MBP trackpad/mouse issue

[Patriks7]

Hi all.

I have a late 2008 MBP (first unibody I believe) in the family and I have been trying to fix it for the past few hours, but can't wrap my head around the issue.

The laptop has worked without issue for a long time until last night. When it was turned on, the click/tap on the trackpad didn't work. Thinking this might be a problem with the trackpad, I connected a wired mouse to it, but clicking didn't work with that either. So thinking it might be software related, I reinstalled the OS, but the problem still persists. Since then, I have tried to reinstall two OSes (10.10 and 10.11) on two different SSDs and an HDD, but the problem still persists.

I have no idea what else could be the problem and what else I can try. The only thing we can pinpoint to the issue was that Silverlight was installed a few hours before it happened. Until that time, the computer was used pretty much the same on a daily basis (Spotify and Pages).

Would greatly appreciate any help on what to try next.

 

[ab298]

Does it physically click when the computer is shut down ?. If not, it's likely that the battery has swollen enough to affect the trackpad.

There's a setting checkbox : System Preferences - Accessibility - Mouse & Trackpad - Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present

at least that's where it is in Sierra, although it used to be in Universal Access.

If checking that allows the USB mouse to work, you could use that for now, although sometimes the battery can swell quite quickly & enough to damage other components, or even the case.

Trackpad preferences : allow tap to click : might also make it useable in the meantime.

 

[Patriks7]

Does it physically click when the computer is shut down ?. If not, it's likely that the battery has swollen enough to affect the trackpad.

There's a setting checkbox : System Preferences - Accessibility - Mouse & Trackpad - Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present

at least that's where it is in Sierra, although it used to be in Universal Access.

If checking that allows the USB mouse to work, you could use that for now, although sometimes the battery can swell quite quickly & enough to damage other components, or even the case.

Trackpad preferences : allow tap to click : might also make it useable in the meantime.

It clicks physically all the time, and I am trying it with the battery removed (even though it's not swollen at all).

The problem is, I can't click any of the setting checkboxes. The weird thing is that whenever I get it into recovery mode to reinstall the OS, everything works fine. It's once the OS is installed that the issues start (even though sometimes it works in there as well, but after a reboot it will stop working).

I just managed to dig out the original OS disc that came with the Mac (10.5?), so I will try install that and see if it works or not. I honestly have no idea what to associate the issue with anymore.

 

[ab298]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204434#fullkeyboard

although I agree that if it works in Recovery, a hardware problem seems less likely. Have you tested in Safe mode ?

 

[simonsi]

Run etrecheck and check for any conflicting launch agents etc???

 

[Patriks7]

After multiple restores I think I have gotten it to work again. Installing the original OS and then upgrading to the latest one seems to have done the trick. I still have no idea what was causing the trouble, but at least it’s working again...