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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Dead Mouse...
longston - Dec 4, 2005 - 3:17 pm
Hi,
Well, it's a Kensington Orbit trackball actually, and it's not dead, just in a coma when I startup from my secondary drive.
I'm using this Kensington Orbit trackball on my G4 450DP, running OS X 10.2.8. It works fine on my main drive, and was working on the secondary, but then stopped working after I allowed Mac Software Update to download and install software updates to that drive.
These two hard drives are identical Seagate 40Gb IDE drives. The primary was a clean blank formatted drive that I installed OS 9.2.2 and OSX 10.2.8 on and then added the Apple software updates, Kensington software, and installed Firefox. I have had no problems with it. The secondary is a drive I got from another user with OS 9.2.2 and 10.2.8 already installed on it along with a bunch of other software and left behind files. It hadn't been booted from in over a year, so that's where the updater came into the picture.
I was getting ready to go do an errand, and had just booted the computer from the secondary drive using the startup disk "control panel". The trackball was being naturally sluggish, as I hadn't installed the kensington driver on that drive as yet, but it was working. After loading and booting to the desktop, I got the screen from Software Update stating that there were several updates available, so I clicked on install, and left to do my errands. I have no idea what got updated.
When I got back, the desktop was clear (except for drivr icons), and the pointer was at the upper left corner of the screen. There was no response from the trackball, so I restarted the computer, but afterwards there was still no change.
When I restrted again and zapped the PRAM, it just reverted to the main drive, so I had to reselect the secondary as the start up disk, and reboot. Still no response from the trackball. I also tried starting in safe mode, and that didn't help either. I even tried running the disk utility, and the fsck command starting up under single user mode, but both utilities show the drive as "OK" with no problems.
I even tried to use keystrokes in lieu of the non-working trackball in order to manipulate the files and get the Kensington MouseWorks software to install, but whenever I select the .dmg file to open the install program, it starts to unpack, and then fizzles out after showing a message about looking for the copy helper. While trying that, I was able to install Flash Player 8 for OSX using this method (an experiment to assure that keyboarding an install would work).
The only other clue to this issue is that the drives appear on the desktop as folders when I boot to the secondary drive, but I have drive icons on the primary's desktop.
I had a similar problem with my son's 333Mhz iMac, running OS X 1.2. He also has an identical Orbit trackball. It was working sluggishly as they do before installing the Kensington drivers, so I installed the Kensington software. After installation, the software showed a message indicating that no Kensington pointing device could be found. I changed USB ports, trackballs, and reinstalled the software, but there was no change. When I ran Software Update on his machine, and the OS was updated from 10.2 to 10.2.8, the mouse went rigor mortis, and no pointing device (including the original mouse) would work in any USB port.
To solve the problem, I just used keystrokes to access and reinstall the MouseWorks software on his iMac, and the Orbit then worked flawlessly.
I already searched the FAQ's on macosx.com, and couldn't find anything that was relative to this problem. I'm about to try doing a reinstall of OS X from the original CD, but I wanted to see if you had any other suggestions before I go back to square one.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
Well, it's a Kensington Orbit trackball actually, and it's not dead, just in a coma when I startup from my secondary drive.
I'm using this Kensington Orbit trackball on my G4 450DP, running OS X 10.2.8. It works fine on my main drive, and was working on the secondary, but then stopped working after I allowed Mac Software Update to download and install software updates to that drive.
These two hard drives are identical Seagate 40Gb IDE drives. The primary was a clean blank formatted drive that I installed OS 9.2.2 and OSX 10.2.8 on and then added the Apple software updates, Kensington software, and installed Firefox. I have had no problems with it. The secondary is a drive I got from another user with OS 9.2.2 and 10.2.8 already installed on it along with a bunch of other software and left behind files. It hadn't been booted from in over a year, so that's where the updater came into the picture.
I was getting ready to go do an errand, and had just booted the computer from the secondary drive using the startup disk "control panel". The trackball was being naturally sluggish, as I hadn't installed the kensington driver on that drive as yet, but it was working. After loading and booting to the desktop, I got the screen from Software Update stating that there were several updates available, so I clicked on install, and left to do my errands. I have no idea what got updated.
