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Virus on my Macbook - can't click anything - HELP!

T

timelessmelodee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
10
0
Hi all,
I have what I think is a virus on my macbook. Simply, I can't click on anything. The keyboard works, the trackpad works, but it won't allow me to click anything.

This definately isn't a hardware issue as it won't allow me to click when I use my wireless mighty mouse either, again it just lets me move it.

Has anyone heard of this fault before, and how do I fix it? It's so annoying!! (I'm on someone elses computer writing this).

Thanks alot,
David.
 
chrono1081

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Jan 26, 2008
8,453
4,154
Isla Nublar
There are no known viruses for Mac OS. GGJ Studios should arrive here any minute with links.

Not to mention what Hollywood shows as "viruses" is not what viruses do. Even if it were possible to have a virus on your computer you would most likely have no idea it was on there. It would just continue what it wanted to do and keep itself hidden.

Try resetting the PRAM and see if that helps. Hold control + option + P + R and restart the machine. Keep holding these down until you hear the startup chime twice then release.
 
A

AFPoster

macrumors 68000
Jul 14, 2008
1,547
141
Charlotte, NC
Morod said:
Repair permissions and/or reboot?
Click to expand...

If he can't click anything how is he going to repair permissions? Reboot your mac. If it doesn't work turn it off then put in your OS X disc / reinstall.

Morod I know there are keyboard commands to open files, etc but I doubt he knows them.
 
T

timelessmelodee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
10
0
tried rebooting many times, and cant get into repair as i can't click anything.

any help please? thanks
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
timelessmelodee said:
tried rebooting many times, and cant get into repair as i can't click anything.

any help please? thanks
Click to expand...

Can you provide more information?
What exact Mac do you have and what Mac OS X version is on it?
Do you still have warranty?
Is your data backed up, thus you could do a Clean Install?
Do you have access to another Mac with Firewire, if your Mac has Firewire?
 
chrono1081

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Jan 26, 2008
8,453
4,154
Isla Nublar
GGJstudios said:
There has never been a virus in the wild that runs on Mac OS X. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:
Click to expand...

Yes! See I said GGJ studios would arrive any minute :D (And I messed up your name in the original post so I fixed it :p)

timelessmelodee said:
tried rebooting many times, and cant get into repair as i can't click anything.

any help please? thanks
Click to expand...

Did you try resetting the PRAM? I posted how to do it towards the top.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
T

timelessmelodee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
10
0
its osx 10.3.

i tried rebooting with PRAM, but alas it has done nothing.

i can't repair any disk's, and can't enable trackpad clicking as i can't click anything in the first place to do any of these!

theres literally nothing more i can add to the problem - other than i cannot click anything, and it is not a hardware error. does anyone know what on earth this could be?
thanks.
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
ArtursBoy said:
Or You can try installing and antivirus, some have free trials
Click to expand...
There is no virus that runs on Mac OS X. Antivirus will not help.

timelessmelodee, try shutting down. Then power up. Do that instead of restarting, and see if it makes any difference.
 
notjustjay

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
Try pressing both the left and right buttons repeatedly (in sequence, together, whatever). I've found on my computer occasionally the mouse input driver gets confused and it thinks the button is being held down, so it is constantly waiting for a phantom drag operation to finish. As a result it won't let me click anything. Mashing the buttons seems to get it sorted out eventually. However, that is a random occasional glitch, and if your system still has problems after a reboot, that probably won't help...

As for the virus possibility, if you ever suspect there's a virus on your Mac, check out MacRumors first, as any such virus would be the first of its kind (so far) and would be major breaking news. If your problem really was a symptom of a virus, then the front page news story would probably describe the symptoms in detail. If it's not there, you can probably safely assume it is a hardware or software glitch, and not a virus.
 
blaster_boy

blaster_boy

macrumors 6502
Jan 31, 2004
282
4
Belgium
You can also boot from your mac os x disk (more info http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2956 ) and then see if you can click (or not).

