Dead mouse

hey all, suspend to ram works and resumes fine but for one thing... the mouse is frozen on resume and nothing i've tried so far works. unloading the psmouse module prior to suspend and then loaded on resume still has the same outcome... a dead mouse!
can anybody point me in a direction that may be helpful. i'm a bit unfamiliar with arch so a nudge in the right direction would be appreciated.
happy sunday :-)
otj

You're not alone. The problem is in X, probably, because moving mouse causes writes to /dev/input/mouse<n>, that can be checked with $ od /dev/input/mouse<n>
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … -x-518369/
I've catched the same issue recently and I had to terminate X session to make my mouse working again.

Similar Messages

A dead mouse? Or a curse on the curser?

Very strange...All at once, the mouse stopped pointing. I can move it around blindly, but the pointer, (the business end)has vanished....Obviously Final Cut Pro is impossible to use without a pointer. Key board shortcuts won't even let you save & quit, that I can see...Is this a common dead mouse problem? It moves but it won't point.
G5 Mac OS X (10.0.x)

Seeing as this is not specific to FCP, you may find a faster response by posting this question in the OS X general discussion thread. It's here if you are in fact running 10.0.x.
Though I'd suggest the default advice of repairing permissions with Disk Utility whenever something funky like that happens. (You can repair permissions in 10.0, right? It's been so long since I've seen it.)
Dual 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 4 GB RAM, DeckLink HD Pro, XRAID

Ugh! How to navigate when you have a dead Mouse / Trackpad or accidentally turned off bluetooth

Wow...
Did a stupid thing and turned off bluetooth on my Mac and watched as my Apple Magic Mouse and Apple Magic Trackpad dissapeared and left me stranded.
For those of you dead in the water unable to navigate your Mac here are some tips:
Reboot your Mac and Zap your PRAM which will force the Mac to turn on bluetooth again. Shut down the computer by holding the power button. Hold down Command (the Apple icon 4 leaf clover key), Option, P and R keys together and hold them all down after you turn on the Mac. If you do this before the grey screen you'll see the Mac chime and restart. You can now let go of your keys and see if BlueTooth can now discover your devices.
If you haven't already swapped out batteries in your Mouse, Keyboard or Trackpad please do so. Be sure to not mix batteries of different types in the device.
If you have keyboard access, but not your mouse or trackpad you can press the Option Key 5 times and then your numeric pad should move the mouse allowing you to navigate to things like System Preferences, Bluetooth to turn it back on!
If you have a USB mouse you can plug it in, navigate your mac and turn bluetooth back on.
If you have Apple Screen Share or Apple Remote Access you can use another Mac to log into your Mac and turn on bluetooth.
Serious Accessbility Feature Requests for Apple (and yes I know this isn't the forum or place to put this, but it needs to be said):
You need to go back and fix 10.8.4 to allow complete navigation of a Mac with a keyboard only. You can use Command + SpaceBar and type System Preferences and then type BlueTooth, but once you are in the Bluetooth settings you can't use your keyboard to navigate to the ON option.
You can't also navigate into System Preferences / Accessibility to turn Enable Mouse Keys (you need a mouse to turn this option on!). The Mouse & Trackpad options should be made so that a keyboard could turn on/off this feature, because a lot of people trying to turn on this feature are folks like me who lost mouse/trackpad access!!
Hopefully this helps others! Hopefully Apple will do some basic UI improvements to bring back OS navigation for users who only have access to a keyboard or just a mouse/trackpad (no physical keyboard). These kinds of tests should be part of every major OS release!

http://apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

CF card + card reader + iMac + OSX Lion = Dead mouse + keyboard

When I insert a CF card to my card reader which connects to iMac 2011 running OSX Lion, both my magic mouse and wireless keyboard stop working. I have to do a force shut down to resolve. What would be the root cause and any permanent fix?

