mouse cursor changes from arrow to ibeam to hand at will - help please

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Level 2

279 points

mouse cursor changes from arrow to ibeam to hand at will - help please

Suddenly - nothing new has been done by me - my mouse arrow cursor changes at will - it becomes an ibeam or a hand (like the one used when pointing to a link) and then will switch back to an arrow.

I use a Logitech wireless mouse with plugged in USB receiver. I turn the mouse off whenever I stop work. I changed the batteries on the Logitech mouse yesterday and it had no effect.

I tried using the Magic Mouse (which I love, but which has problems of its own - it eats batteries for breakfast and it's not consistently recognized when I wake up the iMac and I have to resort to the Logitech mouse to get going so I rarely use it) to see if it did the same thing and it does.

I am still running 10.6.6 and haven't added any software or done anything strange. I did update Firefox to 9.0.1 a while back, but things were fine a long time after I did that.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Mrs H

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 7, 2012 2:04 PM

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Answer 1

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Feb 7, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Mrs H

OK, if just restarting hasn't fixed it, try doing PRAM and SMC resets. First see if the PRAM reset fixes it, if not then go on to the SMC reset, which is more doubtful as a solution.

PRAM reset: hold CMD-Option-P-R down at startup chime, listen for two more chimes, total three, then let go to finish booting.

SMC reset: shutdown, unplug from mains, leave ten/fifteen minutes, hold in power button for five seconds, connect back to power and restrart.

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Answer 2

Mrs H Author

Level 2

279 points

Feb 8, 2012 2:31 PM in response to WZZZ

Restart didn't fix it, but shutting down and starting up again seems to have done the trick (I think).

I've lost track of what I should be seeing for a mouse cursor after a few days of craziness.

The pointing hand/finger seems now only to appear when it should for a link. The iBeam may be showing up too much still, but mostly now it's the arrow as it should be.

Thanks, as ever,

Mrs H

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