More Mac Pro weirdness

[MarkJohnson]

Last May I described the issue I had of massive files buildup in the cups folder of my early 2009 Mac Pro during printing from LR, filling the OWC 120 Gb SSD used just for applications: http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=100544.msg823431#msg823431. My solution is to just regularly delete those files.

Now, 2 days ago, I lost control of the optical mouse cursor. It would only move in the top left quadrant of the VGA monitor on my right and the top right quadrant of the Eizo CG243W on my left, with inability to steady the cursor on any point in those areas. I checked all connections, tried one monitor at a time, tried another mouse, went to Safe Mode and verified the disk and corrected permissions for that disk, ran the latest ClamX AV and attempted re-installation of Mavericks (that stalled, with '4 hours and 14 minutes remaining', and no progress after 12 hours). So to regain control of the cursor, in Safe Mode I enabled Mouse Keys under Accessibility Preferences, Mouse and Trackpad. That went fine but also, to my surprise, restored mouse control of the cursor, and all seems well again!

Even after helpful discussion here, I couldn't understand the cups files issue, and this latest problem with the cursor seems weird. I wonder if the SSD is starting to fail (although Disk Utility verified it OK), or what!

(Mac specs are: 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC; ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB)

[MarkJohnson]

The issue recurred today, with mouse moving cursor only in upper left of right side monitor and upper right of left side monitor. The enabled keyboard mouse keys didn't move the cursor out of that area either. Following previous experience, I restarted in safe mode and made minor adjustments to the enabled mouse key options in Accessibility Preferences: this worked on restarting, with normal mouse control over the cursor, but then a little while later the issue re-recurred. This time, I disabled the mouse keys in safe mode and that restored normal mouse/cursor functionality on restarting. All this time, I had been in LR doing nozzle checks & cleaning.

So the problem is temporarily sorted by making adjustments to mouse parameters in Accessibility Preferences.

I would be really grateful to hear from anyone who has seen or heard of anything like this. As mentioned already, this follows a problem a few months ago of unexplained accumulation of large files in cups folder during LR printing.

Maybe I should try Mavericks re-install (which wouldn't complete when I tried some days ago), or ? Yosemite upgrade.

Thanks.

[graeme]

The issue recurred today, with mouse moving cursor only in upper left of right side monitor and upper right of left side monitor. The enabled keyboard mouse keys didn't move the cursor out of that area either. Following previous experience, I restarted in safe mode and made minor adjustments to the enabled mouse key options in Accessibility Preferences: this worked on restarting, with normal mouse control over the cursor, but then a little while later the issue re-recurred. This time, I disabled the mouse keys in safe mode and that restored normal mouse/cursor functionality on restarting. All this time, I had been in LR doing nozzle checks & cleaning.

So the problem is temporarily sorted by making adjustments to mouse parameters in Accessibility Preferences.

I would be really grateful to hear from anyone who has seen or heard of anything like this. As mentioned already, this follows a problem a few months ago of unexplained accumulation of large files in cups folder during LR printing.

Maybe I should try Mavericks re-install (which wouldn't complete when I tried some days ago), or ? Yosemite upgrade.

Thanks.

Hi Mark

My 2007 Mac Pro started getting seriously cranky in early 2014. I spent a lot of time & some money trying to get the thing working again. I also found that no techie was interested in trying to repair a 7 year old computer. In the end I realised that I was wasting my life trying to sort it out & bought a new computer. I wish I'd realised this more quickly & cut my losses.

Your Mac Pro is nearly as old as mine was when it started failing. I can't help with any tech advice for your issues, just urge you not to throw too much effort & money at an ageing computer.

Good Luck

Graeme

PS. Yosemite is a source of problems not a solution to them IMHO.

[MarkJohnson]

Thanks Graeme. My Mac Pro doesn't have much to be cranky about, with SSD (containing OS & applications) only a few years old and only 20-25% full now, plus adequate memory, so not looking to replace just yet.

[mediumcool]

Your Mac Pro is nearly as old as mine was when it started failing. I can't help with any tech advice for your issues, just urge you not to throw too much effort & money at an ageing computer.
Good Luck
Graeme

Age of the computer isn’t the problem (unless there IS a hardware problem); software is most likely.

PS. Yosemite is a source of problems not a solution to them IMHO.

Agree. Waiting for El Capitan for fixes.

[graeme]

Age of the computer isn’t the problem (unless there IS a hardware problem); software is most likely.

That's what I wanted to believe....

[degrub]

Couple ideas to maybe narrow the problem.
Cabled mouse or bluetooth  ?

1) clean  install to clean external drive, boot from that, install software until it starts going crazy again.

2) if cable mouse, can you connect the mouse through a keyboard  instead of direct ?

3) if bluetooth mouse, try a cable mouse or look for RF interference - maybe a new wireless device or repositioned ?

[MarkJohnson]

Thanks degrub. Problem was the same regardless of how the cable mouse was connected.

I felt it was likely an OS X software fault and after re-running hardware & virus checks tried again to re-install Mavericks, this time with a better wi-fi connection, and succeeded. Mouse/cursor functionality is fine at least for now. The earlier problem of large files appearing in the cups folder during LR printing is still the same but I can simply delete those after printing (they don't go away on restarting).

Thanks again to other contributors for giving this problem some thought.