Apple Mouse not working on Power Mac G4 MDD, works on other computers

I cannot get my standard Apple optical USB mouse to work properly with my Power Mac G4 (MDD). When I plug it in, the lights on the mouse work but the cursor does not respond. No movement, no clicking. However, when I plug the mouse into another one of my Macs, it works fine.
The Power Mac's System Profiler recognizes it as "USB Device," the mouse is unresponsive, and there are no mouse options in the System Prefs (keyboard & mouse). My Power Book's System Profiler recognizes it as "Apple Optical USB Mouse" and it works perfectly.
I am running 10.4.6 on both machines but I have had the problem with multiple versions from 10.3 up. I also bought another USB mouse (a Kensington) and had the same issues.
I've run through the standard USB troubleshooting like trying devices one-at-a-time and trying each USB port (on the Power Mac, the keyboard, and the back of a Cinema Display) as described in KB #300543 and KB #58033 but to no avail.
One thing that did stand out in #58033:
If the device shows up in System Profiler, even if the device doesn't work, the issue is usually due to software. Your best solution is to try updating the drivers, creating a new user, or reinstalling the system software.
Is there any way to update an Apple driver? I've only seen software for 3rd-party mouse drivers. I would try to create a new user but it doesn't seem to be possible using only keyboard shortcuts. And I would like to avoid reinstalling the system software!
Thanks for reading.
Power Mac G4 (MDD) Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Have you tried other mice on your computer?
I seem to recall a problem like this when Speakable Items is turned on. I'm also going to dig into a little research on this.
Try checking that out. Make sure it is off.
The other things to try are logging in as another user and see if the problem remains. If so, there is a bad preference in your user preferences.
Lastly, if all else fails, try downloading USB Overdrive and see if it takes over the mouse function and provides you with a usable mouse.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13443

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My power mac g4 was working fine i hit a key and it shut down and now it has the symble of the firewire slot floting around the screen and i can not get it to start back up

my power mac g4 was working fine i hit a key and it shut down and know it has a symble floting around the screen like the firewirs symble and ot wont turn back on how do i fix it

It does sound like the T key is stuck.
One way to test to see if the keyboard is at fault is to disconnect the keyboard, then start up the Mac.
Note - on that model, you can force a shutdown by holding in the power button (the one on the front panel of the machine) for 8 to 10 seconds.
You can also force a restart by pressing the small convex (bulges out slightly) button under the power button on the front panel (it's the one on the left).

Power Mac G4 MDD not getting past apple logo

Hey,
I was recently given an old Power Mac G4 MDD from my school. It had Leopard on it, and seemed to be running fine. However because the computer had school software, they told me i had to replace the os on it, and gave me the disks for OSX 10.2. After installing 10.2, I restarted my G4, however it did not get past the white screen with the grey apple logo. No spinning wheel either.
The computer has 2 harddrives, and 3x 256 Mb DDR Ram. I am unsure of the processor
Can anyone say what is wrong with this computer/How i might fix it?
Thanks in advance,
Angus

Here's the spec page on your Mac http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermacg4/stats/powermac_g4_1.25mdd.html
It came with OS 10.2 installed.
I have an identical Mac. The gray Software Install and Restore disc has the P/N 691-4679-A & the OS is 10.2.7. You may have been given the wrong installer.
 Cheers, Tom

HT1338 just bought a 27" iMac quad core i5 and when I try to install Logic 8 it tells me that its not supported by power mac

Just bought a 2011 imac 27" to upgrade from my MacBookPro 17" to run Logic 8, but when I try to install Logic 8 on the new Mac I disappointingly get a message to say that the application is not supported on power mac, that cannot be right, or can it. If so what do I need to do to get it to install?

Logic 8 has a "bug" in its installer program that makes a newer Mac (Lion, and thereafter) think that it is PowerPC, but it is not PowerPC.
Try using Pacifist to install Logic 8 in Mavericks:
http://www.charlessoft.com/
If you cannot get Pacifist to work, you can partition your hard drive and install Snow Leopard into that new partition, install Logic 8 and then upgrade to Mavericks.
As Barney correctly points out, the 2011 iMacs require a minimum of 10.6.6 to boot, so that you need to install Snow Leopard with one of these three options:
1) As Barney points out, the original grey Restore DVD that came with that iMac (or a replacement provided by Apple if you call with your model and serial number);
2) The slipstreamed version of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD at 10.6.7; or
3) Install Snow Leopard on a new partition on another older Mac, update it to 10.6.8 and then clone the partition and move the cloned partition over to your 2011 iMac.

