Re: Keyboard & Address Book Help Please & Help for Help

[Greg Manzie]

Thank you to all for the support and help. This posting is for those  
who are interested in the solution to my previous problems.


To everyone else. Sorry for the long post.

I have had a lot of drama and great deal of hair pulling over the last  
few weeks, but the problems turned out to be similar and operating  
system related.


1. The Keyboard problem;

My first posting.
Good Morning

Can someone help me with this problem please.
Macintosh G4 400 MHz (PCI graphics), 1 Gig RAM, OS10.3.5,
10 Gig & 20 Gig internal HD's,120 Gig external HD,
SCSI card, Netgear RP 614 Router,

When OS 10.3.4 first came out I dutifully updated. At about the same  
time I purchased a cordless Logitech mouse.


About the same time I also started having intermittent problems with my  
keyboard entries. It is a standard Apple keyboard, that came with the  
G4.


The e, d, c and enter keys would hang and sometimes not work at all.  
This happens in Finder, Mail, Safari and Appleworks (possibly others)  
but not all of the time.


I waited until O S 10.3.5 came out, then undated again, but with no  
change.


The problem occurs at some stage every day but not every time I use  
those apps. (for instance it is not happening right now thank goodness.  
It can be a real pain when your on line or trying to communicate with  
the bank).


I do regular back ups and maintenance checks and have tried the  
following at various times;


Reboot almost every day
Run Diskwarrior (every month)
Run Yasu (every week)
Repair permissions using disk utility (even though Yasu does that  
anyway)

Re fitted the original Puk mouse
Changed the Logitech mouse batteries
Changed the keyboard settings

Sometimes if I disconnect and re connect the USB mouse port on the  
keyboard the problem disappears for a while.
The only other USB devise is a Sarotech external HD connected to the  
Tower USB port. (this is usually switched off).


The problem only occurs during a particular session. The next time I  
use the app it may be normal. This happens even if I leave the app  
running in the background.


If the problem was mechanical and related to the keyboard itself, the  
pattern of intermittence would be different (I think). When the fault  
occurs, it consistently occurs (if that makes sense).


I recently fitted some second hand, but genuine Apple RAM, but that was  
working perfectly before the problem started.


Thank you for your attention
Regards

Greg Manzie

Selected answers;

I have a user here with a standard corded G4 keyboard - at some stage  
around upgrading to 10.3 he lost the volume up / volume down and eject  
buttons on the keypad. The fault is certainly not mechanical and posts  
to other lists to date have been fruitless...


Cheers, Antony.

Thanks for providing such a complete description of your situation.
However, unless there is something "special" going on, the first thing
you should suspect is a hardware problem within the keyboard (which is
never going to be resolved by a software upgrade). Depending on the
model of keyboard, and its physical environment, you could suspect
either a mechanical issue or an electrical issue. Sometimes, built-up
grime is enough to jam the mechanical response of keys, and this can be
resolved easily. If it were a software problem, it would normally be
deliberately caused by special input methods (e.g. non-Roman writing
systems or 'accessibility' features), and would have a consistent
trigger pattern, and would not affect such a peculiar assortment of
keys.

If you are in a physically "clean" environment (e.g. you do not spill
drinks into your keyboard), it is probably a bit hard to explain why so
many keys have failed, but for all I know it might be a consequence of
the arrangement of electrical conductors in the keyboard. Things like
cracks in electrical conductors can cause intermittent problems that
resolve themselves if you physically handle the keyboard. It is also
possible that there's a permanent degradation of a discrete component
or integrated circuit (in the keyboard) that is causing these problems.

If you suspect a software problem, one approach might be to borrow a
second keyboard for a while. Whenever your current keyboard misbehaves,
try pressing the equivalent keys on the second keyboard. If the second
keyboard always works, then replace your current keyboard. You could
also simply try unplugging (and then replugging) your keyboard each time
this happens, to effect a "power cycle". If the problem applies to both
keyboards, however...um...

from James.

Actually: note that 'e', 'd' and 'c' all form a column on the keyboard.
Generally, the natural arrangement of buttons in keyboards and keypads
is as a 'matrix'. While I don't know about Apple keyboards, a
traditional construction and operation of matrices is based around a
"row/column" design. Therefore, failures affecting a column or failures
affecting a row would be a veritable 'calling card' of hardware failure.

again from me;


Tha

Re: Address Book Help Please

[John Taylor]

On 27 Sep 2004, at 6:51 PM, Brett Carboni wrote:


Keep it clean fellas. This is a PG list :-)

Brett Carboni
Tsunami
"Sushi for all the family - explenatives deleted"

On 27/9/04 1:58 PM, "Shay Telfer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote this:


In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
on Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 01:05:17PM +0800, Shay Telfer wrote:

 sudo find ~/Library/Preferences /Library/Preferences -type f -name
 "*.plist" | sed -e 's/\(.*\)/\"\1\"/' | xargs plutil -lint | grep 
-v

 OK


What on earth is the sed for? Do you mean to use `find -print0` and
`xargs -0`?


Well, I didn't write it. The sed quotes the paths returned by the
find. It would seem that using the -print0 and -0 flags are probably
better ways to go.

