Cursor becomes a question mark

I cannot find any similar questions.
My cursor arrow changes to a question mark. Odd things happen then. In Firefox, numerous "Help" windows open. If I try to shut them, I just get more. I have to Force Quie. In Mail, I can't type more than a couple of characters on the keyboard. This is true in some other apps as well. In Word, I can type. This must mean that it isn't a faulty keyboard.
What on earth is going on?
I'm using my laptop to ask for some real help with my Mini, as I can't type anything in "Help" either!

Has this problem been going on for several reboots or days, or is it a first-time occurrence?
What kind of mouse and keyboard do you have? Are they wired or wireless?
I see from your first forum post that you had problems with AppleWorks crashing, possibly due to your keyboard layout selection. Did you resolve that issue? If so, how?

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Cursor becomes a question mark and prevents input

I first entered this in the Mini forum, then realized it had to be a software issue.
My cursor arrow changes to a question mark. Odd things are happening. In Firefox and PhotoShop, numerous "Help" windows open. If I try to shut them, I just get more. I have to Force Quit. In Mail, I can't type more than a couple of characters on the keyboard. This is true in some other apps as well.
What on earth is going on? Safari does not call up help windows on its own—just for PS, but I can only occasionally click on anything or enter a character. I can cut and paste info into boxes...a ridiculous way to work!
I have to use my laptop to ask for some real help with my Mini, as I can't type anything in "Help" either!
I don't know that the problem began with Mail, but I was sending an e-mail response when it lost half the message and did not complete the send process. That has never happened before, but I don't know if that was cause or symptom. Did I accidentally strike some weird combination of keys?
I can type in AppleWorks 6 and Word. This must mean that it isn't a faulty keyboard. The keyboard and mouse I'm using are my old wired ones from my g4 dual 500. I've never had a problem with either.

OK, I booted up in Safe Mode. I ran Disk Utility and repaired permissions. I was able to type in Mail, use Safari and make a stickie not with the info on the permissions. Unfortunately, the "?" began appearing after a fairly short while. It first cropped up in Safari. I had closed the other apps. Stickies can't be used. Mail is non-responsive to keyboard. It sometimes responds if I click the mouse in the finder, then back in mail...for 1 action.
OK, having "looked at" all the suggested places and compared them to the same places on my powerbook, they don't seem to be set up quite the same, e.g., the mbp has considerably more items in the System Library Startup Items folder. Since I don't know what I'm looking for, this seemed a fruitless exercise. Nothing jumped out at me. Even if I did know what all the acronyms stand for, I wouldn't have the foggiest notion if they were as they were supposed to be.
I tried using Find to locate any invisible files created this week that were less than 800 KB in size, as I'd read somewhere that there was a virus that fit that description. I let it run all night. If it was working, nothing turned up.
Any other ideas?
bummer...sure would be nice if I knew what to look for...feels like snark-hunting, you know...

Terminal input becomes a question mark

Everyone's entitled to post a stoopid question - Here's mine:
This happened once before:
I hit a key on my 101 keyboard and the Terminals cursor changed to a "?"
I have restarted the Terminal app and even logged in an out (with Remote Desktop) and any character I type is converted to a "?".
I can't remember how I got out of it before... short of rebooting - which seems to be a bit much...
Anyone got a clue?