OS X 10.4.11 will send but not receive faxes on Power Mac G4 MDD

OS X 10.4.11 will send but not receive faxes on my Power Mac G4 MDD. Perhaps I should remove the relevant .plist preference file(s). But which one(s) is it /are they? Or is there something else I should do?

Thank you for your reply, BDAqua. I have set the fax feature to answer after 3 rings, but the phone rings only once when someone is trying to send a fax. The phone icon in the menu bar changes to "ringing ..." but nothing more happens. The phone line on which I receive faxes is dedicated to that use. I phoned in to its number earlier today from another phone. I heard it ring once and then it went to the busy signal. I then disconnected the fax phone line from its wall jack, connected a phone to the jack, and phoned in to it. The phone now rang and rang as it should. So this confirms the assumption that the fault is in the computer, presumably in the Print & Fax software. I should also mention that I don't find com.apple.print.FaxPrefs.plist in /Library/Preferences.

I can not seem to configure my AirPort Card on my power mac G4 MDD desktop

I'm trying to configure my new airport card on my old power mac g4 MDD desktop. The image is not supported by AirPort Extreme.
Please advise… thank you in advance. Jose

What's the problem with configuration? In the top right hand corner of your desktop you will see the AirPort symbol. Can you see any WiFi networks there?
Or do you mean a new AirPort Extreme router? In that case you will need either:
1. A newer Mac
2. OS X Leopard
10.4.11 does not support the latest generation of Extremes.

Power Mac G4 MDD won't wake from sleep mode

I have a Power Mac G4 MDD 1.25GHz with a 15" Apple display and running 10.4.
I can not wake the computer up from the sleep mode. It will not respond to the mouse moving, a mouse click, a keyboard key, the power button on the display or the power button on the computer.
The only thing I can do is force the computer off by holding in the power button (on display or computer) and restarting the computer.
The computer is set to go to sleep after 1 hour of no use (or the issue happens if I put it to sleep).
Any thoughts would be great.

This is for a Mac that won't sleep.
Here is KB article HT1776 with their tips.
Mine follow;
USB devices and hubs often cause Macs to not sleep or wake quickly from sleep (notably HP printers and scanners, HP all in ones, and Cannon scanners). Disconnect all USB except for keyboard and mouse and try. If it sleeps, add one back at a time testing after each one to find the culprit.If you've set your Mac to receive faxes, it may not be able to sleep. It might also have a damaged preferences file.
If you use your Mac for faxing, open System Preferences. click Print & Fax, click the Faxing tab, and uncheck the Receive Faxes On This Computer box.
If that doesn't work or you've never faxed on your Mac, go to Finder/Hard Drive /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration and delete the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist and com..apple.AutoWake.plist files (if your Mac asks, type your admin. password).
If the latter file isn't present in the folder, go to user name(probably your name)/Library/Preferences, delete the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist file, and reboot your Mac.
Hope this helps!
P.S. One member here reported this (Michael Gleason);
"I have had this problem with my IMac G5. It is surprisingly irritating. LaCie's Silverkeeper backup software was the cause. By default it gave itself permission to wake up the computer to check if a backup was needed. Do you have this or a similar program installed which has scheduled activities including wake-up permissions as an option?"
Dave Hamilton provided this link, xlr8yourmac.com, to a member, which addresses failure of deep sleep with some users that updated and added new FireWire and USB cards.
Also, here is Apple doc.#305262 about PCI cards and sleep.
tomhorvat adds this; After few days of messing around I found out that I had desktop background (wallpaper) set to change every 1 minute.
After unchecking "Change picture..." in system preferences (under Desktop/Screen saver), my powerbook went to sleep all by itself.
Tristan Currier noticed this; "I have a Canon printer(shared) and my imac would not sleep. I opened up printer/fax in system prefs and noticed it said the printer was in use when it was off. Opened up the printer queue and noticed about 7 pending documents. Deleted them all and now it sleeps.
Check the printer queue!"
Good Luck!  DALE