Of course that solution is probably still broken if you've got
UniCode filenames :)  (cf The Unix Haters Handbook
)

Have fun,
Shay



Hi Fellas 8-)

Isn't all this a bit nerdy? What we did in the old days as to just 
chuck preferences to trash and let the application build new 
preferences when it next opens. What's wrong with just trashing Address 
book preferences? (Username/Library/Preferences/AddressBook.plist)


Regards,

John Taylor

Re: Address Book Help Please

[Brett Carboni]

Keep it clean fellas. This is a PG list :-)

Brett Carboni
Tsunami
"Sushi for all the family - explenatives deleted"

On 27/9/04 1:58 PM, "Shay Telfer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote this:

>> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> on Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 01:05:17PM +0800, Shay Telfer wrote:
>>>  sudo find ~/Library/Preferences /Library/Preferences -type f -name
>>>  "*.plist" | sed -e 's/\(.*\)/\"\1\"/' | xargs plutil -lint | grep -v
>>>  OK
>> 
>> What on earth is the sed for? Do you mean to use `find -print0` and
>> `xargs -0`?
> 
> Well, I didn't write it. The sed quotes the paths returned by the
> find. It would seem that using the -print0 and -0 flags are probably
> better ways to go.
> 
> Of course that solution is probably still broken if you've got
> UniCode filenames :)  (cf The Unix Haters Handbook
> )
> 
> Have fun,
> Shay

Re: Address Book Help Please

[Shay Telfer]

In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
on Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 01:05:17PM +0800, Shay Telfer wrote:

 sudo find ~/Library/Preferences /Library/Preferences -type f -name
 "*.plist" | sed -e 's/\(.*\)/\"\1\"/' | xargs plutil -lint | grep -v
 OK


What on earth is the sed for? Do you mean to use `find -print0` and
`xargs -0`?


Well, I didn't write it. The sed quotes the paths returned by the 
find. It would seem that using the -print0 and -0 flags are probably 
better ways to go.


Of course that solution is probably still broken if you've got 
UniCode filenames :)  (cf The Unix Haters Handbook 
)


Have fun,
Shay
--
=== Shay  Telfer 
 Perth, Western Australia   Technomancer  Join Team Sungroper in the
 Opinions for hire  [POQ] 2005 World Solar Challenge
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] fnord 

Re: Address Book Help Please

[James Devenish]

In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
on Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 01:05:17PM +0800, Shay Telfer wrote:
> sudo find ~/Library/Preferences /Library/Preferences -type f -name 
> "*.plist" | sed -e 's/\(.*\)/\"\1\"/' | xargs plutil -lint | grep -v 
> OK

What on earth is the sed for? Do you mean to use `find -print0` and
`xargs -0`?

Re: Address Book Help Please

[Shay Telfer]

Perhaps there is  a strange .plist file somewhere that is corrupt.


There are a number of plist checkers available from versiontracker:



Alternatively if you're not afraid of the commandline you can use 
this incantation:


sudo find ~/Library/Preferences /Library/Preferences -type f -name 
"*.plist" | sed -e 's/\(.*\)/\"\1\"/' | xargs plutil -lint | grep -v 
OK


Have fun,
Shay
--
=== Shay  Telfer 
 Perth, Western Australia   Technomancer  Join Team Sungroper in the
 Opinions for hire  [POQ] 2005 World Solar Challenge
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] fnord 

Re: Address Book Help Please

[Robert Howells]

On 27/09/2004, at 12:37 PM, Greg Manzie wrote:

Something in my Address Book is not as it should be. (See OS and 
machine details below).


The application does not want to start up and hangs, then needs to be 
forced to quit.


I have run Yasu, DiskWarrior and Disk Utilities (which I do 
regularly). There were no problems, but it made no difference.


I have temporarily removed all of the various files and folders from 
the user library and replaced them with back ups from a week or so 
ago, but there is still little difference.


Strangely (at least at first) the Address book in Safari still 
functions normally. Also when my partners login window is active, her 
address book works normally. (almost identical lists)


By completely removing the Address book folder from the user library, 
I can get the application to start. But it does not run well. If I 
then revert to the database backup, it imports it, but hangs again.


Perhaps there is  a strange .plist file somewhere that is corrupt.


OK, I see you have Panther !  Look in your Applications - Utilities 
- Check Prefernce files

and try it out for a corrupt preference file

GOOD LUCK

Bob




I think it is time for me to stop guessing and ask someone with more 
experience.


Thank you in anticipation.

Regards

Greg Manzie
Director
Glyde Gallery Conservation
Fine Art Conservators and Museum Consultants

08 9383 3929
0438 833 144

Macintosh G4 400 MHz (PCI graphics), 1 Gig RAM, OS10.3.5,
10 Gig & 20 Gig internal HD's,120 Gig external HD,
SCSI card, Netgear RP 614 Router,
Alcatel Speed Touch ADSL Modem through built in Ethernet.


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Address Book Help Please

[Greg Manzie]

Something in my Address Book is not as it should be. (See OS and 
machine details below).


The application does not want to start up and hangs, then needs to be 
forced to quit.


I have run Yasu, DiskWarrior and Disk Utilities (which I do regularly). 
There were no problems, but it made no difference.


I have temporarily removed all of the various files and folders from 
the user library and replaced them with back ups from a week or so ago, 
but there is still little difference.


Strangely (at least at first) the Address book in Safari still 
functions normally. Also when my partners login window is active, her 
address book works normally. (almost identical lists)


By completely removing the Address book folder from the user library, I 
can get the application to start. But it does not run well. If I then 
revert to the database backup, it imports it, but hangs again.


Perhaps there is  a strange .plist file somewhere that is corrupt.

I think it is time for me to stop guessing and ask someone with more 
experience.


Thank you in anticipation.

Regards

Greg Manzie
Director
Glyde Gallery Conservation
Fine Art Conservators and Museum Consultants

08 9383 3929
0438 833 144

Macintosh G4 400 MHz (PCI graphics), 1 Gig RAM, OS10.3.5,
10 Gig & 20 Gig internal HD's,120 Gig external HD,
SCSI card, Netgear RP 614 Router,
Alcatel Speed Touch ADSL Modem through built in Ethernet.