Cursor Placement Issue on New M1 Air

[Gerridone]

Hi all,

I've just migrated from a 2013 Pro to a new Air M1. I used Migration Assistant to transfer files to the new Air.

I'm having an issue with cursor placement however. The cursor on the screen is not in alignment with its position on a screen -- so if I want to resize a window for instance, the cursor has to be positioned actually outside the window for the cursor to switch to the horizontal resize arrows. See linked video for a visual of the issue:

This issue seems to go away with a reset, but comes back after several minutes and gets increasingly worse. I've tried starting the computer in safe mode and it still happens there. I did a fresh install of Big Sur (version 11.6) and this is still happening.

Any thoughts or other things I might try?

Thanks!

 

[0128672]

I'm assuming the issue is when using the trackpad and not an external mouse. Whenever I see wonky keyboard or trackpad behavior, the first thing I'd check is whether any related Accessibility settings are enabled. When you say it seems to go away with a reset, which reset are you referring to?

 

[usagora]

I'm afraid that it might be a hardware issue with the trackpad, and you may need to simply return the MBA for a new one. I don't believe I've ever heard of this issue before! If you've done a fresh install of Big Sur and tried it in Safe Mode and it still behaves like that, I can't imagine it being a software issue.

EDIT: I did think of one thing you might try, just for curiosity's sake. Try changing the display resolution to the next lower setting and see if the mouse cursor is still behaving the same way.

 

[Gerridone]

Thanks for the thoughts. No unusual accessibility settings and no external mouse (or external device of any kind). I should have written 'restart' instead of 'reset' -- restarting very temporarily fixes the issue.

Interestingly changing the display resolution actually makes the issue much worse! The issue remains worsens further when I change back to a higher resolution..

Perhaps I need to take this back. Really disappointing!

 

[Gerridone]

Ok one more quirk I've just discovered -- moving the cursor to any of the screen's corners seems to temporarily fix the issue. Not really a solution though, but maybe some hint as to what's going on here?

 

[Ray2]

I'd suggest you return it, if possible, or have Apple repair it. The odds of your discovering quirks resulting in a permanent fix is remote.

From my, lately, more frequent visits to the Bar, say as little as possible and let them deal with the entirety of the problem. The current fix for everything including warped bottom cases seems to be go away, wipe the drive and reinstall. Just hand it back to them with a “you do it”. Which means a good backup before you go and a firm statement as to which OS version you want installed. The most current version is not your only choice.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Check a couple more things before returning:

• Does it do this in a new User Account?
• Same behavior after a clean install and not yet migrated?

 

[Gerridone]

Ok, so I've wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Big Sur. (I previously reinstalled the OS but didn't erase the hard drive first.)

This seems to have fixed the issue. I didn't use Migration Assistant this time -- just manually copied the files I wanted to the new Air. So, perhaps something funky happened in the migration the first time. Still disappointing but glad to have fixed the issue.

 

[0128672]

Ok, so I've wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Big Sur. (I previously reinstalled the OS but didn't erase the hard drive first.)

This seems to have fixed the issue. I didn't use Migration Assistant this time -- just manually copied the files I wanted to the new Air. So, perhaps something funky happened in the migration the first time. Still disappointing but glad to have fixed the issue.

Hey, that's great you resolved it with a clean reinstall, and didn't have to take it in or return it. Hope you enjoy it from now on with no issues.