Try doing a both SMC and PRAM resets, you should try each 2-3 times if they don't work the first time. If that doesn't work then restart in Safe Mode which will clear some caches, it's possible one has become corrupt.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Powermac 6100 Dead Mouse

I have a 6100 and the adb mouse has stopped moving the cursor. The keyboard still works and I can open files etc. I have tried several mice, and several keyboards. I am fairly sure it is not an extensions problem as I have booted up from 2 different hard drives. Ok, here is what may have happened, (prepare to insert slow shaking of head here), it might have gotten wet due to a leaky humidifier on the furnace prior to the onset of problems. Is there a fuse or something that could short out on the adb bus? Why would the keyboard function but not the mouse?
Any thoughts? I still use the 6100 for the kids and as a printer server for using my old serial laserprinter with a G4 Imac.
Thanks, Colin

MC,
I think Grant may be right about buying another mouse but if that does not work, you will have a true mystery on your hands.
You ask "what kind of idiot lets his computer get wet?"
I will tell you. A graduate student brought her laptop into the store and said that two years of her phd thesis was on her laptop hard drive and it would not work. The tech opened the laptop and water ran out. The HDD would not work in a repair sled so he opened the hard drive and water ran out. He started up the drive again and recovered the data. He also made a backup copy.
The store is long gone but the memories live on. What happened? She would take her laptop out to the car, leave it in the freezing cold, haul it into a warm house, back to the car, into school, around campus and home again. It had filled up with condensation. I think she learned her lesson about backing up files.
Jim

Semi Dead Mouse?

I cleaned my scroll wheel on my wired mighty mouse and still I cannot get it to scroll. I checked my settings within sys prefs and I have scrolling enabled...has the mouse just had it from what some of you have experienced or is there something else I can try?

Clean your mouse:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302417
I have to clean mine a couple of times a month, when the above cleaning method doesn't work I resort to more drastic measures. I use a small amount of Rubbing Alcohol on a clean old t-shirt to clean the ball and then blow it out. The Alcohol cuts the skin oil in the ball socket that the grit, dust and lint are trapped in. I have done this many times in the last year and a half, it works well with no ill affects to the mouse.
Dennis
17" iMac Intel Core Duo - 1.5GB Ram - Mac OS X (10.4.9) - Maxtor 300GB FireWire - Creative Inspire 2.1 - 2G Nano

Dead Mouse/Keyboard

Hi everyone,
i accidentally deleted the IOUSBFamily.kext file and now i have no keyboard nor mouse use. Is there any way i can get those back without reinstalling everything?
Thank you for your time.
Linds

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Have you tried restarting? Sometimes system files regenerate themselves. I don’t know if .kext files will, but it would be a easy and simple place to start trouble-shooting.

A brand new W540 and the Ultra Dock humms, black out external screen, won't recognize mouse and some

