July 27, 2005

Desperate George - What the hell happened to my mac? I have a dual 2gig G5 with 1.5 gigs of RAM and two 250gig internal hard drives running 10.4. I was asked to bring it into work since my partner whom I work with doing video graphics for a television show had his laptop crash. He was using the dual G5 while I was using my iBook. Then suddenly the maching that he was working on started to speak announcing every click of the mouse, every keyboard stroke.

It also is showing a black narrow box over every thing (icon, window, ect) that you click on as well as when I click on my apple menu, it shows "restart" twice, "shut down" twice and "log out" twice, each just below the first. I have zapped my PRAM, repaired my permissions in disk utility, re-installed my system (reserving my old one in place and then eventually dumped it), unplugged all periphery stuff (scanner, ethernet cable, as well as the keyboard) with only the mouse in the computer and the same thing still happens. Has anyone experienced this. I really don't want to do a full install and erase. Any ideas.

posted by squidranch 18 years ago
  • You have VoiceOver turned on. Go to System Preferences, click on Universal Access and click the off button under VoiceOver.
  • agreed. you have somehow invoked the universal assistance services. it actually has some good uses, like the screen zoom function...
  • Thank fucking god. I am going to now kill my graphics partner. He is laughing right now, but I will extract my revenge.
  • OK, now we everybody shout: APRIL JULY FOOOOOOL!!!!!
  • Laughing boy is a windows guy and seriously has no idea how he screwed up my machine. Doesn't remember messing with universal access. Goes to show you that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
  • apple-F5 turns it on and off- he was probably going for the links palette in illustrator or somethin'.
  • That explains it. I've set up short cut keys for some photoshop stuff that I do all the time. One of them is "command - F4". He must have hit it by mistake. I thought that my machine was haunted or something. BTW, any thoughts on why it has "restart" twice, "shut down" twice and "log out" twice? You'd figure once would be enough even for the hard of hearing or sight impaired.
  • heres a good one to have fun with Windows: 1) take a screencap of the desktop 2) delete all icons 3) set the screencap as the wallpaper 40 sit back and enjoy
  • Thanks drjimmy11. How does one do a screen capture in windows? As I said, I WILL extract my revenge.
  • "print screen" key. (it'll then be on the clipboard) I wouldnt actually do that though b/c his icons will be gone and he'd have to recreate them all. (you could hide them in a folder though)
  • You wouldn't need to delete or hide the icons, just "hide desktop" - that effectively makes all icons go away until you choose "show desktop" again. If you don't know how to do this, you just rightclick on the desktop and follow the popup menu. Remember that print screen has to be done with CTRL (at least, that's the way I've always done it) and that you then must paste it into a new image in photoshop or something. (It copies the screen to the clipboard, basically.) Print Screen was a VERY mysterious function for me until someone made a point of telling me those specific two things.
  • Just bring in a big speaker magnet, open up his case and attach it to the hard drive. Put everything back together and watch the fun. Or, when he leave his email client unattended, fire off an asassination threat to some head of state (in his name). That'll teach him.
  • I spelled that wrong on purpose to throw off the government's bots. Yeah, that's the ticket.
  • Actually, I don't need to take my revenge as computer gremilins already have. His HP laptop is overheating so much that it shuts down after 30 minutes or so. I've got to bat alone tomorrow. I think I've got him sold on a nice used iBook since he also wants to learn Final Cut Pro (I've taught classes in the program) and it also makes sense that we are both on the same platform if there are future issues like this.
  • You are a person of impecable taste, squidranch. Macs rock so hard it isn't even funny anymore. People who use Windows machines will probably accept 2nd (or 3rd) best in most other things in life, too. : )
  • Hey, your partner being a Windows user is punishment enough...
  • Although I have never used a Mac and I have no clue about them, I'll have to admit that I am now highly envious of my neighbors Mac system that she got for $5000 (and that was the discount price). I about fainted when I saw it. I'm close to cutting off my right arm for it.
  • If you wait 3 years, she'll sell it to you for $150.
  • Sweet!
  • Hey, I got a idea- let's argue about whether PCs or Macs are better!
  • You'll never match the stability or battery life of my abacus Stan. Give it up
  • Abacus? Why, in my time, our ten fingers and ten toes were enough for any calculatin' we could ever need; no fancy wood clackers or expensive quill & paper for us...
  • Christ! Will I never manage an original thought?
  • Great minds, Abiezer.
  • Great minds wrangle in endless plagiarism litigation.
  • *sniggers*
  • Hey, I got a idea- let's argue about whether PCs or Macs are better! We could except there is no argument. Just as in a battle of wits one never takes on an unarmed man. ***runs away***
  • The Mac zealots remind me more than a little of the Amiga drones of years ago.
  • We all know that the only reason squidranch posted this was to let us all know that he has a dual-processor G5. (and the only reason I'm posting this is to say "me too".) heh
  • Macs are pretty, unix based, still have cool video stuff (final cut HD), are 64 bit, almost never get viruses and are more expensive. PC's are cheaper, better for games, ubiquitous and can almost do all that macs can. I actually encourage most of my friends to buy PCs unless they have very specific needs. I just grew up with macs is all.
  • The Mac zealots remind me more than a little of the Amiga drones of years ago. Hey, hey, show some respect,we're still celebrating!
  • I actually encourage most of my friends to buy PCs Committing others to a path of only darkness when one is in possession of the light is my definition of pure evil. overstating it a bit  
  • I'm bi-OS. I'm predisposed to Macs... I find them more aesthetically pleasing, and I prefer the interface. But sometimes PCs are the only thing around, and they are good for games.
  • I hacked a Mac A Mac I hacked Who clicked the Chooser? The loser clicked the Chooser! Loser chose the choosy chooser to be the biggest loosey loser with the hacked mac packed by Shaq! Terminatah X! /freestylin'
  • I spend more time looking at my monitor screen than at my computer itself, so "prettiness" is a total non-issue. I do know, however, that many of the applications I run aren't available for Macs, so PCs win, hands-down.
  • If you're looking at your screen all the time, and you think "prettiness" is a non-issue, get off Windows for a while. Maybe to a Mac, or maybe to Linux with KDE. Once you go back to your good old MS OS, you'll realize just how crappy Windows looks.
  • Yeah, those Macs are mighty purty.
  • Yeah, Macs are wonderful, yada yada yada
  • azpenguin: I rarely look at Windows, so i don't care how crappy it looks. I'm usually looking at an application window, maximized. I do find OS zealotry amusing, however.