strange times indeed

Monday night: While in Word, mouse cursor disappears, and keyboard becomes unresponsive*. Had to hard boot by pressing and holding down power button. Never a good way to power a computer down.

Tuesday: more and more erratic behaviour. Keystrokes repeating and mouse focus disappearing. I am freaking out, because the solution to the problem (which is not entirely uncommon with this model of MacBook Pro) described seems to universally be a new top case. As in, the top half of the computer. As in, $300 or so. I am 6 months out of warranty, and pretty damned broke at the moment.

(Mind you, Avery the Mac wizard said he has a top case that's a bit beat up, and that would have made a dandy test... and while I would have gratefully accepted the help, that would have meant a trackpad with the edges curling up...)

Wednesday morning: More really wonky behaviour, culminating in a Finder window opening when I click on the Mail icon in the Dock. That was not okay. I leave for work; upon further reflection, I become concerned that this might be exacerbated by the heat, so I send a message once at work to ask someone to shut down my computer, which janabard does for me. I'm feeling despondent and generally upset that I might have to resort to an external keyboard and mouse when I've become completely addicted to trackpad gestures.

And then, while researching during lunch at work?

I find this.

<cue choirs of angels>

Solution is to wedge a piece of paper between the trackpad cable and the battery to increase the pressure on the cable that's bowing up. The ultimate in low-tech.

After I took out the battery (which is situated right beneath the trackpad), I ran my finger along the cable and I swear I heard a tiny little click. That might have been enough to solve the problem, but I stuck the paper in there anyway just to be safe. And put a tiny piece of tape on it so it doesn't move.

Keyboard and trackpad are working like a charm now without a lick of trouble. And I am relieved beyond measure! \o/

(* = If I'd been thinking I would have tried the pen tablet i.e. externally connected by USB.)

i just pulled a cat's worth of fur out of my laptop keyboard. :P

The delete key, shift key, and forward slash/question mark key were all acting up. All on the right side. All where little Nefret had partially tried to curl up and go to sleep on on. So I turned off the computer, pulled the keyboard off, detached it from the motherboard and proceeded to run a pin between the keys.

YUCK. If I'd had canned air I'd've used it.

I had been leaving the laptop lid up because the video cables running through the hinges were loosening and causing weird visual effects if I opened and closed it frequently. I may have to rethink this strategy.

Aside: does anyone know if those self-same cables might cause a side of the laptop screen to tinge pink upon waking from screensaver? It quickly fades but it's concerning me that it might not fade in the future.