Just received a W540 and an Ultra Dock. Here is my first impressions.
During setup ... tried to connect my speakers directly onto the laptop.... HUMMMMM! (really loud humming sound, until Windows loads ...sounds like a short somewhere ...). Ok, obviously sound is not the main focus of W540.
After a little while... boink! ... and the external screen goes black accompanied with the "Windows detected something disconnect"-sound. No matter what I clicked on the keyboard, or how much a moved the mouse, the external screen wouldn't turn on again. I had to flip up the screen on the laptop, and tada, Windows reported that something connected again, and the external screen turned on again. Turns out that I need to keep the laptop screen open at all times now, and now and then both screens disconnect and connect again. Not completely a showstopper, but somewhat annoying. Ok, how to fix - enter "lenovo ultra dock black screen" in Google and see that a bunch of people have experienced the same thing. After some reading, I found this official support page "LENOVO THINKPAD PRO DOCK AND THINKPAD ULTRA DOCK ARE CAUSING DISPLAY ISSUES ON EXTERNAL MONITORS" (http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht081248). Seems to fit my situation perfectly. Just download the fwdphb03.exe program and follow the instructions. But does fwdphb03.exe even start?!? NO!
Just a brief flicker and no application nor instructions to follow. In addition, I am Administrator on my machine. Please make applications that at least attempt to work....
I have an Aten mouse and keyboard switch (KVM) (CS-1784 to be precise), which have been working seamlessly for years on all other machines I have (VMWare images with different Windows versions, Raspberry Pi and Mac). Connecting the KVM with it's mouse and keyboard renders a working keyboard and a dead mouse (remember - switching to one of the other machines renders working keyboard and mouse instantly).... <rant on>pheeew, starting to get a bad feeling here. OBVIOUSLY we have a lot of cool hardware like USB 3 and DisplayPort and what not, but WHAT DOES THAT MATTER, when the Lenovo folks can't program this stuff properly?</rant off>
The W540 comes with a lot of Lenovo software. Much of it is really good and useful. But what happened when you try to log in to Windows? For some reason Lenovo want to inform you that the Num Lock is on when you see the standard login screen. The message something like "Num Lock is on - your password may be entered incorrectly". All in some black background, covering OVER the login field in Windows !!!! Hey, the laptop has a numeric keyboard, I don't need this message. Luckily others again have experience the same thing. At this page http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/New-T540p-numlock-warning-at-login/td-p/142... I get the tip that I need to rename the tpnumlk.exe to something else. Gone was the stupid message.
My advice to Lenovo - don't include stuff that harvest a lot of complaints and that obviously is going to annoy your customers. Even if the machine was one with a small keyboard and no separate numeric keyboard, I would NEVER EVER want to have some ugly black box covering over the standard login field… I can’t even imagine that the developer of this tool, use it (nor like it)! That is exactly why bloatware gets its reputation.
I would of course understand all this if I were talking about cheap machines and some wacko docking station. But I am not.... This is state-of-the-art, 2014, expensive-style laptop from the same manufacturer.
PS! At the end of this session, Lenovo tells me that there is a problem with the powersystem, and that it want to reduce power to sustainable levels....

can you connect the device in _*recovery mode*_ ?
JGG

Bluetooth Apple mouse suddenly very fast

I've used the Apple BT mouse since getting the Mac mini G4 more than a year ago with no problems. It's set to the second highest notch in Systems Preferences. Yesterday the batteries ran out and I replaced them after switching the computer off. When I turned the mini on 10 minutes ago, the mouse movement was suddenly very fast. I had to bring it down to the second slowest notch and even then it feels faster than it was before. The lowest setting slows it down to an unusable crawl. I've repaired permissions, rebooted and switched the mouse off and on without changing its behaviour. I'm on 10.4.7 and up to date in OSX. It isn't a major bother. Just curious about what's going on.

Hi again, Glenn:
I solved the problem by changing the batteries. Very strange. I started fiddling with the mouse after the new postings on this thread and all of a sudden it stopped working. It would click but would not move. I thought I had a dead mouse since the battery gauge still showed 3 bars and there was no warning of low power. I changed the batteries and the mouse came back to life in its original condition. Funny thing is, all 4 batteries were from the same pack of 8 Duracell alkalines. If this was a battery defect, it's certainly the first time I've ever come across one. Now I find the "reduced" speed too slow and have set the tracking speed to maximum!

Bluetooth Mouse Quits...

Folks,
I have a "regular" wireless mouse with my iMac G5 running 10.4.9. I just put new batteries in the mouse, but when I turned it on the LED began to flash slowly (as usual). Instead of flashing rapidly when the units are paired/connected, the LED goes out. I can then "click" wherever the pointer happened to be, but cannot move the pointer at all...
Dead mouse? Or other issue?
Help is appreciated....I'm about to have a PhD in keyboard shortcuts!!
Thanks...
Mark

This is not a 10.4.9 thing, as I am experiencing the same with 10.3.9 after replacing batteries and dealing with a keyboard problem. I'm inclined to agree with the post above recommending the paper, as it seems like this is more of a mechanical issue than software (the thin metal strip on the inside of the battery cover came loose when I changed the batteries, so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it).
I'm planning to stop by the Apple Store, so maybe a Genius can figure it out

Left USB won't work with mouse or hard drive

I can only use my right-side USB port with my Mighty Mouse and external hard drive. When plugging either of these accessories into the left-side USB port, the computer does not recognize the items. What could the problem be?
Thanks for the help!

