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Laptop cursor spontaneously jumps & erases; rapid thudding

My MacBook Air early '15 running Catalina is acting like it's possessed. On its own the cursor will start quickly deleting words and data in Pages and Numbers. On websites the page will flash, then be scrolled up and down and then stuck at the bottom. If I click on it, it repeats the process. This happens in Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. Meanwhile, the computer may start a series of quick thuds and won't let me quit anything, force quit, or restart. Rebooting it solves the problem for awhile. I have to hold down the shutdown button for a long time (actually probably 15 seconds or so) before it will shut off. It did a stretch of this for about 5 days 2 months ago and then stopped for some reason. It just started again tonight. I can't find any pattern to when it happens. I did re-install the OS last week because when I called Apple, they said that was the only way to solve the problem of 3rd-party software registered with Apple not opening. Other than that, nothing is different. Is my computer on its last legs?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 5, 2021 10:50 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 5, 2021 11:29 PM

 Hi Kelly Tuesday,

Welcome to the Apple Community where some of us do our best to help each other.


I understand some third-party (non-Apple) apps (like Chrome) do cause some folks on Mac problems.


Apple has a support article with tips to help resolve a "jumpy" cursor. (Click the link below) :


Learn what to do if your pointer jumps, moves unexpectedly, or acts erratically when you use an input device with a touch surface, such as a Mac notebook trackpad, Magic Trackpad, or Magic Mouse.:


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203171


Hope this helps :)

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1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 5, 2021 11:29 PM in response to Kelly Tuesday

 Hi Kelly Tuesday,

Welcome to the Apple Community where some of us do our best to help each other.


I understand some third-party (non-Apple) apps (like Chrome) do cause some folks on Mac problems.


Apple has a support article with tips to help resolve a "jumpy" cursor. (Click the link below) :


Learn what to do if your pointer jumps, moves unexpectedly, or acts erratically when you use an input device with a touch surface, such as a Mac notebook trackpad, Magic Trackpad, or Magic Mouse.:


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203171


Hope this helps :)

Laptop cursor spontaneously jumps & erases; rapid thudding

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