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evil_santa

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2003
893
0
London, England
Maybe if the trackpad is stuck 'down' the software prevents other instances of a mouse from clicking too.
.

yes if the trackpad is stuck down you can not click with an external mouse, but when you move the mouse/pointer about you will constantly highlight any text or icons that you pass over,
 

Darth.Titan

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2007
2,905
753
Austin, TX
It sounds to me like your trackpad is essentially permanently down (where you said that the menubar was highlighted and you couldn't click to deselect it). That can happen when a battery swells up, as some do toward the end of their life or because of a catastrophic failure. Try removing the battery and see if the problem goes away.

Either way, it's probably worth a trip to an Apple store after that.

jW

This is where my money's at OP. Remove your battery and see if the situation improves. You probably have a swollen battery.
 

AlphaBob

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
193
0
Rhode Island
wow, lots of paranoia floating round these here parts...its a white macbook running osx version 10.4.11, not 10.3 as was previously stated

Well I owe you an apology then, but given the information that you had put out in your earlier posts, things were not adding up (blutooth, and old OS) -- but it is certainly understandable that you wouldn't know it off the top of your head.

It just doesn't 'feel' like a hardware issue with both the Blutooth and internal pad acting up.

You may want to do the same thing that I did for my white Macbook that was running 10.4.11, and update it to Snow Leopard. It is a $30 update available on Amazon and lots of other places. It will get you onto the most current 10.6 Snow Leopard platform (I don't think Tiger is supported any longer). In my case I chose to do a fresh install (kept nothing from the earlier version), but you may want to do an update. I wouldn't be surprised to find that everything was working fine after that update.
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
wow, lots of paranoia floating round these here parts.

its a white macbook running osx version 10.4.11, not 10.3 as was previously stated (i was going off the top of my head, as i wasn't near the computer itself and don't revise these things.)

if anyone does have some constructive tips, that would be great. it's definately not the battery swell problem (i had that problem before, and just recently bought a new one which is totally fine). the mouse physically clicks fine, but thats about it.

If you recently had your battery swell, perhaps it damaged the trackpad in the process, and before you ask, yes it's possible for the problem not to show itself until now, either because of some additional stimulus or because it simply weakened a mechanism that has now failed.

One thing that might possible reduce the cost to fix the issue: is the wristrest area on your MacBook cracked towards the front edge (and nowhere else)? This was a common problem on those models, and if it is, then Apple will replace that part for free, which includes the trackpad, and would thus fix the issue at no cost to you.

Even if you do have to pay for the repair, however, it's not horribly expensive. As has been said, however, no one can give you a miracle fix. You need to take it in, it is almost certainly a hardware problem.

jW
 

munkery

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2006
2,217
1
wow, lots of paranoia floating round these here parts.

its a white macbook running osx version 10.4.11, not 10.3 as was previously stated (i was going off the top of my head, as i wasn't near the computer itself and don't revise these things.)

if anyone does have some constructive tips, that would be great. it's definately not the battery swell problem (i had that problem before, and just recently bought a new one which is totally fine). the mouse physically clicks fine, but thats about it.

Unplug and shut down.

Remove the battery and let sit 20 minutes.

Hold down power button 10 seconds.

Reinstall the battery.

Power up the machine.

Report back if you still have the issue.

I had a bluetooth crash in an older macbook and this procedure is the only thing that fixed the problem. Maybe this will work for your trackpad issue.
 

larryleveen

macrumors member
Oct 12, 2011
78
17
I recently had a very similar experience when borrowing a friend's MacBook Pro. It turns out that her trackpad's _mechanical_ click was broken, but trackpad tap-click still worked fine. She probably had tap-click turned on as the button was dying, but I had no idea. I was trying to repair disk permissions by mech-clicking scores of times. It eventually worked, but then I noticed tap-click worked 100% fine, so I chalk it up to a broken mechanical button. I hope you can find a way to turn on tap-click in System Prefs, and enjoy restored functionality.

FWIW, I recommend that ALL laptop users leave tap-click enabled in case the mechanical button craps out. Also, using tap-click as much as possible saves wear and tear on the mechanical button. Good luck!
 