Hi, Charlie -
This Apple KBase article may have info you can use -
Article #58649 - Apple Pro Keyboard: Devices Connected
I came across that article shortly after my keyboard died, which was not long after I began having dead-mouse problems.
I made the assumption that my mouse was overloading the power-passthrough capabilities of the unpowered hub in the keyboard. I reconfigured my USB connection scheme so that the mouse was connected to the powered hub in my monitor and nothing was connected to the keyboard. That was several years ago, and no more problems.

Mouse/Keyboard that work on Macbook without extra USB plug

Hello.
I just wonder are there any non-Apple Mice/Keyboards that do work with Macbook (mine is 5.5, OS X 10.8) out-of-the-box without any extra usb plugs required.
I dont care if they are genuine or some "custom-China" ones, if they are good for me I am in
Also, is there a way to understand if particular mouse/keyboard will work without the "extra-usb-plug" ? I have one old Bluetooth mouse here, and the macbook can't find her ...

Research the information on Google.
I have one old Bluetooth mouse here, and the macbook can't find her
Could be any number of things. The main ones are dying or dead mouse battery, system preferences not met & not compatible. Post in the Bluetooth community for other suggestions.

Not Apple's greatest upgrade

Not the smoothest OS upgrade Apple has released. Maybe they were just trying not to make Windows Vista look so bad. My upgrade took me 13 hours (an unlucky number that!), but did finally work. The take home message is:
IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE BIG ENOUGH TO CLONE YOUR WHOLE INTERNAL DRIVE AND SOME CLONING/BACKUP SOFTWARE, DON'T BUY LEOPARD UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED TO LOSE ALL YOUR DATA AND RE-INSTALL ALL YOUR APPLICATIONS.
Here is the history of my rocky road to Leopard:
22:30 25 October 2007: Clone perfectly working 500 Gb internal drive (247 Gb free space) running under OS 10.4.10 with latest updates to external 1 Tb drive using Intego's Personal BackupX4 .
22:45 25 October 2007: Go to bed.
07:10 26 October 2007: Check there are zero errors in external clone.
18:45 26 October 2007: Purchase Family 5 pack licence for Leopard
16:00 27 October 2007: Bite lip, insert Leopard Instal DVD and follow instructions
16:03 27 October 2007: Get warning message in window where you choose the drive on which the upgrade is to take place: 'Mac OSX cannot start up from this volume. The destination disk must be erased for installation.'
16:04 27 October 2007: Reboot successfully from volume from which Mac OSX supposedly cannot start up and check formatting of disk - it's Mac OS extended (journaled) as it should be.
16:05 27 October 2007: Re-attempt Leopard install - result same warning.
16:10 - 17:10 27 October 2007: Conclude there must be some faults in the headers, tree structure, or permissions on the internal disk, so spend an hour checking internal disk with Disk Utility, Drive Genius and Tech Tools Pro - all of which say there are NO FAULTS. Nevertheless, to be sure I defragment the drive.
17:11 27 October 2007: Re-attempt installation of Leopard - result, same warning.
17:12 27 October 2007: Ring AppleCare and wait about 20 minutes listening to the world's most untuneful tunes from the iTunes Music Store. I figure that the wait means I am not the only customer having problems and wonder whether Apple Customer care were prescient enough to roster extra technical support people for the days following the release of Leopard.
17:32 27 October 2007: Technical support Assistant, Dave answers my call and I explain the problem. Dave says, 'Oh that means you have to re-partition your internal drive, restore your clone to the new partition, install Leopard on the new partition and blah de blah de blah de blah! I dig my heels in and tell Dave that is simply not acceptable and that Apple has promised me that this upgrade will be smooth and the easiest yet. I am not prepared to do all that - I want another solution.
