Mouse Freeze on logout

lucidalucida
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have 6 G5's with 2 users set up, one is a basic user and one is an Admin.



Every so often when I logout, to change user, the mouse freezes. It's a standard Apple mouse, and this has happened on most of the G5's at some point.



At first I thought is was a system freeze but today i noticed the keyboard is still active. Thus I am able to login, open Terminal and reboot from there.



After reboot everything works OK.



While the mouse was frozen, I plugged it into the USB socket on the G5 but it still didn't work (even though the red light lit up on the mouse).



I don't believe it's hardware, i believe it must be software.



Has anyone else had this problem?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lucida

    ...I don't believe it's hardware, i believe it must be software.

    Has anyone else had this problem?



    If the system becomes somewhat unresponsively while user switching or even logout and in there it is almost always a hefty problem with permissions. Well just a wild shot.



    It is almost impossible to trace it remotely, though, i'd do the following basic housekeeping to see if the problem disappears.



    1. repair permissions (you probably did)



    2. get rid of ALL local AND system cache files, (damaged cache files suck. therefore i use a little freeware app called "maintain". bad UI but good enough for my purposes anyway.



    3. open terminal, type in "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly" hit enter, confirm with admin password, wait (approx. 1-3 minutes, depends) until the process is finished.



    sometimes this is helpfull:

    4. reset PR-RAM

    to do so, reboot, hold the keys CMD, ALT, P, R

    hold the said keys until the computer reboots the second time.



    IF nothing else is helpfull, than:

    5. boot into Open Firmware



    reboot, than hold the keys CMD, ALT, O, F

    don't worry, black letters on white background appear.

    type exactly:



    reset-nvram (HIT RETURN!<-- do not type that)

    set-defaults (HIT RETURN!<-- do not type that)

    reset-all (HIT RETURN!<-- do not type that)



    PERHAPS this is helpfull, btw i don't think it is hardware either.

    Btw2, does this phenomen occurs only when you logout from admin or only from normal user? Or doesn't that matter at all?
  • Reply 2 of 5
    lucidalucida Posts: 104member
    I will try that...





    The problem occurs when i logout of the normal user account, with the intention of logging in as myself (administrator).



    Like i say, the keyboard works, but the mouse is dead - the pointer just stays where it is even when I've logged in.



    This forces me to restart to fix it - embarrasing since I berate everyone else for restarting to often.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lucida

    I will try that...

    ...



    EDIT: Hold on, do you use virex via .mac account? Login problems are a

    known issue here.



    Well, btw, what does the console tell you at all? Especially all the crash reporting logs? Perhaps they give you some hints.



    I am interested in that particular case just because a friend of mine had a similar event. In his case it was not the mouse which refused to work, it was the entire keyboard, the mouse worked, funny...



    The problem occured only by normal users. Fast user switching from normal u to admin u caused hefty crashes, logout/in dito. Loginwindow, securitymanager, windoserver uiserver bloody crashed to hell.



    In his case the fix was pretty easy. He trashed the normal user and created a new one instantly. That simple.



    I know this gives you no clue WHY these things gonna happen on your systems. In his case: he copied and stored all the apps in his own home directory. I wouldn't do that, even some betrusted people say it's safe.



    BTW, do you use shared folder regularly? I have a hunch, it must have something to do with privileges.



    best
  • Reply 4 of 5
    lucidalucida Posts: 104member
    I'll have a look at the logs again, but nothing looks untoward.



    I've repaired permissions and it still happens - occasionally.



    That's the problem, I can't pin it to a particular thing.



    Strange thing is it happens an numerous G5s.



    I don't use virex - all we have in Adobe CS, Suitcase, Quark.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lucida

    I'll have a look at the logs again, but nothing looks untoward.



    I've repaired permissions and it still happens - occasionally.



    That's the problem, I can't pin it to a particular thing.



    Strange thing is it happens an numerous G5s.



    I don't use virex - all we have in Adobe CS, Suitcase, Quark.



    weird ... well ...
Sign In or Register to comment.