CylonGlitch

macrumors 68030
Jul 7, 2009
2,956
268
Nashville
I've had this happen to me several times. Every time it was one of the three mice connected to my MBP (Magic Mouse, Track Pad, or USB mouse) was being pressed by another object that I wasn't paying attention too. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I would bet that something similar is happening or one of them is broken, meaning the click button is continuously reporting a click.

I would disable any mice connected to the machine, if the problem persists I'd open my machine and disconnect the track pad. After that, if it doesn't work it's likely a hardware issue on the mother board and thus returning to Apple to fix the problem would be needed.

Good Luck.
 

richardwh

macrumors newbie
Mar 28, 2013
3
0
In my case it was a swollen battery

I just had this happen to me and thanks to the people on this thread it was indeed a swollen battery pushing against the trackpad causing the trackpad click to be stuck.

I have a 2008 white MacBook where the battery had become swollen. Happened on a warm day in my office which I guess pushed it over the edge.

I removed the battery and ran just off the power supply and the click started to work again.
 

stellawhale

macrumors newbie
Aug 18, 2013
1
0
Thank you!

After leaving the computer in the car on a hot day, my Macbook trackpad was not working, or at best very sporadically working, and when I plugged in a usb mouse it was just the same. I had pretty much given up on the whole thing, thinking I had killed it, when I saw the post to just pop out the battery. In ten seconds my whole problem was solved. Thank you so much!
 

mauriziodececco

macrumors newbie
Aug 30, 2013
27
22
Thanks :->

I've had this happen to me several times. Every time it was one of the three mice connected to my MBP (Magic Mouse, Track Pad, or USB mouse) was being pressed by another object that I wasn't paying attention too. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
...

Good Luck.

This post saved my day. My wife Mac Book Air had a strange behaviour: on startup, it would not get clicks from the trackpad, but movements where ok. OK, i thought, hardware problem, the Mac was recently services for problems on the trackpad. So, i connect an Apple Mouse. No way, no clicks. Put it to sleep and wake up, clicks work again, but randomly stop working. OK then: a software problem: i reboot to the recovery partition to do usual disk maintenance to start with, and *no clicks*. O dear, hardware problem then ? But which one ?
Googled around and found this post. It turn out that my wife had a Magic Trackpad on and paired with the Mac *at the upper floor*, but closer than 10 meters; and somebody put a blanket on the trackpad clicking it permanently down. Removing the blanket solved the problem :->

Thanks pal,
Maurizio
 

CylonGlitch

macrumors 68030
Jul 7, 2009
2,956
268
Nashville
Googled around and found this post. It turn out that my wife had a Magic Trackpad on and paired with the Mac *at the upper floor*, but closer than 10 meters; and somebody put a blanket on the trackpad clicking it permanently down. Removing the blanket solved the problem :->

Glad it helped. Yeah, I've had it mess me up from the other side of the room, but never from a different floor. Wow. I would bet this happens more often than people admit too.
 

LisaJumbie

macrumors newbie
Oct 31, 2013
1
1
Bluetooth Mouse

I had the something similar happen on my machine at the office. I could move my mouse around and see the cursor but the I couldn't click to switch between programs etc. though my keyboard short cuts worked.

It turned out that in my office there were multiple bluetooth accessories paired with various machines, and so my computer was not reading the clicks of my wired mouse but was instead responding to a wireless mouse elsewhere in the office. The person who typically uses that mouse was not in the office so I would not have seen the activity of their mouse on my screen.
 
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Birdbrain11

macrumors newbie
Oct 31, 2013
2
0
Flashback or Military Grade Malware

What a myth that Mac computers are immuned! Flashback infected thousands and there is no defense for Military or Police Malware...criminals has gotten smarter! Now today I received a warning about MAL:URL.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,539
941
What a myth that Mac computers are immuned! Flashback infected thousands and there is no defense for Military or Police Malware...criminals has gotten smarter! Now today I received a warning about MAL:URL.
No one is saying that OS X is immune. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below), including the flashback Trojan, which only affected about 1% of all Mac users. 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.
Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.
 

