Mac OS X forum: Cursor spontaneously skipping to another location

It's a long trip and I was hoping that It might be something to do firmware that Apple might address, hopefully soon.

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it and if it does get worse, I might have to wind up taking the 1 1/2 hour trip to Tampa.

David

Exactly the same thing is happening to me (MacBook Pro / 10.5.8). When I use the cursor to highlight text to be deleted so that replacement text can be entered, the cursor will suddenly skip for no apparent reason, increasing the highlighted area in the process, and deleting way more than the originally highlighted text. This all happens in an instant. I'm a translator, and if I'm not careful to watch out for this happening I can lose whole chunks of text without realizing. It now means that I have to go over relatively simple translations word by word to make sure nothing was accidentally deleted.

I did take it to the Genius Bar about a month ago. Of course I couldn't get the problem to repeat itself on-site, and when I explained what was happening, I was told they had never heard of such a thing and that it was probably due to a problem between the Mac and Office software. Which would work as an explanation if it hadn't happened occasionally with Mail. This is a real problem professionally and I wish Apple would admit there is a problem, and not just with one computer...

I found this thread through googling because I was so frustrated with this problem today. I came across a bunch of similar problems, but not exactly the same (e.g. happens when the laptop is attached to an external display, cursor skipping randomly over screen whereas mine tends to go up just a few lines, cursor only skipping when airport is searching for a network...). Anyway, I'm going to try getting Apple on the phone this week. The phone techs might have more of an idea than the Genius Bar techs. I will be sure and let you know if anything positive comes out of it. I will also try posting on some of the Mac forums.

You might have set Mouse Keys:
<http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1297>

Does it only happen when you tap on certain keys?

regards,
centurion48