Home Forums Mac Software Mac Operating Systems contextual menu issue, OS 10.4

I am trying to help an elderly widow with her iMac (17-inch Late 2006) running OS 10.4.11. She is completely inept with anything technical so I can't ask her to troubleshoot without my being there.

Her problems started with a vertical line, similar to what is described in this thread. I know that that's not related to OS 10.4 but I mention it because she asked for help originally due to that issue. I went to her house and quickly found that she had other problems. (She barely knew that anything was wrong!)

Clicking on almost anything results in a contextual menu, even though Control was not pressed. I disconnected the keyboard, connected the mouse directly to the computer and got the same result, so the keyboard is not the problem.

Double-clicking a desktop folder does not open the folder. Instead, you can only open it from the unbidden contextual menu. Clicking on items in the menu bar works normally. I accessed System Preferences from the Apple menu but clicking on any of the preference panes produced no results. Oddly, I accidentally clicked on the desktop and got the Desktop and Screensaver preference pane. I had wanted to create a new account to test for a corrupted preference file but it was not possible to get to any preference pane.

Switching from icon view to list view cannot be done; all I got was a contextual menu. In fact, clicking almost anywhere (desktop included) produces a CM.

Dock icons do not respond to a single click as they should. Instead, I get a contextual menu and can click Open to launch the application. Clicking a bookmark in Safari results in a contextual menu.

I wanted to back up her system with SuperDuper. I had previously downloaded it, put it in an external firewire drive and brought the drive to her. I was able, via the pesky CMs, to mount the .dmg file but clicking on any button to install produced nothing. This was consistent with other windows that had buttons. If the button was blue, clicking with the mouse did nothing but pressing Return worked.

I booted from the Disk Warrior 4.2 CD and rebuilt the directory. Mouse clicks behaved normally. The problem was not solved upon rebooting. Consequently, I decided to run A&I, which got her to the original OS, namely 10.4.7. The problems did not go away. I ran Software Update to get her to 10.4.11 and was unable to deselect an update to Front Row, so I opted to install both. This did not make the problem go away.

She does not have Stuffit installed (some readers may recall that this caused problems with CM items) and there is nothing in /Library/Contextual Menu Items.

Due to the problem with her display, she will either have to have that replaced or get a new computer. If she does, I'm afraid to have her use Migration Assistant because that may bring across whatever is causing her problem.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: I tested SMART with Disk Utility and it was "verified".

I have been thinking about possible solutions and came up with a plausible explanation. I won't know until I get back to her computer, of course.

It's possible that com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist is corrupted. It's located in ~/Library/Preferences. If so, both right and left clicks may have reset themselves to activate contextual menus. The problem occurs with clicking on either side of the mouse and she just told me that it developed a few days ago. I'll try to get to her house soon and then I'll post back with my results.

In the meantime, can anyone suggest another plist to try? I'm looking at the plists in my Snow Leopard setup and I don't know if they have the same names in Tiger.

Before going into the search and destroy mode on plists, I suggest a run through Safe Boot mode and surprisingly enough a permissions repair process is highly appropriate at the same time.....then try a new admin account.

If issues still remain, re-running the 10.4.11 Combo Updater is where I might go next.

Good luck with this one.

I'll try the safe boot. Repairing permissions is not possible unless I boot from the install CD. I tried it while booted from the hard drive but none of the buttons in Disk Utility respond to mouse clicks. In addition, A&I should have reset permissions to defaults so I doubt that that's the issue. Still, I could try it if other things fail. I suppose that it might work in safe boot so it's worth a try.

It is not possible to establish a new administrator account because System Preferences does not respond to mouse clicks, so I can't get into the Accounts preference pane. Of course, it might be possible to do it in safe boot. If I can get this fixed, I'll set up such an account for future troubleshooting. Considering her lack of any knowledge of computers, she never set one up herself.

Re-applying the Combo Updater is a good suggestion but I doubt that this will work. Running A&I to get to the original OS (10.4.7) should have resolved the issue if the problem is located outside of Users. Since I checked the box to preserve user settings and the problem persists, I suspect that something in Users is responsible.

I'll be going to her house later today to try several things and I'll post back with the results.

I have had similar, although not as knotty problems with some friend's Macs some seniors and more than a few not so senior, from time to time. Recovery in these cases can make your life interesting.