When I got back, the desktop was clear (except for drivr icons), and the pointer was at the upper left corner of the screen. There was no response from the trackball, so I restarted the computer, but afterwards there was still no change.
When I restrted again and zapped the PRAM, it just reverted to the main drive, so I had to reselect the secondary as the start up disk, and reboot. Still no response from the trackball. I also tried starting in safe mode, and that didn't help either. I even tried running the disk utility, and the fsck command starting up under single user mode, but both utilities show the drive as "OK" with no problems.
I even tried to use keystrokes in lieu of the non-working trackball in order to manipulate the files and get the Kensington MouseWorks software to install, but whenever I select the .dmg file to open the install program, it starts to unpack, and then fizzles out after showing a message about looking for the copy helper. While trying that, I was able to install Flash Player 8 for OSX using this method (an experiment to assure that keyboarding an install would work).
The only other clue to this issue is that the drives appear on the desktop as folders when I boot to the secondary drive, but I have drive icons on the primary's desktop.
I had a similar problem with my son's 333Mhz iMac, running OS X 1.2. He also has an identical Orbit trackball. It was working sluggishly as they do before installing the Kensington drivers, so I installed the Kensington software. After installation, the software showed a message indicating that no Kensington pointing device could be found. I changed USB ports, trackballs, and reinstalled the software, but there was no change. When I ran Software Update on his machine, and the OS was updated from 10.2 to 10.2.8, the mouse went rigor mortis, and no pointing device (including the original mouse) would work in any USB port.
To solve the problem, I just used keystrokes to access and reinstall the MouseWorks software on his iMac, and the Orbit then worked flawlessly.
I already searched the FAQ's on macosx.com, and couldn't find anything that was relative to this problem. I'm about to try doing a reinstall of OS X from the original CD, but I wanted to see if you had any other suggestions before I go back to square one.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
ishan - Dec 4, 2005 - 6:51 pm
Is this a wireless trackball? If not, just call Kensington; they are amazingly good about replacing trackballs even if it's way past warranty coverage.
I don't think this is a software issue. Have you tried unplugging/plugging the trackball? Using a different USB port?
HTH.
I don't think this is a software issue. Have you tried unplugging/plugging the trackball? Using a different USB port?
HTH.
longston - Dec 4, 2005 - 7:59 pm
ISHAN!
Did you actually take the time to READ my detailed explanation of the problem? It wouldn't seem that you did judging by your reply.
I would expect anyone responding to this issue would take the time to carefully read what (I thought) had been quite clear explanation of the issue and what had already been done to try to solve the problem before suggesting any potential solution.
Suggesting that I have the (working) trackball replaced by Kensington is about as helpful as suggesting that I check to see if it was low on transmission fluid.;-)
It is clearly NOT the trackball that is the problem. It is OBVIOUSLY a software issue, as the same (corded, NOT wireless) trackball works on an identical drive in the same computer without "unplugging/plugging" or "trying a different USB port". It would follow that anyone who has gone to the lengths that I have already would obviously have started by swapping USB ports, trackballs, trying different pointing devices, and so forth. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
With all due respect and consideration for your efforts to be helpful, if you (or anyone else) can provide a useful suggestion, please do. Otherwise, thanks for trying.
Did you actually take the time to READ my detailed explanation of the problem? It wouldn't seem that you did judging by your reply.
I would expect anyone responding to this issue would take the time to carefully read what (I thought) had been quite clear explanation of the issue and what had already been done to try to solve the problem before suggesting any potential solution.
Suggesting that I have the (working) trackball replaced by Kensington is about as helpful as suggesting that I check to see if it was low on transmission fluid.;-)
It is clearly NOT the trackball that is the problem. It is OBVIOUSLY a software issue, as the same (corded, NOT wireless) trackball works on an identical drive in the same computer without "unplugging/plugging" or "trying a different USB port". It would follow that anyone who has gone to the lengths that I have already would obviously have started by swapping USB ports, trackballs, trying different pointing devices, and so forth. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
With all due respect and consideration for your efforts to be helpful, if you (or anyone else) can provide a useful suggestion, please do. Otherwise, thanks for trying.
ishan - Dec 4, 2005 - 10:43 pm
Sorry. I must have missed the part about where you tried different ports for the trackball and all that.
