they don't seem to know what to do. I don't know whether I should simply throw away the laptop, but Apple has seriously disappointed me. It looks like they are not able to diagnose the real issue and it's horrible that I have to travel for 200 km each time just to be told that everything seems OK, when in fact it is not.

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You may have some other hardware issue at play here, or a software issue (corrupted kernel extension perhaps, or something else running on your Mac). You need to try running the Apple Hardware Test to see what it may turn up. Run it in Loop Mode to stress test the RAM.
The Apple Hardware Test

You should also consider backing up your drive to an external, then wipe the internal drive and reinstall OS X from scratch. Use it for a bit WITHOUT migrating any apps or user data back over so you can see if the problem goes away with a clean install. You can alternatively make a small 2nd partition and clean install OS X to that and boot from that as a trial. In any case, make a backup just in case.

You should also consider the possibility that your hard drive is failing. Read this post of mine detailing how to do so:
http://www.mac-forums.com/os-x-operating-system/301467-ntfs-mac.html#post1528773

Thanks so much Lifeisabeach. I really appreciate your advice, but I don't feel very confident at running the tests myself. As regards the suggestion of the 2nd partition and the installation of OS X from scratch, I was wondering whether it is the same as creating a test user account having no apps or data apart from those already given. I did so a few days ago and the problem was still there, so I assumed the software was safe. Is this correct or not?

Meanwhile, I've been called back today from the Apple Store. They said they should have replaced the trackpad when they changed the inner cable, so they admitted they made a mistake. They said they will not let me pay for the replacement of the trackpad this time, but I have to visit them again the day after tomorrow in order to get this second repair done. To be honest, I do not know whether I shall trust the diagnosis regarding the trackpad. Shall I ask them to run first the tests you have proposed? Is there anything you would recommend me to ask them before letting them replace the trackpad? Indeed, the trackpad passed their hardware test, so I would ask everything to avoid another wrong diagnosis (and useless repair). Thanks so much!

ott2975 said:

Thanks so much Lifeisabeach. I really appreciate your advice, but I don't feel very confident at running the tests myself.

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They are easy to run and foolproof if you decide differently.

As regards the suggestion of the 2nd partition and the installation of OS X from scratch, I was wondering whether it is the same as creating a test user account having no apps or data apart from those already given. I did so a few days ago and the problem was still there, so I assumed the software was safe. Is this correct or not?

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Not the same at all. If you have a buggy/corrupt kernel extension or driver, that's at the system level and will follow all user accounts on that same volume, no matter how newly created it was.

Meanwhile, I've been called back today from the Apple Store. They said they should have replaced the trackpad when they changed the inner cable, so they admitted they made a mistake. They said they will not let me pay for the replacement of the trackpad this time, but I have to visit them again the day after tomorrow in order to get this second repair done. To be honest, I do not know whether I shall trust the diagnosis regarding the trackpad. Shall I ask them to run first the tests you have proposed? Is there anything you would recommend me to ask them before letting them replace the trackpad? Indeed, the trackpad passed their hardware test, so I would ask everything to avoid another wrong diagnosis (and useless repair). Thanks so much!

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They presumably did a hardware test of some sort, perhaps with their own tools. But replacing the trackpad seems reasonable for them to do. We had someone post here recently with similar issues that proved to be a faulty trackpad, if I recall correctly. Actually the problem was he had something resting on his trackpad for his iMac (set aside out of sight and mind) registering a click in-progress, and of course the mouse wouldn't work. A dirty or worn contact in the trackpad would easily do the same.