Trackpad on M2 Air acting up

[johnc22]

My wife has an M2 Air from November of 2022. It is a serious disappointment.

1. The screen bezel is cracked under the screen, dead center, away from any stress area. It's just a cosmetic issue at this point.
2. The screen frequently goes black and requires a hard reboot.
3. Now, the trackpad has begun going into periods of phantom clicks. Basically if you rest your finger on the touchpad (because you know, you're using it), it will suddenly begin convulsing with haptic feedback, and if you move the cursor around it will randomly click on things. I've turned off the Force Touch/Haptic Feedback setting but we still feel feedback, especially when the random clicking is going on.

We unfortunately don't have Apple Care (I used my 10 year old still working MBP from 2014 as a reason to pass on it) so all the things wrong with this unit will need to be fixed out of pocket. In fact, it may be worth just scrapping it and buying something different. I'd have a hard time buying a new Mac product at this point.

 

[KPOM]

It sounds like you have a dud. None of my MacBooks have ever acted that way. Did any of this show up when it was under warranty? I’d take it to Apple anyway. Maybe they can run diagnostics and fix it. Even out of pocket it’s still cheaper than replacing it.

 

[johnc22]

A better description of the problem is the computer is acting like I enabled the "hover to click" option, which I don't think there is one. I've turned off "Tap to click" and "Force Click and haptic feedback" but the problem is still there. The only thing I can think to try is a full reinstall but my wife insists it just started doing this out of the blue so I think it is now physically broken....

 

[johnc22]

It sounds like you have a dud. None of my MacBooks have ever acted that way. Did any of this show up when it was under warranty? I’d take it to Apple anyway. Maybe they can run diagnostics and fix it. Even out of pocket it’s still cheaper than replacing it.

Yeah my 2014 MacBook Pro is still working pretty well despite the battery being mostly shot. I don't do anything taxing with it anyway. I was thinking of an M2 or M3 Air to replace it but now not sure. Maybe only the Pros are still robust. I can't see her M2 lasting ten years at this point.

 

[KPOM]

Yeah my 2014 MacBook Pro is still working pretty well despite the battery being mostly shot. I don't do anything taxing with it anyway. I was thinking of an M2 or M3 Air to replace it but now not sure. Maybe only the Pros are still robust. I can't see her M2 lasting ten years at this point.

I had an M2 Air for over 1.5 years that I just replaced with an M3Pro MBP. The Air was solid as a rock. It seems like you just got a dud. ☹️

 

[Bigwaff]

The screen bezel is cracked under the screen, dead center, away from any stress area. It's just a cosmetic issue at this point.

This happened to my wife’s 2020 MBA when something small and hard got captured in between the hinge. When she closed the laptop, it cracked the bezel glass just under the display. Kind of looked like pebble hit a windshield. It was cosmetic but I had it fixed under AC+.

The screen frequently goes black and requires a hard reboot.

Our M2 MBA does the same thing. My research online indicates an issue with a sensor in the display which is used to wake and sleep the computer when the display is shut. If you update to latest Sonoma, there is a software change which will automatically reboot the system when in this black screen state. The sensor is still a problem but at least the hard restarts are no longer necessary. Supposedly there is way to reproduce the problem on demand. People have had their displays replaced after demonstrating the problem to Apple Store staff. I’ll try to find link to thread.

Now, the trackpad has begun going into periods of phantom clicks. Basically if you rest your finger on the touchpad (because you know, you're using it), it will suddenly begin convulsing with haptic feedback, and if you move the cursor around it will randomly click on things.

This could be caused by a swelling battery putting pressure on the trackpad.

Sounds as if you should take your MBA to Apple Store or Authorized Service Provider and have it checked out, especially the trackpad issue.

 

[johnc22]

This happened to my wife’s 2020 MBA when something small and hard got captured in between the hinge. When she closed the laptop, it cracked the bezel glass just under the display. Kind of looked like pebble hit a windshield. It was cosmetic but I had it fixed under AC+.

Our M2 MBA does the same thing. My research online indicates an issue with a sensor in the display which is used to wake and sleep the computer when the display is shut. If you update to latest Sonoma, there is a software change which will automatically reboot the system when in this black screen state. The sensor is still a problem but at least the hard restarts are no longer necessary. Supposedly there is way to reproduce the problem on demand. People have had their displays replaced after demonstrating the problem to Apple Store staff. I’ll try to find link to thread.

This could be caused by a swelling battery putting pressure on the trackpad.

Sounds as if you should take your MBA to Apple Store or Authorized Service Provider and have it checked out, especially the trackpad issue.

I’ve got a Genius Bar appointment tomorrow.

 

[johnc22]

The trackpad issue "resolved itself" after a few hours. I suspect it will return at an inconvenient time but for now we are avoiding taking it in unless the problem returns. I suspect a settings glitch that was resolved by me messing with all the trackpad settings, but I just don't know. The laptop has not been upgraded to Sonoma yet and I'd like to do that but my wife is hesitant to change anything.

 

[arcite]

You really should upgrade to Sonoma. Apple is constantly 'quietly' fixing bugs.