Faulty Trackpad Buttons on new Apple Powerbooks

I purchased a new 15″ Apple Aluminum Powerbook dual-layer SuperDrive last week and am terribly disappointed with the trackpad button on it. It misses clicks and stutters when holding it down. Searching Apple support discussions and Googling the problem proves the issue is widespread and well-known.

It’s pointless to whine about how disappointing it is to spend $2100 on a new Apple PowerBook only to discover it has manufacturing and design problems — and is essentially unusable as is — which Apple is not admitting to. In addition to the faulty trackpad button, my PowerBook 15″ widescreen arrived with a dead battery which refuses to charge. I’ve lost the better part of a week of work researching these issues, looking for answers and sitting in telephone support queues answering the same troubleshooting questions over and over. (My favorite one came tonight when — knowing the battery was dead from day one — he asked, “were you plugged into A/C power when you reset the trackpad?”) I can’t afford to wait three or more days on having this brand new computer in the repair shop, plus the time on either end synchronizing my work environment to and from lesser spare computers. If you receive a defective computer out of the box, the manufacturer should stand behind it and send a replacement. I don’t mind replacing the battery myself, but I’m not willing to send this thing in for repairs.

I’m documenting my problems here to help others with similar problems and to keep a fire lit under Apple. Please add your voice to the complaints if you’re experiencing these trackpad button problems. Here’s what you should do:

1. Start a topic or respond to a relevant topic at Apple Support Discussions; you can search for related problems with this link; or view the thread where I posted my experiences.
2. Use the Apple Feedback form
3. Call Apple’s Support line at 1-800-275-2273 in the USA (for international numbers see Apple’s web site). Tell them about your problems and be prepared to read them the URLs and descriptions of other people’s complaints within the discussion boards, on Macintouch, and point them to this web page where I’m compiling a list of all these various complaints.
4. Add a comment to this blog post and include the following information:
   • Your Description of the problem
   • Your PowerBook Model (be detailed)
   • How long after purchase you noticed the problem and how long it’s been going onK
   • previous efforts you’ve tried at resolving the problem (e.g., had trackpad unit replaced, etc.)

My Faulty PowerBook Trackpad Experiences

1. Clicks are sometimes missed if I fail to be agressive in pressing the trackpad button down (the button will go down far enough to make a definite tactile click under my thumb, but the on-screen item is not clicked).
2. I have trouble controlling the dragging of objects — icons, selecting text, and especially resizing windows; I’ll “grab” ahold of an object (button clicked down) and start moving the pointer and object across the screen, then control of the object is lost and a click is registered usually in a background window. After days of extensive testing with the trackpad button, I’ve concluded that unless I click with my left hand and apply very strong and constant pressure while moving the pointer around with a finger on my right hand, the mouse flakes out.
3. The trackpad button definitely doesn’t make steady connections to the contact(s) under the button, so any slight variation in the pressure on it causes unexpected behavior.
4. Clicking a single time on an object often results in multiple clicks

While I hope that Apple will finally address this problem publicly, I certainly don’t look forward to having my primary work machine gone for four days being repaired. But having a properly working pointer device is a must. Wake up Apple, you’re pissing off a lot of customers who spent large sums of money on your hardware. Do the right thing and do it quickly.

I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who had this problem and sent their powerbook in for repairs and found that it fixed the problem. I dread the thought of sending the machine in only to find it’s not fixed when it returns and having to waste yet more days trying to get it fixed. I wish I had an Apple Store closer to me so I could talk to someone there about it.

PowerBook Trackpad Button Complaints

What follows is a partial list of complaints around the net selected for their ability to describe the problem from a variety of perspectives.

From Macintouch
Mike Kobb Macintouch Powerbook G4 (part 37)
Third (and perhaps most irritating), the mouse button does not work dependably. I would characterize its behavior as a lack of acceptable hysteresis. By this I mean that with a mouse button, when the switch “clicks” mechanically into the down position, a click event should be sent to the OS. When releasing pressure, the mouse UP event should not be sent to the OS until most of the pressure on the switch has been released (ideally, when it clicks into the “up” position). So, different mechanical positions should generate the up and down events.
This is not the case with this mouse button. If I press the button and it “clicks” mechanically, that click doesn’t always make it to the OS. Worse, a mouse UP will be sent occasionally when only a small amount of pressure is released. (The “down” problem is rare, but the up problem is 100% reproducible and demonstrable.)

Chico Woodhill writes
I’ve discovered that the physical click of the trackpad button doesn’t always create a solid electrical connection. This makes it appear less sensitive and more flakey. On my unit, I can press the trackpad button lightly enough so that there is a “click”, but it’s not always hard enough to cause an actual event to occur.

Furthermore, without using extreme pressure during a drag or scroll, the electrical connection may “stutter” (even though the physical click has not been released), causing a file to be accidentally dropped into a wrong folder, or a background application inadvertently brought forward, or worse.

I find this horribly annoying. I’ve had six PowerBooks since the PowerBook 100, and I can definitely state that my new PowerBook G4 15″ has a dysfunctional trackpad.

I called Apple Support, and they sympathized but said if I sent it in and the technician couldn’t easily reproduce the problem I described, it would be sent back unrepaired. Great.