Hi Tim,
   I apologize; it's difficult to tell if a person is a newbie from one post and I've found it efficient to err on the side of newbieness. Also, when you said
> any character I type is converted to a "?"
I thought you were saying that the character echoed back was a question mark. As Joe says, that is rather common. It simply didn't occur to me that the cursor itself would become a question mark. I apologize I didn't know what the help key did.
   I can search though and I found the following in TextMate Blog » Key bindings for switchers:if you click the Help key, the mouse pointer turns into a question mark, and now the next mouse click is “special” in that it requests help for the clicked item.Thus, the "help" keystroke should be trapped by the local machine and it is supposed to interpret the next mouse click as a request for help.
   You didn't mention Remote Desktop before. The GUI part of that is VNC under the hood and Apple didn't write the protocol. I can't say that I'm surprised that there's a bug in such platform specific behavior.
   Now that we have some idea of the complexity of what you're doing, it's clear that we can't know exactly what is happening. However, I don't think that the help "feature" would be handled by the terminal application. I would guess that it's handled at a lower level and would expect it to be handled by the client OS. Thus I'm naturally surprised that this effects your server but maybe for some unknown reason VNC transmits the "help" keystroke and your server's GUI is waiting for a mouse click that it isn't getting. Maybe you could plug a USB mouse into the box and click on something. If you hit the help key again, you might as well try all you can in search of a workaround.
Gary
~~~~
   * joeyh wonders why everyone wants to know how tall he is
   <james> joeyh: it helps the sniper

Dash becomes question mark

Hi, I have the following Portugese text in my database: S�TIO V�RZEA DO PARAITINGA � AREIAS-SP
When I display it on my jsp page the dash becomes a question mark and the String shows like this: S�TIO V�RZEA DO PARAITINGA ? AREIAS-SP
When i log the String it looks fine but when I display it using <%=request.getAttribute("subject")%> the question mark is there instead of the dash. If I execute the following code in the servlet the problem is resolved:
subject=subject.replaceAll("�","& ndash;"); With & ndash I mean the html for dash which can not be written here without it getting converted to –. Executing the replacement should not be necessary however.
What am I doing wrong?
Niklas
Message was edited by:
Niklas
Message was edited by:
Niklas

Thank you for your reply. If I don't put the following in my jsp the page gets filled with junk:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">When I log the string before it's sent to the jsp it looks correct on windows but not on linux(!). The en dash becomes a question mark on linux.
I have tried running the mysql database both on linux and on windows and I get different results. The text in the database looks like this if I run the database on linux:
S�TIO V�RZEA DO PARAITINGA ? AREIAS-SP.
The text in the database looks like this if I access a copy of the same database when the database runs on windows:
S�TIO V�RZEA DO PARAITINGA � AREIAS-SP.
Note the difference between � and -. On windows I can replace the longer dash with its html code but on linux the dash just shows as a question mark directly from the database. I have set the database to use utf-8. The db was running on linux when the data first got inserted, now running a db with this data on window works. Why can't it work on linux? The problem is with the unicode character 'EN DASH' (U+2013)

Question Marks After Periods

I've noticed that after a period, where I add the usual two spaces before starting another sentence, the second space becomes a question mark when the receiving party replies to my emails. So, in their reply, my original note will be visible and have a single question mark where the second space would have been.
Example (my reply): Hello, how are you?? It's cold outside.? Please verify your reciept of file.? Thank you.
So, anyone else ever have this happen. This occurs with one client in particular. It isn't a global issue.
Thanks.
Brad

Hello Bradley.
You must have originally learned how to type on a typewriter like I did. Simply put, the "two space" rule is a typesetter's convention. It was developed for use with monospace fonts, so that your eye could easily pick up the start of a new sentence. With modern proportional fonts used with electronic/computer format, the double space is largely irrelevant. Further, modern typesetting software uses interword spacing to make the display of text more pleasing. Thus double spacing can make the layout less pleasing.
This doesn't excuse the problem with Tiger Mail in which RTF is really HTML but until the problem is resolved by the Apple Mail team, either start using a single space after a sentence (which is the standard for electronic messages) or switch to Plain Text.

Hard disk in mums macbook failed, bought a new one, formatted it first. Have tried starting it with every possible key and I either get flashing question mark folder or a cursor.

Hard disk in mums macbook failed, bought a new one, used sata adapter cable to format it for mac first. Connected it and have tried starting it with every possible key combination and I either get flashing question mark folder or a cursor. A disk is stuck in it so I can't boot from OSX, and yes I have tried every option of starting to try and eject disk but none work. HELP ME!

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the
      left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this: Open the Terminal application in
      your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
        /usr/bin/drutil eject
