OSX Oddities

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:41 pm

I'm using a different computer to post this message because of certain oddities on my other computer, which seem to be an exetended problem I've noticed from time to time with OSX.

In the past, I would experience the occasional dead alias-- items in the Dock would no longer work suddenly, even when no new app updates had been installed, or anything at all had been done to the computer in general.

Suddenly today, my laptop stopped responding to the keyboard almost entirely. Letters typed put out random numbers and symbols. Normal key commands such as APPLE + Q, APPLE + W, APPLE + C, APPLE + V, etc, etc., are simply AWOL.

The mouse and mouse pad appear to be fine.

International Settings are very specific... settings are for US English and nothing else is selected as a display option.

I have repaired my permissions several times, restarted the computer. I even logged off and back on again. Nothing I do seems to fix the problem. It seems to be a very odd quirk to have OSX totally freak out on me.

..and yes, DiskWarrior was run

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? If so, how were you able to fix it?

Thanks!
Frodo

mikebeckmotu · Post by **mikebeckmotu** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:54 pm

I once hit one of the function keys without realizing it - might have been num lock - and I thought my keyboard had died until I figured it out.

Have you tried plugging in an external USB keyboard just to see what happens?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:59 pm

mikebeckmotu wrote:I once hit one of the function keys without realizing it - might have been num lock - and I thought my keyboard had died until I figured it out.

Have you tried plugging in an external USB keyboard just to see what happens?

Yep, tried my tower's keyboard-- same result.

I think once I can get back to my PB, I'll try resetting Universal Access to its default and see what happens.

Thanks, Mike!

sdemott · Post by **sdemott** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:47 am

First off - toggle the "numlock" key on your laptop a few times and them be sure the final setting is off. If that doesn't fix the keyboard, I would reset the PRAM/NVRAM.

You can reboot woth the cmd-opt-p-r keys down until you hear 3 statrup chimes & then release...or you can use a better method for systems with Open Firmware:

reboot and immediately hold down the cmd-opt-o-f keys.
When you see "welcome to Open Firmware" text and a command prompt (a ">" sign> release the keys.
type:
>reset-nvram
when you hit enter it will say "ok'
then:
>set-defaults
again, when you hit return you will get the "ok"
and then finally:
>reset-all
when you hit return the system will reboot.

As far as the hosed aliases and all, sounds like a dirty preference (.plist) file. My guess would be 1 or both of the follwoing files:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Dock.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist

you can delete them without any serious side effect, but you will need to reboot after deleting them, and if you dlete the Dock.plist you will be reset to the default dock settings when you log back in.

BTW, ~ is UNIX shothand for "home directory" e.g. /Users/[YourUserName]/Library...

HTH

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:33 am

Steve:

Brilliant post. Thans so much for the info.

Here's my biggest beef about OSX:

Stupid things happen suddenly.
Stupid things continue to happen after reset and reboot.
Stupid things happen after disc repairs.

All of a sudden, everything is fine without really doing anything at a given moment.

I'd logged off and shut down. Came back a few hours later, turned the computer on and before I had a chance to do anything you suggested, my laptop was back to normal.

One of the first things I looked at yesterday was the numbers lock key, which illuminates when it is active. Lighted or no, it didn't matter in terms of computer behavior.

There are other little things about OSX that bother me, though. Apple Mail's search feature often will yield no results for a known e-mail subject or address when a manual search reveals otherwise. Safari does odd things whenever I copy and paste a link right here on the forum-- no one can access the pages from the links I copy and paste, yet I have no problem with the links others copy and paste.

I've also discovered (the hard way) that printing documents from my laptop using the Airport connection only puts out 4 pages at a time and then it chokes. I'm still sorting that out, too. But at least I can access my tower when needed via Network, copy documents to a folder and print from there. Not a big deal, just another step to remember.

Anyway, thanks again Steve for your notes. They have been copied and saved-- now that the keyboard is behaving again!

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:07 pm

that's weird about the printing. my ex-g/f used to print freakin' novels on our wifi printer without a hitch. are you using a usb/airport express printer combo? our printer just had wifi built-in.

kell

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:32 pm

kelldammit wrote:that's weird about the printing. my ex-g/f used to print freakin' novels on our wifi printer without a hitch. are you using a usb/airport express printer combo? our printer just had wifi built-in.

kell

I've got Airport as a hub which is connected to my tower and printer via USB. No problems printing from the tower, just from my laptop wirelessly. My print monitor will have several docs loaded, but then everything will just sit there before all printing is done. It doesn't freeze or lock up, but all the unprinted files have to be dumped from the print cue. Docs have to be either printed one at a time or divided up into four pages at a time.

I use a tabloid printer-- Canon i9900 with the latest available driver, unless they've released an Intel-compatible driver since.

It's really odd.

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:03 pm

that IS odd...not sure what i'd even suggest to try with that. is there an option to print directly (i.e. not to spool) in the driver? mebbe sending large spooled print jobs all at once is overloading the hubs buffer?
the one we used to have is an HP...for general printing. it was one of the models certified for the usb/airport express, except with wifi built in...it worked great with rendezvous <ahem> err bonjour!
i've had my eye on a wireless canon printer/scanner for a while...just can't afford the $500 or so at the moment...and other things have to come first!
at any rate, i'm glad you got your keyboard situation straightened out!

kell

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:15 pm

I don't know what to do since these issues tend to come and go.

You could be right about the Airport print buffer getting overloaded. I've just resigned not to try to print large docs or large quantities of docs at once from my laptop. I sure wish if there indeed an issue with all of this that Canon or Apple would make info about the exceptions available or easier to locate.

sdemott · Post by **sdemott** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 5:17 am

No - i've seen the printing issue before...it's the CUPS caching (CUPS = Common Unix Printing System, the print engine behind OSX).

To fix that (and most other weird issues) goto:

[yourHardDrive]/Library/Caches/

Select everything in the Cache folder and delete (cmd-delete to move to trash). It will ask for an administrator password, as this is the root level Library and not your user level Library.

NOTE: only delete the contents of the cache folder, do not delete the Cache folder istelf.

Then reboot twice (be sure it is twice, the system will be unstable if you begin using it after the first reboot).

Also make sure the base station and your computer is running the latest version of the airport Software (v4.2 I believe).

That should take care of it.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:14 pm

More revelations from The Mott!! Thanks.

CUPS--

In my case that stands for

Can't Understand Piddly Squat.

not entirely true, but each day brings new lessons-- hopefully those that will never be forgotten.

I appreciate the help, really.

You're now crowned the U-Nation King of the X-Files!

Thanks again, Your Majesty!

101 · Post by **101** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:33 pm

Next time the keyboard fails to respond , open a simple text doc to see if you have a stuck key , it should "ghost type".

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 7:15 pm

Thanks 101. Good tip.

Hey-- I know that James and others have experienced this:

Has there been a fix to the wonky Network issue in the GO menu? On clicking, it flashes and goes away without starting. I can only get it started in the HD Finder...

.... and repairing permissions doesn't help.