17:33 27 October 2007: Dave agrees to call a higher authority and we try various thinks like ejecting all the external (Firewire) hard drives to no effect. Dave's higher authority then suggests I check the internal drive with Disk Utility again (having restarted from the Leopard Install DVD). As soon as I click on Utilities in the Menu bar the yellow warning sign on my internal drive disappears mysteriously and is replaced by the friendly green arrow saying that the installation onto my internal drive can proceed.
17:50 27 October 2007: Mistake #1 - I follow Dave's suggestion and click on 'CONTINUE' (with hindsight what I should have done at this point is to click on 'OPTIONS' and established whether of not the radio button beside the first option that reads something like 'Upgrade will replace existing OS and no other files or data will be affected', but I'm a trusting person and follow the advice of dave's higher authority. The upgrade seems to be going OK after 5 minutes, so Dave gives me a case number and asks me to call back and quote it if further problems occur.
19:30 27 October 2007: (Note: 90 minutes after the AppleCare Helpdesk closes on a Saturday!) The Leopard installation program completes and asks me whether or not I wish to enjoy the delights of Leopard. I click 'YES' and Leopard relaunches successfully and I check the contents of my internal drive and find to my horror that, without warning. Leopard has done a 'CLEAN INSTALL' - all my data and applications are GONE! I am now ON MY OWN UNTIL 09:00 Monday - I swear, pull out my voodoo manikin of Steve Jobs and insert a few curare-tipped hat pins into it.
19:35 27 October 2007: Feeling better, I reconnect external hard disk with cloned Tiger OS + data and attempt to use Migration Assistant to migrate all my families accounts and applications to Leopard. Migration Assistant tells me that the external clone does not have Mac OS X installed on it (despite the fact that I can see a 'System' folder containing 10.4.10 on it) and that it can't migrate anything. I swear some more and put more hat pins into 'Steve' - one right through his groin!
19:40 27 October 2007: I attempt to change the start-up disk in Leopard to the external hard disk with the cloned 10.4.10 - everything seems to work, except when I click restart (with the padlock item locked) the computer refuses to restart from the external drive and defaults to Leopard (3 f**king times!). I insert more hat pins into Steve, including an extra long one that goes up his rectum and out of his right eyeball.
19:50 27 October 2007: Becoming desperate and not being able to reboot from the external drive I decide to install Personal BackupX4 on the internal drive and attempt to clone the external drive onto the internal drive. I can't see how this will work with the Leopard OS being needed to run PBX4 and it trying to write a 10.4.10 System folder over the top of it, but what have I got to lose?
19:51 27 October 2007: To my complete surprise with the source set to the external drive and the destination set to the boot drive the clone starts as if OK. I go and work on my bicycle.
01:30 28 October 2007: PBX4 says that it has transferred all of the files (except a couple of fonts that are apparently incompatible with Leopard) but has entered 'flat-line mode' where it says it is 'finishing' but not transferring any data - this has been going on since 00:30. I try to exit PBX4 without success - even force quit doesn't work. I turn off the Mac and try to restart - the grey screen of death spins its little wheel for 10 minutes while I insert my remaining hat pins into Steve who is now looking like a porcupine.
01:45 28 October 2007: I go get my trusty Tiger install DVDs for the PowerMac (Intel Xeon x 2) and try to remember how to get the DVD drive bay door open when the Mac won't boot. I scream 'Open the pod bay doors Hal' at Steve waking my wife and both dog's all of whom start barking at me! I calm down, apologize to my wife and the dogs, and try holding down the eject key when I push the power on button. It works! I realize that the pins in Steve are beginning to work - this is the first piece of 'good fortune' that I have experienced for 24 hours! I re-install OS 10.4.8 (which came with the PowerMac and update it to 10.4.10 using Safari.