If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into Single-user Mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.
If you have a 2010 MBP or later, then you can use Internet Recovery. Start by rebooting the computer. At the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION-R keys until a Globe appears in the upper part of the screen. This process can take upwards of 15 minutes to get connected to the Apple network servers. You should eventually see the utility screen of the Recovery HD. You may now go about the process to install Mountain Lion:
Install Lion/Mountain Lion on a New HDD/SDD
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Chinese characters in outgoing emails become question marks

Hi, all. My AT&T Blackberry Curve 8900 loaded with the AT&T East-asian rom can read and write Chinese, in IM, email, webpages. There is only one problem with the outgoing emails. I can compose an Email in Chinese and send it. The email is displayed correctly on my phone, but when shown up in the receiving email-box, all chinese characters will become question marks.
I am using Hotmail - I don't know whether this is some problem with the server.
Thank you in advance.

Make sure that you have installed East Asian language support:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support_%28East_Asian%29 Wiki: Help:Multilingual support (East Asian)
* http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/int_pr_install_languages.mspx?mfr=true - Microsoft Windows XP - Install East Asian language files on your computer

In sawserver.out.log, Japanese becomes ????? - Question Mark

Hello .
The sawserver.out.log does not show Japanese character. All Japanese characters become "?????" . (Question Mark)
How can I fix this issue ?
In sawlog[n].log, there is no issue. These files show Japanese correctly.
I know sawserver.out.log is the Standard Out Log, so I changed the environment variable but nothing chaned.
Please give me any idea.
Thanks.

Anybody has solution ?

Question Mark cursor keeps appearing

After my computer has been on for some time, the 'help' list from any program that might be active pops up on the screen. I can't get rid of it. The question mark cursor stays active and all I can do to get rid of it is to restart the computer, but shortly the problem arises again. This has been happening for about a week now.
Hope someone has a helpful answer. I did try typing my problem into the 'help' search menus, but it didn't work. I know MACs aren't suppose to get viruses.... but this sure sounds like one.
I have the newest G5 power Mac

respond please...:-(

How do I remove the question mark on my dock? When I move my cursor over it it reads "photos".

How do I remove the question mark on my dock?
When I move my cursor over it it reads "photos".

Everything in the Dock is an alias.... that is a tiny file that points to the original app, folder or file.
If the original app, folder or file is missing or not accessible in some other way (deleted?), it displays a question mark.
You remove it the same way you remove any icon from the Dock.
Simply drag the icon up away from the doc a couple of inches and let go of it.
It should just disappear with a poof and some clouds.

I have received an Email with an attachment(IMG.0157.Mov) that loans but then becomes a circle with a question mark. What to do?

I have received an Email with an attachment(IMG. 0157.Mov)that loads but then becomes a circle with a question mark. What to do?

Assuming it's from a trusted source it's probably a video format that your system doesn't support.
If it will load in QuickTime Player, do a Get Info (⌘ i) to see what the specific format is. The .mov is a generic suffix a dozens or more video formats, the Get Info will give you the details.
hope this helps

On my older I-MAC (2005) the computer turns on, but all I see is a grey screen with a small file that has a question mark and smiling FINDER face on it. Then the fan comes on and becomes very loud. Please help...

My older I-MAC gives me a grey screen and flashes a question mark and smiling FINDER face inside a FILE icon. Then the fan begins to run and becomes very loud...and thats as far as it will let me go.

See KB Articles: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106805 Mac OS X: "Broken folder" icon, prohibitory sign, or kernel panic when computer starts
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31355 Mac OS: Flashing Globe When Computer Turns On or A folder that has an alternating flashing question mark
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301733 iMac G5: How to Reset the SMU (iMac G5, the iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor), and the iMac G5 (iSight)).

Reconnecting images (that have become placeholders with question marks)?

Images in document have been replaced by placeholders with question mark. When I check project file 'Show Package Contents' i see that the missing photos are still there.
Is there a way to re-link or re-connect the photos to their places in the document? Can't find anything in the manual. This is something that happens in many other apps. that I use, like Final Cut, but there is always an easy method of 'reconnection'.
Ben

I have exactly the same settings on the desktop iMac as on the Macbook pro, but the problem only occurs on the macbook.

Greek Data becomes Question Marks when passed through a Database Link

Hi All,
We have a 10gR2 sharing a Win32 Server with an MSSQL 2005.
Data transfers between these are set up using an HS Database Link.
All latin data is passing well, however we have some Greek in there and its transformed to question marks on the way.
Measures attempted so far:
1. I've set the NLS_CHARACTERSET of the 10g to AL32UTF8 . Entered non-Latin data manually to the 10g - works fine.
2. I've edited the relevant init.ora file to include the following:
