I am cursing my cursor .....

[jenifer north]

Hi My curser has stopped responding when I click it, so I cannot open anything. It moves and will highlight, so I am stuck on my desktop. I have an ancient Macbook 2007, which has never let me down before. Anyone advise me what to do to fix it?

Thanks in hope.

Jeni

 

[keysofanxiety]

Hi My curser has stopped responding when I click it, so I cannot open anything. It moves and will highlight, so I am stuck on my desktop. I have an ancient Macbook 2007, which has never let me down before. Anyone advise me what to do to fix it?

Thanks in hope.

Jeni

If the physical click button isn't working, there's not much that can easily be done to try and fix it. You can try reset PRAM/SMC and keep your fingers crossed, or keep tapping the button in the hope it will suddenly spring into life if that doesn't work.

An immediate workaround would be to enable 'tap to click' in the trackpad settings, so you'll at least be able to single-click by tapping on the trackpad, and right-click by tapping two fingers on the trackpad or holding Ctrl while tapping with one finger. Of course you'll need to plug in an external mouse briefly to enable this functionality.

 

[Fishrrman]

Just some thoughts...

Is the battery original?
If the battery is old, it may be "swelling up" a little, and pressing against the trackpad from the inside.
When this happens, the trackpad may become unresponsive to the touch.

Do you happen to have a USB mouse you could plug in?
Does the cursor behave properly while using the mouse?

At 9 years old, it might be time to start looking around at newer offerings...

 

[jenifer north]

If the physical click button isn't working, there's not much that can easily be done to try and fix it. You can try reset PRAM/SMC and keep your fingers crossed, or keep tapping the button in the hope it will suddenly spring into life if that doesn't work.

An immediate workaround would be to enable 'tap to click' in the trackpad settings, so you'll at least be able to single-click by tapping on the trackpad, and right-click by tapping two fingers on the trackpad or holding Ctrl while tapping with one finger. Of course you'll need to plug in an external mouse briefly to enable this functionality.

If the physical click button isn't working, there's not much that can easily be done to try and fix it. You can try reset PRAM/SMC and keep your fingers crossed, or keep tapping the button in the hope it will suddenly spring into life if that doesn't work.

An immediate workaround would be to enable 'tap to click' in the trackpad settings, so you'll at least be able to single-click by tapping on the trackpad, and right-click by tapping two fingers on the trackpad or holding Ctrl while tapping with one finger. Of course you'll need to plug in an external mouse briefly to enable this functionality.

Hi My curser has stopped responding when I click it, so I cannot open anything. It moves and will highlight, so I am stuck on my desktop. I have an ancient Macbook 2007, which has never let me down before. Anyone advise me what to do to fix it?

Thanks in hope.

Jeni

Thanks for your reply, sorry for slow response - work got in the way. I have since bought a mouse. It seemed to work for a moment, then stopped. I did manage to get into preferences, and the trackpad has tap and click enabled. I got itunes opened then it just froze. C+Alt+Delete opened but did not respond, then froze. So all I can do is power off and try again.

What is PRAM/SMC?

Another reply has mentioned the battery. I took this out over a year ago as I could not get a replacement, and just use the cable. Could this affect it after all this time?

Thanks for your help.

Jeni
[doublepost=1473488204][/doublepost]

Just some thoughts...

Is the battery original?
If the battery is old, it may be "swelling up" a little, and pressing against the trackpad from the inside.
When this happens, the trackpad may become unresponsive to the touch.

Do you happen to have a USB mouse you could plug in?
Does the cursor behave properly while using the mouse?

At 9 years old, it might be time to start looking around at newer offerings...

Thanks for your reply.

I have taken the battery out over a year ago and just use the cable now. I use this Mac for audio books, movies and photos, and this is the first time I have had a problem. I hope it is not terminal. I have a Mac Pro, but use this oldie for 'entertainment' and surfing.

I have now bought a mouse. It worked for a few clicks, but now this is not responding either.

Thank you.

Jeni

 

[KALLT]

MacBooks are not supposed to be used without batteries, especially not for prolonged periods of time. Among other things, they are programmed to throttle the CPU to protect against required shutdowns due to unreliable power state. It is difficult to tell what could be causing your specific problem.

You can find instructions for an SMC reset here: https://support.apple.com/HT201295.

 

[jenifer north]

MacBooks are not supposed to be used without batteries, especially not for prolonged periods of time. Among other things, they are programmed to throttle the CPU to protect against required shutdowns due to unreliable power state. It is difficult to tell what could be causing your specific problem.

You can find instructions for an SMC reset here: https://support.apple.com/HT201295.

[doublepost=1473592873][/doublepost]Thank you for telling me that, I did not know. It seems I have been badly advised in the past about removing the battery when it had expired. I have now found a generic replacement on Amazon Italy. It has mixed reviews, but is mainly positive and the model numbers etc are correct. I will order it this week. Maybe this will 'cure' the problem?

Thank you, and everyone, for taking the trouble to reply. I am grateful.

Jeni

 

[KALLT]

I don’t know whether it will cure this problem, but it would probably be better to have a battery, even if it’s a cheap one.

Just to make this clear: your previous mouse didn’t respond to button clicks, but did respond to dragging and scrolling? The trackpad did work normally, but the programs crashed upon opening? The same with the replacement mouse? This would indicate that something else is causing problems. Which version of OS X are you using? Have you installed any software lately?