03:15 28 October 2007: I now have my Power Mac in the same condition as it was at 16:00 the previous day having used Migration Assistant under 10.4.10 successfully (Unlike Leopard, 10.4.10 DOES RECOGNIZE 10.4.10 on an external drive) to recover all of the family's accounts and data from the external clone. I go outside and stare up at the night sky, I see a mouse scuttle towards the hen house and hear the click of a mouse trap. Seizing my chance, I rush to the hen house and retrieve the still warm corpse. I prepare a small pile of twigs in the garden under the (nearly) full moon and place Steve and the hat pins on top of it. I cut the dead mouse's head off and squeeze it's blood onto Steve. I light the twigs and strip naked and dance solemnly around the sacrificial fire incanting 'worms, woolly aphids, codling moths and all known pests of the Apple tree give me The Power!' Lights go on in the house next door.
03:30 28 October 2007: I explain to the police patrol officer what I am doing and why and he helps me put my clothes on again. Fortunately he is sympathetic, because he had attempted to install Leopard on his Intel iMac before coming on duty and was still watching the grey screen of death when he had to leave for work. He tells me his name is Darren and asks me if the moonlight sacrifice has worked for me in the past. I tell him that it did when I had a similar experience going from OS 9.5.5 to OSX, but I add that I had to use owl's feathers on that occasion as there were no mice in the hen house that night. Darren asks if he might be allowed to watch as I attempt another upgrade to Leopard on the restored 10.4.10. He tells me he admires my intestinal fortitude for even attempting it.
03:45 28 October 2007: Darren watches as I eject and disconnect the external hard disk, bite my lip for the umpteenth time and close the DVD pod bay door and click on the install Leopard icon. We get to the fateful 'choose disk for installation' screen and this time, by the Power of all of the pests of the Apple tree the welcome GREEN ARROW magically appears over my internal drive. Being less trusting and more experienced than I was at 17:50 the previous evening, I click on options - the radio button beside the 'Upgrade will replace existing OS and no other files or data will be affected' is highlighted. I cross myself, throw a pinch of salt over my left shoulder onto Darren's uniform, apologize and click 'CONTINUE'. The DVD whirs and I pour Darren and myself a beer. We have several more and recount Mac upgrades past over the next 90 minutes as Leopard re-installs.
05:15 28 October 2007: While singing the third chorus of 'Eskimo Nell', Darren and I notice that Leopard is asking us whether or not we wish to sample its features. I throw three more pinches of salt over my right shoulder (being carefull to avoid Darren's uniform, which is now covered with beer stains and cracker crumbs) and click 'YES'. Leopard reboots and there as if by magic, is my old log-in screen, and then my desk top with all of the new Leopard widgets! All my data is still intact (although I do have to re-install about 12 applications because the licence key files have obviously gone missing in the clone/migration assistant exercise. Darren shakes my hand and we embrace. My wife enters the study in her dressing gown with a quizzical look on her face, possibly wondering why I am hugging a beer stained policeman in uniform. I tell her that I will explain everything later.
05:30 28 October 2007: Darren bids me farewell and as we walk to his patrol car I retrieve another freshly dead mouse from the hen house and some twigs and give them to him with my best wishes. 'Take care', he says with a tear in his eye, 'I'd better go back to the station and clock off.'
'You too', I reply, 'Come on Honey, it's time I got some sleep, a Leopard can't change its spots! You don't mind if I leave Tiger on your Mac for a few more months do you?'

