Random black rectangles on the screen

Hi, Gerry.

If you are seeing a black rectangle appearing around interface objects such as buttons, fields, and others this indicates you have enabled VoiceOver. This rectangle is known as the VoiceOver Cursor.

VoiceOver also duplicates certain items in the Apple menu: see "Mac OS X 10.4: Some Apple menu items appear twice."

if you do not need VoiceOver, turn it off using one of the following methods:

• Press Command-F5
• In the System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing tab.

If you need ViceOver but do not want to see the rectangle, deselect VoiceOver Cursor in the Display tab of the VoiceOver Utility. The VoiceOver Utility is located in the Applications > Utilities folder.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Well, that's a poser...

1. Did you still check Zoom per my last post?

2. If you have some personal Web space, take a screen shot showing the rectangles, upload it to your Web space, and post a link to the screen shot here. I think a picture would help...

3. What changes did you make to your Mac before this problem arose?

4. An errant Startup or Login Item maybe the cause. My "Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items" FAQ can help you pin that down if such an item is causing the problem.

5. Describe the display(s) and graphics card(s) in use. Make, model, etc.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

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Hi, Gerry.

OK, this should solve it:

If you see a single black rectangle that follows the mouse around, you have enabled the Preview Rectangle for Zoom. The Preview Rectangle appears if you have the following System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing preferences set:

• Zoom On and...

• ...in the Zoom "Options" sheet:

• "Show preview rectangle when zoomed out..." selected; and

• have set Maximum Zoom anywhere above the minimum setting, i.e. >1.

If Zoom is not required and On is selected, select Off.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Log into another account on the system and see if the black rectangles appear on that account; you can create another account from the Accounts pane of System Preferences if you need to.

If the rectangles don't appear in that account, the problem is with one of the items in your home folder, or in rare cases, a problem with your account's properties in the NetInfo database. In this case, click on the item in the sidebar with the house icon, and drag half of the files from /Library/Preferences/ to the desktop. Repeat the process of moving some of the files to the desktop until you've narrowed down the cause of the problem. If no items in the Preferences folder are responsible, put them all back and repeat with items in other parts of your home folder. A problem with the NetInfo database can be responsible for other types of account-specific issues, but not with the one you are experiencing.

If the rectangles appear in another account, perform an Archive & Install of Mac OS X with the option to save user data checked, and then rerun the updates you've previously applied to the system.

(13154)

System Preferenes->Universal Access->Seeing and deselect VoiceOver.

Hi Gerry,

I had the same problem. I resetted the PRAM twice and since 2 weeks it seems that I solved my problem.
Good luck