Theoretically an A&I should have fixed any and all permissions issues in the system, but as I recall Tiger often did not live up to that promise as indicated by the number of repaired permissions immediately following an install.

If this is an issue in the user's folder, booting from the install DVD and running the Reset User Permissions utility would seem to be worth a shot.

Do you have a laptop you could take to her house? How about a bootable portable drive? I am thinking that if all else fails, you might be able boot from another volume then make an image of her computer on another drive. After that you could do an erase and install, create her a new account and then migrate her account from the image back to her computer. Then hopefully you would have a workable account on her computer to work from and recover her files as best as possible.

Would it help to use the "Scavenge" feature in Disk Warrior (hold down Option when clicking the Rebuild button)?

I don't recall the specific details but when I had an iMac that I thought was "done for" even after a regular Disk Warrior rebuild, the Scavenge feature did the trick.

ryck

"Scavenge" is useful when your hard drive is dead or dying. DiskWarrior makes a last ditch effort to retrieve whatever it can.

It does not seem this would apply in Jon's case.

The solution proved to be so simple that my face is red as a beet. When I went to her house, she tried the mouse and it worked fine. I tried it and got the contextual menu. I realized that she was left-clicking and I was right-clicking. In my own setup, I have both buttons set as primary (i.e., left-click) buttons so I never bother to move my index finger; I just click. Since she didn't want the right button to be the secondary, I set it as primary (just like mine). Everything works perfectly now, except for the white stripe. I even set up her new printer and she is very happy, mostly.

The unhappiness is caused by the white stripe. I told her that she has three options: Live with it and the attending problems, have it repaired, or buy a new computer. The first option is not good because she can't access any menus that are covered by the stripe. Well, she can access them but can't read the options nor move the window.

She opted out of the second choice because she doesn't want to give up the computer for even a few days. So, she took the third and bought a new iMac. We went into Apple's website to compare the different models and I told her that the cheapest model would admirably suit her needs. It's way better than her present machine. My only caveat was that Appleworks 6 (which she uses for word processing) might not work in Snow Leopard. I will try to find a workaround for that.

I also told her to save her wired keyboard and mouse. My neighbor has a wireless keyboard and mouse and I really dislike both. At least she'll have the choice. I also promised to set up the new computer for her as soon as she gets it so she's happy, at least temporarily.

Man, do I feel stupid.

EDIT: I have read this Appleworks thread so I think that she's good for awhile. I have a copy of MS Office 2004 that I never installed and it has three valid serial numbers. I will probably give it her.

Perhaps, but in my two experiences (once an iMac and once a G4) a dead or dying hard drive wasn't a required condition for Scavenge to be useful. In each case it was just really messed up software that was not fixed by a standard Disk Warrior rebuild.

To this day I don't know what was fixed in the software, I just know all was well afterward with both drives continuing to work fine.

ryck

Hi, Jon

You might point your friend to the New Users and other forums at FineTunedMac. She might enjoy the community, asking questions, receiving replies, and reading posts.


That is where we all began. That is why we all remain committed to FineTunedMac.

I'll mention that to her, Dianne. I don't think that she will actually do it because she really doesn't want to know the ins and outs of using a computer. She would like her Mac to be as simple to use as a toaster. It's worth a try, however.

Why? Because you didn't catch the mouse button (non)issue right away, and then posted about it? The bottom line is that you did catch it as soon as you could compare her and your use of the mouse. Set behavior is pretty strong, and it usually serves a purpose. Realizing that is always hard, but as long as you do there is no reason to flog yourself over it.

Thanks, Lee. To look on the bright side, she now has a really clean system after running A&I. Of course, that will be moot when she gets her new iMac running 10.6.

The frustrating part is that I jumped through many hoops unnecessarily but, on the other hand, it's nice that the solution was so uncomplicated. Given my druthers, I'd rather have it that way.

That's troubleshooting. Often spending 90% of the time trying things that have no effect and 10% on the actual solution, but you may not have gotten to the 10% without the other 90%.

Absolutely right, Kevin. Another rule of thumb is that the first 90% of a job takes the first 90% of the time and the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.

or in web design terms. 10% of the time programming a site to standards, and 90% of the time fixing it for the various versions of Internet Explorer.... oh and don't get me started on programming e-newsletters so they are compatible with the travesty that is Outlook 2007's ancient rendering model.