Power Mac G4 MDD Random Power Shut Down

I am located in Thailand and have a Power Mac G4 purchased in November 2003. Last month the computer shut-down at random times and during various types of operations. CPU and hard drive temperatures were well within range, the installed battery tested at 3.5 volts. A new UPS was purchased with surge protection, no software was provided or appeared necessary. Often times the computer would re-start if I let it set for 30 minutes or more. Sometimes if the power plug was removed and re-inserted or the UPS re-set, the computer would start.
Associated hardware consists of Canon Printer, Mac keyboard, Kensington turbo ball, stand alone backup hard disk, flash card reader, ViewSonic moniter (8 to 10 years old), flash card reader, USB hub and audio system. Am connected to the internet via a router with one other computers on the line.
The problem has occurred with and without the attached hardware except for the monitor, keyboard and turbo ball which had to be attached to operate. The keyboard, turbo ball and computer where serviced by local Apple service center. The keyboard and turbo ball checked out OK. After sever attempts since the shutdowns were random and could not be forced, the service center after much testing and waiting decided the logic board need replacement which was done (400+ USD). A new power supply was ordered but they stated it did not need replacement.
Since the new logic board was installed and run for three days with no problem, the computer was returned with 90 day warranty. The problem almost immediately returned but has run OK for long periods of time before a random shut-down occurs. The shop was contacted and we are continuing to observe the problem but I hate to give up the use of my only computer for another month, like the last repair.
The following chart is a play by play account since the repairs.
The shop and I are completely stumped and any comments would be appreciated
*Power Mac G4 MDD Random Shut-down Problem*
Note 1: shut-down is same as pulling the power plug.
Note 2: below is complete list of events, on dates not shown, computer working normally.
DATE TIME EVENT
May 9, 2008 noon Picked up computer from Phuket Alpha after replacing logic board and
complete check-out. (Power supply not replaced)
May 9, 2008 evening Shut-down several times, could re-start a couple of times and then shut-
down and could not re-start.
May 10, 2008 all day Computer working OK.
May 17, 2008 5:34 AM Shut-down.
Turned off UPS, turned on UPS and computer started by itself without using
Mac start button.
Shut-down minutes later, would not re-start using any method i.e., re-set
UPS, pull-out power plug etc.
May 18, 2008 noon Turned on computer, OK.
May 19, 2008 1:30 AM Selected sleep from Apple drop down menu, computer shut-down.
May 19, 2008 4:30 AM Turned off UPS, turned on UPS and pressed start button on computer, started OK.
May 19, 2008 1 hr later Shut-down while using Safari
May 19, 2008 evening Started computer OK, then placed in sleep mode.
May 19, 2008 8:00 PM Pressed space bar to wake-up Mac, computer immediately shut-down and
UPS alarm came on. Re-set UPS and computer came on with high-speed
sound of (fan or hard-drive) which ran for several minutes (estimate at
least 5). Computer then worked OK for many hours.
May 22, 2008 6:30 AM After using all night, computer shut-down while using Safari.
May 22, 2008 1:00 PM Pressed Mac start button and computer operating OK.

Hi-
Welcome to Discussions!
Replace the power cord. If this doesn't alleviate the condition, (from your description) I would consider the PSU to be the most likely suspect.

Power Mac G4 Mdd Hardware Advice

I was gifted a Power Mac G4 MDD that had been taken out by a power surge due to lightning.
The power supply was bad. Installed a new one. Didn't get a hard drive. Had a OK pc one that is partitioned
and formatted fat32. Have 10.2.8 OSX install cd's and Norton Utilities cd for 10.2 and older. Does not seem
to want to boot from them. It will boot to open firmware. Otherwise it just shows the finder face flashing
to a question mark then back. Have done the remove battery and CUDA thing. Did the reset-nvram, set-default,
reset-all,zapped pram, checked ram in a pc then replaced, removed processor board and reseated,
tried using a pc cdrom. Nowjust wondering if it's the logic board or the board with the processors?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Power Mac G4 MDD Model M8570 PMG 1.42dp Serial# xb3230mrn1y Logic Board 630-4633 Processor board
has the square firewire port.

