Irritating behaviour

Question

Irritating behaviour

I have a late-2012 Mac mini with Mojave (10.14.6). This is a very naive question, but it is about a behaviour that is intensely irritating and time-wasting.

If, while I am working, I accidentally allow the cursor to stray up into the area of the screen near the tool-bar, the screen goes light grey and the computer freezes. Until recently (and if my memory does not deceive me), as soon as I moved the cursor back into the working area, the screen became bright again and the computer came to life again. Now, the screen remains grey and the computer unresponsive until I click the mouse-button again.

In the scale of problems, this is not really serious; but it is irritating and time-wasting.

Am I right in thinking that this is a relatively new behaviour? Perhaps since an update? Is there any way of reverting to the old behaviour? I should be grateful for advice.

Posted on Dec 11, 2021 9:40 AM

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Answer 1

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den.thed

Level 9

77,218 points

Dec 11, 2021 3:46 PM in response to Michael Graubart

Uncheck the other boxes if you are not using those functions

and review your Accessibility > Display preference.

If that doesn't help,

I would try Safe Mode followed by a normal restart

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

and then resetting the NVRAM.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 9

77,218 points

Dec 11, 2021 10:44 AM in response to Michael Graubart

If it is happening near a top corner?

I would go to Apple > System Preferences > Mission Control > select Hot Corners and check to see if you have a corner setup to one of the Active Screen Corner functions.

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Answer 3

Dec 11, 2021 1:22 PM in response to den.thed

Thank you for that reply. Under Mission Control, no Active Corners are set up, and in fact my 'irritating behaviour' happens anywhere along the top edge of the screen. I attach a screen-shot of the Mission Control (System Preferences) window.n.

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Answer 4

Dec 12, 2021 11:31 AM in response to den.thed

Thank you very much. I tried starting in Safe Mode, but my Mac would not comply. That's another story, I suppose. But in Syst.Prefs/Mission Control I found two secondary shortcuts for starting and stopping the screen-saver, so I disabled those — and the problem is solved! Thank you again.

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Answer 5

Dec 15, 2021 10:03 AM in response to den.thed

This is getting very confusing! Today it was behaving irritatingly. I then had occasion to shut the computer down and restart it — no change. However, later in the day I restarted the computer yet again, and this time the irritating behaviour had gone.

I am logged. in as Admin., and I haven't got any cleaning or optimizing apps that would start up without my starting them.

Thanks. very much for continuing to engage with this — now not only irritating behaviour, but inconsistent, too.

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Answer 6

Dec 15, 2021 10:46 AM in response to den.thed

Thanks very much yet once more. I shall wait and see how the Mac behaves in the next few days. At the moment it is behaving well. If it misbehaves again, I shall take your advice and re-instal Mojave. I can't upgrade because Photoshop, installed on my Mac, would then misbehave; and I don't do enough photographic work to make it worth my while to subscribe to Photoshop online. Caught in the middle!

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Answer 7

Dec 15, 2021 1:38 PM in response to den.thed

Well, things got worse. A new phenomenon appeared: all folders and apps are locked up immediately upon starting up. When I restarted the Mac repeatedly, two times out of three — perhaps even 3 times out of 4 — everything was locked up like that. Just occasionally folders and apps were accessible and working. So in the end I took your advice and downloaded and installed a new copy of Mojave over my old one.

I am holding my breath: folders and apps are working normally and the 'irritating behaviour' is not manifesting itself. Will this happy state of affairs last? Time will tell.

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Answer 8

Dec 16, 2021 7:12 AM in response to Michael Graubart

Time did indeed tell. The faults — both the grey screen and folders and apps being locked on start-up — reappeared. So reinstalling Mojave had not done the trick. Then it dawned on me: I deleted AccessMenubarApps.app, and I do believe both problems really are now cured. I hope this saga may be of use to others, too.

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