Mouse Freezing and locking the computer

Question

Level 2

189 points

Mouse Freezing and locking the computer

I have searched this forum regarding mouse freezing. Since updating to 10.4.7 I have the mouse freeze sometimes. The only way I have been able to correct is restart the computer from th power button.

After reading the below post I believe what he is saying when a freeze occurs just hit the optiob key 5 times.
1. This seems simple.but what is the computer doing to unfreeze by hitting the option Key?
2. What does he mean by this staement: BTW the 5 hits to the option key... turns the wonderful feature off..... Hope this helps .....

Anyways the next time I get a freeze I will try this. I am under the belief that when the freeze qccurs and you hit the option key 5 times it unlocks the mouse is this correct?

I have been using a kesington 2 button mouse since I had the computer connected via USB

Thank You
Dick
------------------------------------------------------------------

Eddy Acheson1

Posts: 4
Registered: Aug 10, 2005
Re: mouse freezes in Tiger
Posted: Dec 1, 2005 8:38 AM in response to: Eric Alan

Try this:
Hit the option key five times. I am embarressed to say that I had to pay the 49.99 fee to apple to help the tech I was talking to figure this one out. Many months ago I was playing around in Universal Access in the system preference's.
Apparently I had set the mouse to do what it was doing... appearing to freeze, no response, turning into a text curser.... etc... (nice setting....ha...lol). After doing 3 clean installs of tiger, I noticed that one of the installs to an external firewire drive was not exhibiting this behavior. As I was explaining this to the tech, he asked if I had done a clean, archival or save user preference. The light went on, and I climbed under neath my desk so that my family would not see how the redness in my face from anger over the 49.99 fee changed to a different shade of red from embarresment. What I don't understand, is why it started happening all of a sudden. It seems some update/install triggered it........ BTW the 5 hits to the option key... turns the wonderful feature off..... Hope this helps .....

Quicksilver 867 Mac OS X (10.4.3) Report this post

G5 2.5/Superdrive/4 Gig Ram/Two int 250 HD/USB PCI, Mac OS X (10.4.7), imac 2.5 Gig Ram

Posted on Sep 5, 2006 10:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 5, 2006 10:57 AM in response to Dick Lund

It is possible your mouse is defective. Is it a wired mouse or wireless? On older Macs the mouse wires could become frayed at the tail and begin to short out electrically, causing instant feeezing of the system. It usually gets worse every day until smoke comes out of the wires. Don't let it get to that point.

Reply

Answer 2

Dick Lund Author

Level 2

189 points

Sep 5, 2006 11:02 AM in response to Gnarlodious

Hi

I have pulled and tugged on the wire coming from the mouse and there appaers to no problem.

On my post I indicated a usb connection.

i am still interested in the 5 hit option technique.

Dick

Reply

Answer 3

Dick Lund Author

Level 2

189 points

Sep 5, 2006 9:24 PM in response to Dick Lund

Hello

I had the mouse freeze a little while ago and I hit the option key 5 times and nothing happened. I had to power down and restart.

Has anyone used the 5 hit option key with results?

Thank You
Dick

Reply

Answer 4

Sep 6, 2006 6:41 PM in response to Dick Lund

The original Apple Pro mouse cable frays in the chord just as it exits the mouse, over time, and shorts out causing symtoms similar to yours. You can't see the fray by looking at it thru the exterior covering. This can happen to third party mice over time too.

Mine did it. I plugged it into a different port, so the chord exited the mouse in a different direction, and had very few freezes after that. Once I got over my frugalness (cheapness!) I bought a new one. Eventually it got to where I couldn't even work for more then a few minutes without a freeze.

So, try a known good mouse to see if that's the problem.
Don Archibald, a Level 5 here, said the USB ports on the keyboard (for you desktop users) are underpowered and can cause this problem also if the mouse is plugged in there. This can even fry the keyboard sometimes (happened to him). Try plugging your mouse into a port on your monitor or tower.
If you still have trouble post back!

Cheers!
DALE

Reply

Answer 5

Dick Lund Author

Level 2

189 points

Sep 7, 2006 12:54 AM in response to Dale Weisshaar

I talked to Apple support today and he told me he has never heard anything about the option key.

He recommended an archivial and install. i have not done that yet. I will try and use my apple mouse for awhile instead of the kensington. I am running a hardware test now.

Thank you for your response

Dick

Reply

Answer 6

TildeBee

Level 7

31,923 points

Sep 7, 2006 6:57 AM in response to Dick Lund

Dick,
Please do let us know if the apple mouse works better for you.
It could also be the mouse pad . . .

An A&I is not at all indicated at this point.
Good Grief !!

Reply

Answer 7

Dick Lund Author

Level 2

189 points

Sep 7, 2006 8:09 AM in response to TildeBee

Hello

I have switched The mouse from the powermac G5 to the imac of which there is no problem. The imac is only 7 months old and the imac has the factory mouse.

I will give this a few days and will post the results.

Dick

Reply

Answer 8

Dick Lund Author

Level 2

189 points

Sep 16, 2006 1:58 PM in response to Dick Lund

Update

After switching the mice i went until yesterday and when putting the power mac in sleep mode the cursor left the screen and it would not go into sleep mode. I rebotted and switched the mice again to there original computers. i will give this more time.

Dic

Reply