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;
Thank you James, for your excellent input.
I now remember that at one stage the space bar was affected which is
almost in the same row. I will borrow another keyboard and see if the
problem recurs. It also seems strange that the enter key is faulty,
but never the return key.
The environment is clean and stable.
A new keyboard is looking more like the answer.
The next time it happens I will make more observations and post the
eventual answer to the list.
from Mark
please note that the return and enter key are two different keys that
do two different functions (though on may applications the effect is
the same).
I'll suggest that it is your physical keyboard as I have similar
problem on my Apple Pro keyboard plugged in to my Powerbook - problem
is only on the external usb keyboard - the built in (laptop) keyboard's
fine as is using a different keyboard (the usb keyboard from my Wintel
box).
From John
I found when I upgraded to 10.3 that a lot of the keyboard shortcuts for
Final Cut Pro 4 no longer worked even though the keyboard assignments in
preferences were correctly set (using a g4 DP tower) - a colleague
checked
on a g5 at Curtin Uni video prod dept and it was the case on this also -
haven't had time to try and sort out why
john
The solution to this problem was, in short - a complete re-install.
Nothing else made much of a consistent improvement.
2. The Address Book problem;
My first posting
Something in my Address Book is not as it should be. (See OS and
machine details above).
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
Response from Bob
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
Response from Shay
There are a number of plist checkers available from versiontracker:
<http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?
mode=basic&action=search&str=plist&plt%5B%5D=macosx&x=11&y=6>
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
Response from James
What on earth is the sed for? Do you mean to use `find -print0` and
`xargs -0`?
Response from Shay
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
<http://research.microsoft.com/~daniel/uhh-download.html>)
Have fun,
Shay
Response from me
Thank you for the advice.
So far not so good. I downloaded PrefCheck 2.1 and it shows all
.plists to be OK except for the following;
/Users/gregmanzie/Library/Preferences/com.micromat.TechToolPro4.plist:
stream had too few bytes
I removed it and started TechTool and it made a new one with the same
result.
More importantly AdressBook checked out as follows;
/Users/gregmanzie/Library/Preferences/AddressBook2Ldap.plist: OK
/Users/gregmanzie/Library/Preferences/AddressBookMe.plist: OK
I also ran root level preference check and it said all OK.
The command line is a bit scary but I am happy to try if you think it
is worth it.
Response from Shay
You'll probably find that the commandline tool does the same thing as
PrefCheck.
I've got a few of the stream had too few bytes, which doesn't
necessarily seem to indicate a problem...
I have had corrupt address books in the past, but I usually just
removed the AddressBook data file (~/Library/Addresses/Address
Book.addressbook) and the problem went away. But of course if it's got
all your addresses in it that's not much of a solution!
Thanks,
Shay
Response from John
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
Then Peter wrote under the title Help for Help and his advise solved
the problem.
Hi
Every time I open the help viewer, it starts up but then immediately
crashes (OS10.3). I have repaired the disk and also rebuilt the
directories using Disk Warrior, but that has not helped. Just
wondering if anyone knows what the next step should be (system
reinstall - or can you somehow replace individual programs)?
Try here for some advice <http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/helpviewer.html>.
I have not had the problem you describe but it has been several times
discussed on the Apple Support Discussion Boards and the advice offered
in that web site has been recommended. You have not identified which
version of 10.3 you are running but if it is pre-10.3.5 I would
recommend an update to the latest as I think that does resolve problems
with the Help Viewer. If you still can not fix it contact me and I have
a couple more solutions which I have saved which may assist.
Peter Sealy
Thurgoona AUSTRALIA
I went to the excellent site he recommended and found the problem to be
as described there.
Lack of RAM
<www.thexlab.com/faqs/lackofram.htm>
Free Space
<www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html>
I am much the wiser now. The main problem was a lack of Hard Drive
space on the system partition. There seemed to be plenty over several
partitions, but my partner checked about 400 photographs in iPhoto and
this must have bogged the system partition over a few sessions even
though there still seemed to be plenty of HD space (300 MB to 1 GB).
Wrong!
I tried many fixes and work-arounds but the problem slowly spread to
iCal and Mail and put me off the air. So rather than make further
errors, I completely overhauled the HD filing systems, making much
bigger partitions and this solved the problem.
Thexlab explanation is far more descriptive than I can be here, so I
recommend it to anyone who is curious.
Trashing preferences and .plists, or re-installing backups just didn't
work and I spent days trying different things.
After reading thexlab article, I re-installed OS 10.3 and then used
Software update. I am now in the process of re-installing all of my
applications. A very long job but well worth the time for a good spring
clean. I could take more short cuts, but incremental updates may have
been a contributing factor, so I have opted for the safer method.
During the process I eliminated all my old OS 9 stuff and this has
simplified my file management.
One surprise was the recommendation from thexlab to run Mike Bombich's
Delocaliser. This app removes unnecessary foreign language support
files. It removed a whopping 537 MB from my various partitions. The
figure included the OS 9 and back up OS 10 partitions.
Thanks again to everyone. Especially, Peter Sealy. (where the heck is
Thurgoona, anyway)
I hope my experiences can help someone else.
Regards
Greg Manzie
Director
Glyde Gallery Conservation
Conservators, Consultants and Picture Framers
for Museums, Art Galleries and Collectors
5 Glyde Street
MOSMAN PARK
Western Australia 6012
Telephone (08) 9383 3929
Mobile 0438 833 144
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
