Chosen Solution
Some time ago this computer started exhibiting erratic behavior related to the cursor/trackpad: unresponsive to inputs; cursor jumping around on screen; phantom clicks. My wife took it the Apple store and they claimed to be unable to identify any fault. (Amazing.) The first thing I did was a full wipe and OS install. That didn’t change anything. Then I did some experimenting and found that the problem would only kick in once the battery had reached around 35% charge. I took this to mean that it was a swelling issue (a commonly reported cause) and a new battery would fix the problem. So before buying one, I swapped in a compatible battery from another MBA and, though things worked fine at first, eventually the problem returned. I’m now at a bit of a loss. I could buy a replacement trackpad, but who knows if that would work. Also, why would things be fine even with the old battery at a low charge, but not at a higher one and not with a separate battery altogether (that donor MBA, by the way, was always functioning fine)?
I ran into this one a couple of weeks ago and it sure had me scratching my head. I ran Symantec Endpoint Protection on it, removed the viruses and the issues stopped.
Hey BRADPETIT That is a weird behavior that you are experiencing, make sure to start you have no bluetooth mouses, corded mouses, or wireless USB mouses connected to the MacBook. If you are using the onboard trackpad, open “System Preferences” and check the trackpad behaviors to see if it could be one of those. If everything seems to be ok. You could try to reseat the connector for the trackpad. For MacBook Air models it looks like a cable very similar to the battery connector, that is seated right above the trackpad frame. You should also check to verify that there is no debris, obstruction, water damage, and or scratches on the trackpad. By reseating the cable, this to a point resets the hardware and may solve your problem. I doubt this issue is anything related to software, especially after you said you reinstalled macOS. You can try another trackpad from your donor MacBook just to see what happens. If you still encounter the error it probably would be best to replace the trackpad altogether. Good Luck!
