Mac Frozen (not app-related, mouse still moves)

[RobertN]

Hello,

I've been experiencing a problem I'm hoping I can get some guidance on.

My Mac (MacBook Pro 13" - mid 2009 - OSX 10.6.4) has been freezing, and it doesn't appear to be caused by non-responding applications. It has happened three times now, starting a few days ago. It always seems to happen during normal use, so I'm not running too many applications or doing anything to strenuous on the computer..

When it happens, I first try to right click on applications and force-quit, since I have a visible arrow and not a spinning wheel, but the system does not respond to any mouse clicks. I then hit CMD, OPT, ESC to bring up the force quit window and it lists all running applications, but they all seem to be running fine. I am able to navigate the force quit menu using arrow keys but not with the mouse (still a regular arrow, not a spinning wheel). I proceed to quit all running applications one by one to see if one of them is causing the problems to no avail.. I finally shut down using the power button.

When I power up again, I see the last finder window I had open, which is also unresponsive. The first two times this happened, the finder window that was last open has appeared upon restarting but then I was able to operate my computer normally without any problems.

Since my machine was still unresponsive even after rebooting, I shut down again and rebooted from the Snow Leopard Install DVD (after holding down C key upon hearing initial chimes). I then went to Disk Utility and selected verify disk - it appeared to be OK, then clicked repair disk, then repair disk permissions. Wasn't sure if I should select repair if it didn't find any issues but I figured it couldn't hurt. Following this I quit Installer and restarted.

My machine's finally working again, but I'm still a little nervous that the problem hasn't been fixed since Disk Utility did not detect anything and this is the 3rd time something like this has happened in a few days so I'm a little suspicious. I got an address book worm two weeks ago, I'm not sure if this is related.

Is there anything else I should check for? I've heard of Disk Warrior, but I'm not sure if that's just for rebuilding failed drives, would something like that help? I've ran Onyx and did some maintenance and cleaning but didn't notice any red flags.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Bob

 

[djackmac]

It sounds more like a trackpad issue than anything. Ever spill anything on the machine? Try a usb mouse when the freeze-ups occur to help rule out if it is a goofy trackpad.

 

[RobertN]

Interesting thought. Haven't spilled anything on it, but I wouldn't rule it out. I typically use a wireless mouse, so I wasn't actually clicking the trackpad when this happened. So to be sure I'm understanding you correctly, are you suggesting it could be a software glitch, so whether or not I'm actually using the trackpad, the part responsible for registering a click (mouse/trackpad) is not functioning properly?

If this were to be the case, is there an easy fix to this?

Thank you

 

[djackmac]

If this were to be the case, is there an easy fix to this?

Well, I wouldn't say easy. But if it is the trackpad those models do have a separate trackpad so you don't have to pay for an entire top case to replace a faulty trackpad like on the previous (non-unibody) macbooks and macbook pros. How does the wireless mouse respond when the freeze-ups occur?

 

[RobertN]

I just realized I never responded to this, you were on the right track. Turns out that I have been using a wireless mouse and at times my machine does not respond to the clicks. Before forcing a restart I never thought to just click on the trackpad without using the mouse to see if that made a difference, but it turns out that did the trick.

After switching the wireless mouse off and then back on, all works fine again. It still happens from time to time, but at least now I know how to fix it and there are no major problems. Thanks again!