Mouse won't respond after downloading 10.2.8 update.

Question

I had to reinstall the older system of 10.2 after I tried to install 9.1 on my system. I couldn't boot up at all except through using apple option o f or from a system disk. I had recently bought this emac through ebay and it had the Tiger system installed but I didn't get the disk with the computer. My cds are the grey cds and therefore I had problems with the display being small. Finally after downloading 10.2.8 and zapping my pram and reset-all in o f, my display is now back to normal, but I can't get the mouse to respond. I have tried switching mouses and unhooking and reconnecting everything but nothing works. What can I do? This is becoming a real headache. Someone please help me.
Elaine

Answer 1

wmanning,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
What kind of mouse are you using? What Mac model name is in the grey OS X 10.2 Install discs you were using? Unless the grey-labeled discs are for the exact same Mac model, there's no guarantee that all the necessary hardware drivers are included, as you've already discovered with the video drivers defaulting to the firmware 640x480 pixels. It rather sounds as if your eMac doesn't have mouse drivers (which is odd; if you can use the keyboard, you must have basic USB driver support).
Refer to eMac: How to locate the serial number and identify your model to check what model you have. If that model shipped with OS X 10.3.x or 10.4.x, the eMac won't run from 10.2.8 anyway. I prefer Mactracker for looking up what OS version shipped with what Mac model.
Your best bet would be to use a retail (black label) OS X install disc, with an OS X version that post-dates when the eMac was built. Such a retail disc will have the full set of hardware drivers for the supported Macs built up to when the disc was pressed. If your eMac has a DVD-ROM or DVD-RW drive, you can use the current Tiger 10.4, which is faster and more stable than 10.2.8. If your eMac only has a CD drive, you can call the Apple Store and ask about the Media Exchange Program, or use a DVD-equipped Mac and a Firewire cable to install OS X on the eMac via FireWire target disk mode.
You can also call the Apple Store and ask about ordering a replacement set of the discs that originally shipped with the eMac.
You need OS X 9.2.2 to run Classic on an eMac (or to boot directly into OS 9 on 700 / 800 MHz nVidia graphics models). There would've been either an eMac-labeled OS 9.2.2 install CD or Software Restore disc originally with the eMac. You can use a commercial OS 9.2.1 CD to install OS 9 on an eMac, then go to the Apple Downloads site (linked at the top of the Discussions pages) to download the 9.2.2 updater. There are a confusing number of ways to reinstall OS 9, depending on the eMac model and the OS X version; see e.g., OS X: How to Perform Mac OS 9 Clean Install (there are links in that Knowledge Base article to other options).