I will let wiser minds than mine–and one at least as knowledgeable as yours–to resolve this dilemma and will return the question to the pool.
I will let wiser minds than mine–and one at least as knowledgeable as yours–to resolve this dilemma and will return the question to the pool.
longston - Dec 5, 2005 - 5:06 pm
Lets go back to square one.
Hardware:
Dual Processor 450Mhz G4 Power PC.
1024Mb RAM.
Macally iKey keyboard.
Kensington Orbit Trackball.
Drives:
Primary - Seagate 40Gb running OS 9.2.2 & OSX 10.2.8, Kensington Mouseworks Driver installed. Started as a blank drive, initialized under OS 9.2.2, installed OSX 10.2, upgraded to 10.2.8.
Secondary - Identical Segate 40Gb running OS 9.2.2 & OSX 10.2.8. no Kensington Mouseworks Driver installed. Acquired from another Mac user with OS already installed along with various applications and data files.
CD/DVD ROM - Liteon LTD-163.
Superdrive - Imation LS-120.
Here's the problem:
My working, and fully functional Kensington Orbit Trackball functions perfectly when I'm running the OSX 10.2.8 system on my primary Seagate 40Gb hard drive.
When I boot from the identical 40Gb drive I have installed in the same machine as a secondary drive, the pointing device function ceases. No swapping of devices, ports, or any amount of unplugging/plugging makes any change to that cessation of functionality.
When the problem started:
The trackball worked fine on the secondary drive initially, but ceased working after I allowed the software update utility to install whatever updates it chose to install. I don't exactly know what those updates were, as I had gone off on an errand while they were being installed. When I got back, there was no movement by the cursor.
What I've done to try to diagnose and fix the problem:
1. Restarting the computer, assuming that a restart was probably required after updates had been installed. Even after the restart, there was still no cursor movement.
2. Tested the keyboard connection to the USB by pressing the caps lock key and seeing if the light came on, which it did.
3. Tried unplugging the trackball from the keyboard, and plugging it in directly to the USB port on the back of the computer. That still made no difference.
4. Restarted again, this time zapping the PRAM (Option-Command-P-R). The computer reverted to the OSX on the primary drive, and the cursor was now mobile again.
5. Used the trackball to manipulate the cursor in order to access the system preferences, and selected the start up disk icon, then selected the OSX on the secondary drive as the start up. After restarting again on the secondary drive, the cursor still didn't move.
6. Restarted from the original CD install & system disk for OSX 10.2, and the cursor was mobile again. I used the trackball to access the disk utility on the CD, and ran "verify disk". The outcome was that it "appears to be OK".
7. Restarted again from the secondary drive and pressed "Command-S" to start in Single-User Mode, and entered the fsck command (file system check) to run the diagnostic routine. The outcome was the same as the disk utility, it "appears to be OK".
8. Tried starting up from the secondary drive in "safe mode" by holding down the shift key while starting up. The cursor still remained immobile.
9. Restarted from the secondary drive, and using keystrokes to move around the screen, tried to figure out what updates had been installed so I could try disabling them to see if that would restore the cursor movement. No luck. While I was getting the hang of playing keyboard commando, I remembered what I had done to solve a similar problem on my son's iMac, so I decided to just try installing the Kensington MouseWorks software on the drive. I was able to access the .dmg file, and open it. It started to unpack, and then fizzled out while showing a message about looking for the copy helper. As an experient, I tried the same thing with Flash Player 8, and it worked. I tried the MouseWorks file again, and got the same result as the first attempt.
10. Restarted from primary drive, made a copy of the MouseWorks software on a Superdrive disk, and restarted again using the secondary drive. Once it was up and running, I inserted the Superdisk in it's drive, but it's icon didn't even show up on the desktop.
11. Went to macosx.com, searched the FAQ's, didn't find anything that seemed relevant to the problem, so I decided to post this in hopes of finding an alternative to what I see as my last option - just reinstalling the system on the secondary drive and re-doing the updates.
Current status:
I. Primary drive - just fine, works properly, full function of cursor and trackball.
II. Secondary drive - no functionality of cursor regardless of pointing device, port, or 12-step-program.
So, does anyone have any suggestions of what else I can do to remedy this problem?