I sure hope Apple admits these new trackpads are faulty and replaces them. I’ve already dissuaded two potential purchasers from buying until this issue is resolved.

Rufus Putnam
I’m frustrated with the same trackpad button problems. I took my new PowerBook 15″ to the local Apple store, and the Genius was skeptical at first. Then I watched him grab a window and try to move it elsewhere on the desktop. The only thing that happened was that he selected a nearby area of the desktop.

I pointed out that he hadn’t missed the window bar, but that the trackpad button hadn’t made electrical contact (despite “clicking”) until he was well into his drag. We were then able to duplicate the problem several times. He said he could order a new trackpad and have it installed at the store. The only problem was what if the trackpad he ordered wasn’t a revised hardware version? I’d have the same problem.

In the end I decided to wait until the discussion boards indicate that Apple has got their trackpad problems under control. I’ll use an external mouse until then.

He wrote a note on the back of his business card to indicate that he’d observed the problem and said I could come in anytime to have the work done.

By the way: I tried the trackpads on the in-store 15″ and 17″ models. The 17″ felt MUCH better, more like it should, not mushy like the 15″ model. Unfortunately, it’s a different size and therefore not a direct replacement.

Tom Cunningham
I visited the Apple Store in Milwaukee to evaluate the new PowerBooks last month. The trackpad on their demo was generally unacceptable. It was hard to operate and cursor movement was jerky. Since I have followed the issue on the discussion threads and the problem seems to be quite common. I would order one of the PowerBooks today if I didn’t think that I would be initiating an exercise in sweat with Apple over a faulty $3000.00 purchase. Can anyone get to the bottom of this issue?

Tim Hansen writes
The Trackpad Button on my 2 week old 15″ PowerBook often fails to make contact. It almost acts like there is a short between the button and the system. Dragging a window around is an exercise in futility.

Ed Ludwig
This is a response to the complaints regarding the new 15in PowerBook G4 trackpads. I received my Build To Order PowerBook about two weeks ago from Apple and the machine was perfect except for the trackpad button. The button was not making electrical connection consistently and was very difficult to push down, especially in the middle. It did not feel at all like any other Apple trackpad that I had used up until this point.

I took it to one of the Genius’ at the Short Hills, NJ store and he verified that the button was bad. They ordered a replacement and did it overnight (I picked up ProCare while I was there as insurance for the year).

The replacement works fine. A warning though: these trackpads are definitely of a different order than the old style ones and are going to require a bit of adjusting to. The button on this one has a louder “click” than the older models and the pad doesn’t respond quite as easily to a soft touch. It feels quite solid and the 2 finger stuff works beautifully, however. Overall, I am very pleased with the machine.

Apple battling scrolling TrackPad woes
[…] the new Apple laptops made their debut with a proprietary TrackPad solution, which the Mac maker internally sourced. But was it the right move to go it alone on the new TrackPad design? That’s the question Apple insiders are left to ponder as the company’s first PowerBook woes of the new year have surfaced.

In short, the performance of Apple’s new patent-pending scrolling TrackPads, which lets users scroll through large documents by touching the pad with two fingers instead of one, has been inconsistent and unacceptable to some early adopters. Reports vary, but the most prominent issue appears to be random and erratic behavior of the TrackPads on the new 12 and 15-inch PowerBooks. A variety of other complaints include irritably slow mouse tracking, customers receiving shocks from the PowerBooks due to static electricity and TrackPads failing to respond at all for short periods of time.

MacInTouch, a website which documents customer experiences with new Apple products, has been compiling reports from consumers dissatisfied with the new TrackPads. “I’ve had six PowerBooks since the PowerBook 100, and I can definitely state that my new PowerBook G4 15″ has a dysfunctional trackpad,” said one of the sites readers. Another reader complained that even after her new PowerBook had been in Apple’s repair depot for two weeks it returned with a TrackPad that freezes or is ‘extremely slow.’

According to sources, the fury of reports has caused concern for Apple, which earlier this week reportedly published an alert bulletin to its retail stores detailing the problem, but asking employees not to acknowledge the issues to customers. Sources said Apple is attempting to isolate and correct problems with the new TrackPad by pulling back some PowerBook models, which has constrained supplies of the laptops at retail stores that would normally be working off 25 days of inventory at this time of year.

Links to other “New PowerBook TrackPad Problems”

• MacObserver Apple Acknowledges Trackpad Woes on New PowerBooks
• MacFixit has several special reports on the Faulty Trackpad Issues but it requires a subscription to view them.
• Apple Discussions: Trackpad Button Not Working Properly
• Apple Discussions: Trackpad Button Requires Hard Push to Respond
• Apple Discussions: Flaky Trackpad Button on Hi-Res G4 17″ Powerbook
• Apple Discussions: trackpad problems on new PB G4 (dual-layer SuperDrive)
• Macintouch Powerbook G4 (part 37)
• Troubleshooting trackpad issues (Apple Article)
• Scrolling Trackpad Of DOOM

This entry was posted on Monday, December 12th, 2005 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Apple Computer, Acme Technologies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. | Permalink