HS_LANGUAGE = AMERICAN.AL32UTF8
HS_NLS_NCHAR = AL32UTF8
3. Restarted the DB and Listener.
Still question marks
Ideas?
Thanks
Tomer

HSODBC was never certified with NVARCHAR data types. Have a look at the Generic Connectivity Administrator's Guide. It list all supported data types and nchar/nvarchar/ntext is not listed. You can select from those data types, but there is no guarantee the content of those datatypes will be fetched correctly. There are no conversation routines that properly convert unicode content.
HSODBC has been desupported 15th of March. I strongly recommend you to use DG4ODBC 11.1.0.7. In addition in DG4ODBC the NVARCHAR/NCHAR functionality has improved a lot.
DG4ODBC V11.1.0.7 needs to be installed into its own Oracle_Home and it can be used with older Oracle database releases like 10.2.0.4 right out of the box; or you have to apply a compatibility patch to your Oracle database releas 9.2.0.8, 10.1.0.5, 10.2.0.3
Edited by: kgronau on Dec 10, 2008 8:42 PM
One thing I forgot to mention is the advantage of using DG4ODBC is it maps the nvarchar to Oracle nvarchar and thus there is no codepage translation required.
But please pay attention; use 11.1.0.7 not the base release 11.1.0.6 as on Windows based operating systems a high/low byte issue was fixed in 11.1.0.7 which is mandatory for NLS support.

Dock Icons become QUESTION MARKS

i have DOCK ICONS that i have told to stay in the dock (this is how i start the programs) and every two weeks or so one or another one of these suddenly shows up as a BIG QUESTION MARK.
i asked this once before and someone said i should just drag the icon off and start the program again and make sure to tell it to stay in the dock.
but this is a major pain and makes it seem like there is something wrong with the OS not to mention it is really annoying to have to constantly re-organized my desktop.
does anyone know WHY this may happen and if so HOW to keep it from happening?
i mean, is there a PATH that gets linked to this icon and moving this data will somehow create the question mark? some other explanation?
TIA for any help.

hi kappy. again a BIG THANK YOU for helping me on this.
these are good points but there is definitely a different set of aspects to working on a mac with respect to the workflows regarding app install but i am not technically knowledgeable enough to tell you why this is so. i can just say that it is very confusing and it could use some cleaning up. just the fact that i have to post this question is an indication of this IMHO.
also, at the same time one simply has to look at all the Application folders on the mac and the various ways they are accessed or pointed to. when you say something like you just have to (manually) put the app file in the applications folder these things are all over the place.
i have an "Applications" folder under my Home folder that has two folders and one application that has installed themselves there. then i have a Dock icon that says Applications that has a list of programs, and then i have a desktop shortcut that has a list of items. if i ask myself the reasonable question of - well - HOW do i drag and drop the .app file into the Applications folder like i am supposed to, or WHERE is the Applications folder that shows all the items in my desktop shortcut or in the dock icon - - reasonable (and reasonably intelligent) people might be completely stumped.
now i /know/ that this "other" Applications folder is actually listed under my HARD DRIVE icon and not my home folder because if i double click on the desktop icon or if i open the dock icon in finder i can see that this is the case. however, this means that we are talking about something that is HIDDEN from the user on the mac OS. so for me to MANUALLY add a . app file to the Applications folder i somehow have to - well - presumably i have to make the leap of faith that when i add this file to my DESKTOP ICON i am adding it to the correct (hidden) folder and not to the one that i can see plain as day in my Home Folder but which appears to contain next to nothing.
I mean, i am manually adding an app to a desktop icon that has the same name as another folder so that it arrives in a hidden folder with the same name. this is ridiculous. this is just dumb and probably goes a long way toward adding to the confusion. the fact that the Home Folder level Application folder is the one that is visible is even dumber.
again, a set of prompts upon program installation might be a Mac OS level need and not something that should devolve down to the developers who probably have enough on their hands trying to keep up with changes in the from OS to OS.
as a concrete example on this thread - the answer my issue is that either there is no .app file in the /hidden/ Applications folder for the dock icon to continue to reference or that the ICON was added to the dock while the .app file was somewhere and now it is no longer seeing this .app file where it originally saw it.
A slightly off-topic BTW:
do you know why I have one app file in particular that i see in the Home Folder Level Applications folder? this is a reasonably sophisticated company ostensibly they think this is a better place for the App and /they/ did this from what i can tell instead of me accidentally screwing this up because i was sleepy or distracted and not thinking about the Escheresque aspects of installing these .app files presumably? i mean, this in itself is confusing since I DO see this app icon in the dock and I DO see this app in this folder (all by its lonesome basically) but i DON'T see this app listed in my DOCK ICON list of Apps (or in my desktop shortcut list of apps) which from my perspective would/should basically cause a normal human being to think that the app is not installed...

Cursor becomes a question mark

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