Not sure if this is where I should be posting this, but I couldn't find a more appropriate heading. I have a couple year old iMac running OS X 10.2.8. Just yesterday I was surfing the web and all of a sudden my mouse pointer got stuck in the upper left hand corner of the screen, and I haven't been able to move it since. I have tried new known good mice and a new keyboard...neither had any effect. I also tried clearing the PRAM and running disk utilities from my install disk. The pointer is still stuck and I'm not sure what else to try?
Try this:
• Shut down computer
• Hit Power key
• Immediately after chime hold down Shift key and allow computer to
start up in Safe Mode • Log in
• Empty Trash
• Restart normally and log in.
Try this:
• Shut down computer
• Hit Power key
• Immediately after chime hold down Shift key and allow computer to
start up in Safe Mode • Log in
• Empty Trash
• Restart normally and log in.
If that doesn't help, you should use the instructions, in this
KB Article, to
Reset The PRAM.
"1. Shut down the computer. 2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4. 3. Turn on the computer. 4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears. 5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time. 6. Release the keys."
I've seen that problem when USB mice were attached to an unpowered or underpowered hub. Try removing all USB peripherals except the mouse and keyboard and see if things improve.
This article has some troubleshooting tips and a link to another articel on USB issues.
Cornelius,
Thanks for the reply, but when I boot into safe mode and try and empty the trash, I am not able to. I get an error "The operation could not be completed because the item 'Starting Points' is locked."
It also says I have over 25,000 items in the trash, which I find a little hard to believe. Any idea whats going on here?
Are you able to open the
Trash, and view it's contents?
If so, are the items individual files, or are there system folders there?
I don't know if it will do any good, but are you able to run
Repair Disk?
THESE ARE THE STEPS FOR USING DISK UTILITY TO REPAIR YOUR HD 1.Insert the System Install disk, Mac OS X CD-ROM disk, or Restore DVD disk, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
Use the System disk, of the OS, that is currently installed.
2.Once started up from CD or DVD, on the
Menubar at the top of the screen, choose
Disk Utility from the
Installer contextual menu.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility.
3.Click the First Aid tab.
4.Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5.Select your Mac OS X volume, if necessary.
6.Click Repair. If DU reports errors it has fixed, re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
7.Repeat steps 5 & 6, but select the Hard Drive this time. It's usually the first listed with the manufacturer's model number. Make note of the S.M.A.R.T. status.
8.When finished, select Quit Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
9.Select Quit Installer from the Installer menu.
10.In the resulting pop-up window, choose restart.
11.After the computer has restarted, you can eject the CD.
I can open the trash, but can't see much, the windows is small and I can't really navigate well with the keyboard in OS X. I also tried booting from my install CD but it is just sitting at the gray apple screen with the spinning gear, has been for about 10 minutes now. How long should it take?
Booting into Safe Mode sometimes takes a while, as you found out. Where all the Trash came from, I do not know. I know that in Tiger it clears out the User Font cache, and other caches, temporary items etc. But to have as many things in Trash as you have is unusual.
Question about when you were booted in Safe Mode: was the mouse operational, or was it still frozen?
In terms of booting from the OS X install disk, ten minutes is a bit long, although with the issues you are experiencing, I can't say.
Do you have an up-to-date backup of your data. Even if you are considering an Archive and Install, I would want to be sure you have your stuff backed up. Indeed, with the issues you are experiencing I would not recommend an Archive and Install as I would be concerned of perpetuating some of the issues. When you are ready I would suggest a complete reformat, erase, install and restore.
Yeah, thanks for reminding me, I've been meaning to post how I fixed it:
After I was completely unable to boot from CD, I figured it must have been some hardware problem. I ended up putting a new hard drive in and was again able to boot from CD. After that just I did a OS X install and moved my data from the old drive.
Not sure why the drive would have caused those problems but it did. Thanks to all who tried to help!
It's possible that the original drive was just too full.
That may explain, the mysterious items that were moved to the
Trash.
The drive had no other place to put them.
A startup drive, with not enough available space, can cause a myriad of problems.
Depending on how the
Mac is used, it is a general recommendation, to keep 10%, to as much as 20%, available at all times.