Is the CD disc a full retail copy with either a white background with furry looking X or is the disc a gray colored disc?
If gray disc, does it say anything about Apple PowerMac restore discs?
Gray restore discs are Mac-machine specific and if it is for a PowerMac G4, it may or may not be the right restore discs for that model PowerMac.
Also, It wouldn't hurt to either find a known working external optical to borrow or purchase an external optical drive to try and boot the disc from to confirm whether or not the PowerMac's internal optical drive is working or not.
If you have to purchase an optical drive, I recomend this website and this drive.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRF82SD24S/

Power Mac G4 MDD - Has difficulty booting after shut down

I have a Power Mac G4 MDD (1.25Ghz) that is having issues when it is shut down. The power button on the front of the machine does not start the computer every time. Sometimes it works, sometimes I need to wait a while before it will work. When the button is pressed, it does not light up or anything.
I have noticed that if I sleep the computer it always seems to wakeup when the front button is pressed. But if I shut down the G4, is does not always bootup.
I have also performed multiple restarts when performing software updates, and they always seemed to work fine.
I have changed the Saft battery inside - it was at about .4v
I have performed a CUDA/PMU reset using the button on the motherboard, and followed the Apple procedure. (disconnect power, and accesories, press reset button, wait 10 seconds, reconnect, restart) It did not restart right away, had to wait 20 minutes or so.
The G4 has a new installation of Tiger, with all of the updates.
I have not checked the PSU, but plan on doing that soon. Just seems odd that it only has issues when the machine was shutdown. Seems to start after it sits for a while, but last night I was switching monitors, and shut it down, switched monitors, and it would not re-boot.
Any ideas?

With the "sometimes" nature of the problem, it could be the front panel board, a much cheaper replacement than a PSU. An Apple tech told me that one way to test the front panel board was to find one of the first Apple USB keyboards for the original iMac. The early ones have a power button like the old ADB boards that overrides the internal board/button. He said that, should the Mac start reliably from the old keyboard, then there is trouble with the front panel board. The Apple model number for the USB board with power button is M2452.
Very helpful forum member japamac has a test procedure for the MDD PSU on his site here:
http://jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/D275729F-09DA-4FBB-96B3-BEEEB2C0461 9.html
You'll need a multimeter to check the voltage levels.

Power Mac G4 MDD No video past boot

I was just given a Power Mac G4 MDD and it's been so long since I've worked on a Mac, except for my 8GB iPod Touch, 16GB Verizon iPhone 4, and 16GB iPad 2, I just can't seem to get this thing running.
Problem:
After pressing power button, I get the start up chime and the loading circle at the bottom of the Apple screen then it flashes a blue screen and the display does black and displays input not supported.
I have a 19" wide screen Acer LCD screen connected capable of at least 1440x900
What I've tried:
CMD-OPT-P-R
C
SHIFT
CMD-OPT
CMD-OPT-A-V
CMD-OPT-SHIFT-DELETE
I still have nothing. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance for the assistance!

Power Mac G4: Display Compatibility...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1825
You say a Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), did not work?

Power mac G4 MDD, 1.42 doesn't power up.

I have the power mac G4 MDD, 1.42Ghz with 2gigs of rams, running Leopard 10.5.8.
When I power it down with the apple menu, it powers off as usual. On restarting, it is completely dead, as if it is not getting any power. I can unplug the power cord from the wall socket, plug it back in, push the power button and all is well. This only happens if I shut it down. Runs all day just fine, can restart with out a problem, goes to sleep and wakes fine. The other thing is if I shut it down, pull the power cord, restart, then I have to reset the time & date each time. I replaced the battery, changed power cord, reset pram, etc. The usual things to reset it but nothing works. The unit runs great, no problems at all. Has anyone had this problem or no of anything else to resolve it?

Thanks BDAqua........Sorry to hear that......
By coincidence, I took mine apart today & cleaned it. All the fans, hdd, optic, connectors, PSU, etc. To my surprise the power supply was really clean. No dust buildup whatsoever, but I did have to clean the fans. On a visual inspection, the capacitors looked ok but didn't test them. For now, mine is far from dead (knock on wood). Works fine since I cleaned it but what's with the time & date. I thought the battery on the motherboard controlled that when the computer was off? Is there something else I'm missing?