Hardware:
Dual Processor 450Mhz G4 Power PC.
1024Mb RAM.
Macally iKey keyboard.
Kensington Orbit Trackball.
Drives:
Primary - Seagate 40Gb running OS 9.2.2 & OSX 10.2.8, Kensington Mouseworks Driver installed. Started as a blank drive, initialized under OS 9.2.2, installed OSX 10.2, upgraded to 10.2.8.
Secondary - Identical Segate 40Gb running OS 9.2.2 & OSX 10.2.8. no Kensington Mouseworks Driver installed. Acquired from another Mac user with OS already installed along with various applications and data files.
CD/DVD ROM - Liteon LTD-163.
Superdrive - Imation LS-120.
Here's the problem:
My working, and fully functional Kensington Orbit Trackball functions perfectly when I'm running the OSX 10.2.8 system on my primary Seagate 40Gb hard drive.
When I boot from the identical 40Gb drive I have installed in the same machine as a secondary drive, the pointing device function ceases. No swapping of devices, ports, or any amount of unplugging/plugging makes any change to that cessation of functionality.
When the problem started:
The trackball worked fine on the secondary drive initially, but ceased working after I allowed the software update utility to install whatever updates it chose to install. I don't exactly know what those updates were, as I had gone off on an errand while they were being installed. When I got back, there was no movement by the cursor.
What I've done to try to diagnose and fix the problem:
1. Restarting the computer, assuming that a restart was probably required after updates had been installed. Even after the restart, there was still no cursor movement.
2. Tested the keyboard connection to the USB by pressing the caps lock key and seeing if the light came on, which it did.
3. Tried unplugging the trackball from the keyboard, and plugging it in directly to the USB port on the back of the computer. That still made no difference.
4. Restarted again, this time zapping the PRAM (Option-Command-P-R). The computer reverted to the OSX on the primary drive, and the cursor was now mobile again.
5. Used the trackball to manipulate the cursor in order to access the system preferences, and selected the start up disk icon, then selected the OSX on the secondary drive as the start up. After restarting again on the secondary drive, the cursor still didn't move.
6. Restarted from the original CD install & system disk for OSX 10.2, and the cursor was mobile again. I used the trackball to access the disk utility on the CD, and ran "verify disk". The outcome was that it "appears to be OK".
7. Restarted again from the secondary drive and pressed "Command-S" to start in Single-User Mode, and entered the fsck command (file system check) to run the diagnostic routine. The outcome was the same as the disk utility, it "appears to be OK".
8. Tried starting up from the secondary drive in "safe mode" by holding down the shift key while starting up. The cursor still remained immobile.
9. Restarted from the secondary drive, and using keystrokes to move around the screen, tried to figure out what updates had been installed so I could try disabling them to see if that would restore the cursor movement. No luck. While I was getting the hang of playing keyboard commando, I remembered what I had done to solve a similar problem on my son's iMac, so I decided to just try installing the Kensington MouseWorks software on the drive. I was able to access the .dmg file, and open it. It started to unpack, and then fizzled out while showing a message about looking for the copy helper. As an experient, I tried the same thing with Flash Player 8, and it worked. I tried the MouseWorks file again, and got the same result as the first attempt.
10. Restarted from primary drive, made a copy of the MouseWorks software on a Superdrive disk, and restarted again using the secondary drive. Once it was up and running, I inserted the Superdisk in it's drive, but it's icon didn't even show up on the desktop.
11. Went to macosx.com, searched the FAQ's, didn't find anything that seemed relevant to the problem, so I decided to post this in hopes of finding an alternative to what I see as my last option - just reinstalling the system on the secondary drive and re-doing the updates.
Current status:
I. Primary drive - just fine, works properly, full function of cursor and trackball.
II. Secondary drive - no functionality of cursor regardless of pointing device, port, or 12-step-program.
So, does anyone have any suggestions of what else I can do to remedy this problem?
ishan - Dec 7, 2005 - 8:47 pm
Ticked closed. Reason: Duplicate
ishan - Dec 7, 2005 - 8:49 pm
Ticked closed. Reason: Duplicate
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