Trackpad no longer hangs

by Volker Weber

Manfred just bought a new MacBook and now he has a lot of questions about Mac OS X. But he also has answers. He has solved the mystery, that some people (like myself) report their trackpad once in a while briefly hangs, while others are unaffected. As it turns out, you just have to disable the "Ignore accidental trackpad input" and all is well. On the iBook I had to use this setting, but on the MacBook I seem to be fine without it.

Tags:

Comments

You are using the two-finger secondary-click trick, though, aren't you? (Just asking because the box is unchecked.)

No, I don't. That requires too much retraining.

Good timing...I was having the same problem! I've also noticed that the mouse button doesn't seem to always respond unless I give it a decent press - can be quite annoying as it doesn't provide a lot of tactile feedback.

OS X is very confusing for those of us living in a Windows world our entire lives...but slowly making some sense of it!

You have to get the convoluted ways of Windows out of your head. Once you do that, things are very easy.

> That requires too much retraining.
No, it doesn't. At least not in a recent study I conducted, using myself as (the one and only) guinea pig. But then, I've been using "sensitive areas" on the touchpad of my iBook all the time, so there wasn't a big change.

My biggest challenge thus far with OS X was working out how to copy the URL for your news feed into NetNewsWire!

Apple should build in a nice training video for Windows converts to ease their pain.

Ok, got home from work and unchecked that box and what do you know, my palms must lightly touch the touchpad as I can't use the machine without it checked.

I also notice that if I set "ignore trackpad when mouse is connected" and operate the machine with a USB mouse and then later remove it, the mouse doesn't work without a reboot.

Ouch!

Re: Copying the URL into NetNewsWire. Go into Safari/Preferences/RSS Tab and select NetNewsWire as your Default RSS Reader. Then, when you visit a website, just click on the blue RSS icon in the address bar and you are subscribed.

Retraining from Windows: There are only a few major differences.

  1. Closing windows does not close applications. Exception: Lotus Notes
  2. Ctrl is replaced my Command (clover, apple)
  3. Right-click becomes ctrl-click
  4. No need to "install" applications. Just drag to Applications folder.

Except I'm using Firefox...but otherwise those tips are REALLY appreciated! Cheers! :)

In that case, I have another tip for you. Don't mock around with other applications until you have mastered those which come with the system. :-)

I've never got on with any trackpad, I always like the nipple types which I've noticed that Apple don't supply hence why I wouldn't consider this notebook.

Ben Rose, 2006-08-01 14:41

@Ben, I too have always had a preference for nipples over trackpads (matron).

However, a couple of years ago I noticed that I was getting really bad pains in my right hand where I was stretching between keys and the nipple in the middle of my StinkPad. I now rarely use the machine like this, and re-trained myself to use a mouse (most of the time) or the optional StinkPad trackpad. It took a little while, but I find now that the trackpad puts less strain on my hand, no more pains.

I was able to switch from the StinkPad trackpoint to the iBook trackpad in no time. The MacBook trackpad is even considerably larger. And compared to the trackpoint both a lot quicker and more precise. Finally it understands more gestures than a trackpoint.

Post a comment











Shall I remember this for you?




Use your full name and a working email address. Unless you want your comment to be removed. No kidding.



Recent comments

Moritz Petersen on Amazing photos - all taken with a mobile phone at 07:56
Martin Hipfinger on I have seen faster at 07:06
Thomas Gumz on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 03:11
Sebastian Herp on Amazing photos - all taken with a mobile phone at 01:02
Armin Roth on From my inbox at 01:01
Volker Weber on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 00:18
Mark Elgar on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 00:04
Volker Weber on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 23:52
Ed Brill on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 23:39
Volker Weber on Google Gears beta for Safari at 22:36
Ben Poole on Google Gears beta for Safari at 22:20
Alexander Kluge on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 21:44
Volker Weber on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 21:24
Martin Christian Kautz on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 21:20
Claurice Jackson on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 20:41
Andy Brunner on How to save half a gig of disk space in a couple of seconds at 19:56
Norlailawati Zain on What's the Notes market share really like? at 19:26
Richard Kaufmann on Department of Homeland Security launches Electronic System for Travel Authorization at 18:35
Lennard Timm on Password not appropriate at 14:37
Adalbert Duda on Password not appropriate at 14:03
Roger Schwarz on Synchronizing iPhone with ... Lotus Notes at 13:57
Ben Rose on Put a Porsche in your driveway at 13:31
Ben Rose on Put a Porsche in your driveway at 13:22
Ben Rose on Zones at 13:10
Nick Daisley on Put a Porsche in your driveway at 13:03

Ceci n'est pas un blog

vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

rss Click here to subscribe

Hello

About me
Contact
Publications
Certificates
Frequently asked questions

Twitter Updates

More >

Poll

Can you bring a camera phone to work?

Getting poll results. Please wait...

Local time is 08:10

visitors.gif
163 visitors online

News

Other sources of news, imported into my own format to make them more accessible:

Heise Online
Schlagzeilen
Weather

Archives

As most of my articles roll off the front page rather quickly, I am making an archive of previous posts available here. You can also use the handy search box at the top of the page if you are looking for something particular.

Last 30 days
More archives

Got the T-shirt?

Got the T-shirt?
Are you buying from the US?

Systems Architecture

This site runs on an Apache web server on top of the Linux operating system. The content is managed with MovableType which is implemented in Perl. Last but not least the HTML code your browser sees is put together with PHP.

© 1992-2008 Volker Weber.
All Rights Reserved.

Impressum