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Sep 15, 2006
4,753
1,450
New York City, NY
@ Birbrain11:

Yep, what GGJstudios said is absolutely correct. No anti-virus app can protect people from their own stupidity/carelessness/foolishness which is what trojans prey on.
 

ndrdd23

macrumors newbie
Nov 18, 2013
1
0
:confused:hi i'm having the same problem but my issue is on a mac mini 2011 edition and everything everything that was in this forum i'm having the same issue i replied cause i think someone did not answer the problem him and others like us are having so the mac mini i have you can see the mouse cursor when you move it around i can hover over logos on the mac it will zoom in but will not respond if i were to click on any of the software i did all the Hold control + option + P + R and restart the machine step but nothing happen i was able to go to the screen were it says like backup and restore , disk utility etc but it would not respond if i clicked on any programs that was listed so that not everything but i think by now you can tell the issues i'm having if you need a more detailed information on the mac mini just reply but yes i only replied to this forum just to see if the person who knows about this issue can help me fix this and this kind of affects our judgement towards a apple product since this is our first apple mac mini coming from the windows os our meaning my brother and i and also this mac mini is mostly used for music so it has not been abused by downloading suspicious/unknown software so if you guys any of you who have had this actual issue if you could help that would be the best thanks oh and sorry for my spelling if it's bad
 

dannynjoni

macrumors regular
Oct 14, 2010
211
136
Thanks :->



This post saved my day. My wife Mac Book Air had a strange behaviour: on startup, it would not get clicks from the trackpad, but movements where ok. OK, i thought, hardware problem, the Mac was recently services for problems on the trackpad. So, i connect an Apple Mouse. No way, no clicks. Put it to sleep and wake up, clicks work again, but randomly stop working. OK then: a software problem: i reboot to the recovery partition to do usual disk maintenance to start with, and *no clicks*. O dear, hardware problem then ? But which one ?
Googled around and found this post. It turn out that my wife had a Magic Trackpad on and paired with the Mac *at the upper floor*, but closer than 10 meters; and somebody put a blanket on the trackpad clicking it permanently down. Removing the blanket solved the problem :->

Thanks pal,
Maurizio


I know this thread is really old but I was having this problem and was certain I had a hardware issue. Could not figure it out for hours! Then, I read this post and "tracked" down the problem. LOL!! Had a cleaning cloth and note pad sitting on top of a Magic Mouse in one of the rooms of our house! Man did I feel dumb. Would have taken days and likely a (useless) reinstall of OSX if I hadn't seen your post so thanks all!
 

mkelly

Cancelled
Nov 29, 2007
207
218
Hi all,
I have what I think is a virus on my macbook. Simply, I can't click on anything. The keyboard works, the trackpad works, but it won't allow me to click anything.

EDIT: Next time I'll check the date on the original post ;-) But leaving the following here in case anyone else runs into this in the future.

100% certainty that this isn't "a virus" (as others have said, but one can't say it enough... too much misinformation out there about what viruses are and what they do).

I used to repair Apple hardware. I've seen something like this once before - it was the trackpad at fault. The trackpad still physically clicked, however the *microswitch" inside the trackpad that actually registered clicks was broken/stuck and constantly informed the OS that it was "on", thereby making it impossible to actually click anything, even with an external mouse.

One possible way to test this theory:

There's an option in System Preferences to disable the trackpad when an external mouse is plugged in - but of course you can't set it because you can't click, right? Well, if your keyboard works you can resort to changing the setting via the command line:

1. Boot up your Mac.
2. Once your Desktop appears, hit Command & Spacebar together to open a Spotlight Search window
3. Type "Terminal" and hit enter.

A terminal window with command prompt should appear. You can use this to set preferences directly from the command line. In the window, at the $ prompt, type:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.ignoreTrackpadIfMousePresent 1

You should get a $ prompt back without any error message. Now plug in your external mouse and see if you can click (as any input from the trackpad should be ignored at this point).

If it works, then you know what the problem is - spurious signals from a flakey microswitch on the trackpad are causing you issues. If you still can't click, then try restarting your machine (I believe the setting takes effect immediately but a restart might be worth a try).

If you want to switch things back to the previous behaviour, just follow the above steps but set com.apple.mouse.ignoreTrackpadIfMousePresent to 0 instead of 1, eg:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.ignoreTrackpadIfMousePresent 0

Hope that helps.
 
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