If you are unwilling to backup your data regardless of update/upgrade, I have no sympathy for you.
If you recall, the panther to tiger update was also no picnic. And it just makes good sense to backup all of your pictures/data anyway - regardless.
That in mind, your story is witty and disarming! Bravo on the final success.
I have upgrades/clean installed 3 macs with no issues on each. Maybe my luck <shrug>

A G4 dieing a little death - possibly....

hey - i'm using an older G4 which up until very recently has been absolutley fantastic, ever since he day i bought it.
I usually run 0S9 to satisfy software requirments, however recently i've been getting an error message telling me that my keyboard requires to much power to be supported via usb. ***? It's the standard mac pro keyboard i've always used and other than the mouse there is no other device connected to it.
I can get maybe half hour out of the machine by un-/re-attaching the keyboard, but then the machine crashes. (however i'm not convinced it actually crashes as the clock keeps ticking)
I am literally clueless when it come to MACs. i've never added hardware to the machine, and i regualary reinstall the OS.
Is my mac dieing or do i just need to replace a battery or something?
Would greatly appreciate any help - thanks RICH

Hi, teamzissou -
I agree with Thomas - try connecting the mouse to a port other than one on the keyboard. Your G4 has two USB ports.
The keyboard has an unpowered hub in it, one which does not handle passing power to attached devices very well, as indicated by this Apple KBase article -
Article #58649 - Apple Pro Keyboard: Devices Connected
My experience has been that the info in that article is correct. After I had a keyboard die several years ago, I switched my mouse to a port on my monitor (which has a built-in powered USB hub), and have not had any problems since then.
Another possibility, perhaps - the original Apple Pro mouses had a defect, where the wires inside the cable could fray at the point the cable leaves the mouse body. This would cause random open and.or short circuits, with resulting odd behaviors including freezes or dead mouses.

Too many files on 10.4 Desktop - Finder won't load

2.66 DualCore Intel Xeon + OSX 10.4.10 + 2Gb DDR2 DIMM + 230Gb ST3250820AS + OPTIARC DVD RW AD-7170A
Despite recurrent warnings, a relative kept leaving too many files on the Desktop, up to 300 files (JPGs, downloaded archives). Last week, after attempting to move/copy them to a folder, OSX crashed, and now Finder won't load; after password screen, menu bar and Dock appear, the 'MyDay' app (from Entourage) starts bouncing, and system freezes. Sometimes it goes back to password screen, and from there again to a frozen, empty finder with dead mouse pointer. Other times the spinning clock or wheel remain spinning forever.
Tried DiskUtility, repaired disk and permissions, reset PRAM, no dice.
Tried to boot off the 10.4.10 DVD, it doesn't allow to run OSX from the disc (I have a vague recollection of doing this once, but...)
Started in SafeBoot mode, finder froze at same stage.
Re-Installed OSX 10.4.10 in Archive and Install mode, same freeze at same stage.
The only explanation for the crash, as no updates/new app installing happened, is that there are, again, too many loose files on the desktop and as it tries to load the Finder it crashes. I'm hauling the machine ASAP to try with my own Intel to try access his disk via FireWire target mode but worry the same thing will happen on my system, that it will balk at too many files.
Is there a way to try to fix this without resorting to clean install (needless to say, last backup was months ago)? If I install Leopard on that disk (it comes out fine in Disk Utility) will the same thing happen as soon as it tries to load the Finder? Is there a way to boot 10.4 off a CD/DVD?
Thanks for any info or tips!

Welcome to the forums!
Make your relative write this out 1000 times:
Performance tip: Keep the Desktop clutter-free (empty, if possible)
Mac OS X's Desktop is the de facto location for downloaded files, and for many users, in-progress works that will either be organized later or deleted altogether. The desktop can also be gluttonous, however, becoming a catch-all for files that linger indefinitely.
Unfortunately - aside from the effect of disarray it creates - keeping dozens or hundreds of files on the Desktop can significantly degrade performance. Not necessarily because the system is sluggish with regard to rendering the icons on the desktop and storing them in memory persistently (which may be true in some cases), but more likely because keeping an excessive number of items on the Desktop can cause the windowserver process to generate reams of logfiles, which obviously draws resources away from other system tasks. Each of your icons on your desktop is stored as a window in the window server, not as an alias. The more you have stored, the more strain it puts on the window server. Check your desktop for unnecessary icons and clear them out.
Keeping as few items as possible on the Desktop can prove a surprisingly effective performance boon. Even creating a single folder on your Desktop and placing all current and future clutter inside, then logging out and back in can provide an immediately noticeable speed boost, particularly for the Finder.
And it is why Apple invented 'Stacks' for Leopard.

Dead mouse

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