1GB RAM stick for Power Mac G4 MDD Okay?

My Power Mac 1.25 GHz dual-boot G4 currently has 768 MB of DDR SDRAM. One slot has a 256 MB DDR SDRAM PC2600U-25330, a second slot has a 512 MB DDR SDRAM PC2600U-25330 stick, and two slots are empty. The MDD will recognize up to 2GB of RAM.
I have a really good deal on a Apple G5 Power Mac G4 MDD 1GB DDR PC3200 RAM Memory stick. The seller says it will work in a G5 and also my G4. Is a 1GB stick safe to buy or should I try to find two 512s instead? I don't have "matching pairs" now and wonder how critical that is?

Other World Computing only has 256MB & 512MB RAM modules for the G4 MDD. http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=175 I would think that if 1GB modules would work, they would sell them. Give OWC a call & ask.
The G5 RAM is PC3200 & may or may not be compatible with your G4. Even if it is, it will only operate at your Mac's processor speed & not 3200. The G5 Macs require matched pairs, but the G4 does not.
 Cheers, Tom

Power Mac G4 MDD with 1.5 GB RAM slows to a crawl

My Power Mac G4 MDD has been getting slower and slower for the past couple of years, and now it takes forever to do a lot of things that it did quickly before. Today it even told me it didn't have enough RAM available to open Photoshop, even though I only had maybe three other apps open and I have 1.5 GB of RAM.
I had originally suspected the hard drive was fragmented, and I ran Disk Utilities on it, but that didn't help. Maybe I need a better disk utility? Also, the RAM message I got today leads me to believe it could be memory related.
Wat's going on and how do I fix it?

Hi
I'd start by checking the basics if you haven't already.
If you run the Activity Monitor application located in the Applications -> Utilities folder and click on the System Memory tab you can monitor the memory usage as you use your applications. You can use it to check the full 1.5GB is still being recognized and see how much you have free at any time. The following article helps explain the memory usage shown:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918
If you click on the Disk Usage tab you can also monitor the disk space usage and see how much you still have free. Although the message refers to RAM, it may be as a side affect of not having enough free disk space for the virtual memory. I'd always make sure you have at least 5GB of disk space free for the OS temporary files and virtual memory use etc.
Finally it may be worth running the OS X maintenance scripts. These would normally get run in the small hours of the morning assuming the computer is still switched on and not asleep. However, they can also be run manually at any time, either from the command line using Terminal or from a third party front end such as MacJanitor. More information can be found here:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html

Power Mac G4 MDD Intermittent Boot from Internal HD?

I have a Power Mac G4 MDD with a 1.42G Dual Processor, 2GB Ram using a 500GB HD operating OS 10.5.8 The problem I am having is that my computer will boot just fine for a week or so then all of a sudden it won’t boot up at all from the internal HD. Here are the symptoms; I get the ‘chime’, then the grey screen appears with the black apple logo and I see the ‘spinning gear’. The spinning gear stops (after about 15 secs) then it goes to a light blue screen and just sits there forever. I usually see this ‘blue screen’ for about 2 seconds just before my desktop appears on the screen during a normal boot. I could go home tonight and it might boot up just fine, I don’t know, but it’s very frustrating. Things I have tried – ( I have two MDD’s so it’s pretty easy to troubleshoot) but still no successful boot sequence.
1. Reset PRAM
2. Changed MOB battery
3. Attempted a boot from another known good HD
4. Removed the 500 GB HD and installed in another MDD and it boots every time.
5. Replaced Motherboard with a known good spare I have.
6. Swapped out RAM modules
I’m not sure what’s next? Processor?, Power Supply??, Video Card??
Maybe someone out there has seen or witnessed this strange occurrence on their MDD?

I have not reseated ALL the connectors but I will try that first tonight. I removed the AC last night so when I get home I will power it up and try again. When I can get it to boot reliably, it's usually been following an AC outage overnight or a couple of days.
Thanks,

Apple Mouse not working on Power Mac G4 MDD, works on other computers

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