That should bypass any virus or config change you made on your hard disk, and you can then run disk repair / verify permissions from your disk utility.

Let us know how it goes,

Alex
 
S

seb-opp

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2008
398
1
London/Norwich
No offence to the OP, but I find that its a general misconception among the less computer-literate that anything that's gone wrong with their machine is a 'virus'.

Do you know anyone with a USB, non Apple mouse you could test with?
or
Do you have access to another Mac and an external drive that you could use to create a boot disk from, to see if its a problem with your installation?
or
Use Target disk mode or Time Machine to back up your data and reinstall OS X

If you can't do either of these, or none work, the best thing would be to take it to an Apple store and hopefully get some answers
 
T

timelessmelodee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
10
0
tried everything suggested, and no luck. if anyones had an issue like this before please help me with it! its driving me crazy (writing this on housemates computer).

a few times tonight whats happened is i've switched it on, and its had the toolbar at the top highlighted, except i can't click anywhere to unhighlight it. other times, i've switched it on and its clicked on nothing and won't click onto anything.

please help someone!!
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
timelessmelodee said:
its osx 10.3.

i tried rebooting with PRAM, but alas it has done nothing.

i can't repair any disk's, and can't enable trackpad clicking as i can't click anything in the first place to do any of these!

theres literally nothing more i can add to the problem - other than i cannot click anything, and it is not a hardware error. does anyone know what on earth this could be?
thanks.
Click to expand...

There is NO such thing as a 10.3 MacBook.


chrono1081 said:
There are no known viruses for Mac OS. GGJ Studios should arrive here any minute with links.
Click to expand...

Fail! He posted just one link! ;)
 
T

timelessmelodee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
10
0
Hi again all,

I have tried booting up in safe mode, nothing changed. I then remembered I had an old hard disk, so I put that in, and I still have this problem. But surely if it was a hardware problem, when I then use my bluetooth mouse with it, it would work again?

Does anyone have any idea what this may be or have experienced it themselves - and any ideas of how to fix this please?! thanks
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
timelessmelodee said:
Hi again all,
I have tried booting up in safe mode, nothing changed. I then remembered I had an old hard disk, so I put that in, and I still have this problem. But surely if it was a hardware problem, when I then use my bluetooth mouse with it, it would work again?
Click to expand...
If you have the same problem with your trackpad not clicking while in safe mode and with another disk drive, then you have a hardware problem. Take it to the Apple Store and let them diagnose what it is.
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
It sounds to me like your trackpad is essentially permanently down (where you said that the menubar was highlighted and you couldn't click to deselect it). That can happen when a battery swells up, as some do toward the end of their life or because of a catastrophic failure. Try removing the battery and see if the problem goes away.

Either way, it's probably worth a trip to an Apple store after that.

jW
 
AlphaBob

AlphaBob

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
193
0
Rhode Island
Wow, this is odd.

The OP states he is using Panther (10.3). That pretty much says that it was circa 2003. 10.3.nothing was the original release in October of 2003. He also claims access to a blutooth mouse, which says the only possible laptop-like apple computers available in that combination (Blutooth and 10.3) would be an iBookG4 or a PowerBookG4.

It is also odd that either of those would be referred to as a "macbook" as that did not come out until 2006 and looks nothing like a PowerBook or iBook.

I hate to suggest this, but is someone pulling the groups leg?
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
AlphaBob said:
Wow, this is odd.

The OP states he is using Panther (10.3). That pretty much says that it was circa 2003. 10.3.nothing was the original release in October of 2003. He also claims access to a blutooth mouse, which says the only possible laptop-like apple computers available in that combination (Blutooth and 10.3) would be an iBookG4 or a PowerBookG4.

It is also odd that either of those would be referred to as a "macbook" as that did not come out until 2006 and looks nothing like a PowerBook or iBook.

I hate to suggest this, but is someone pulling the groups leg?
Click to expand...

I'd more easily suspect that the OP simply doesn't understand his computer very well, and either doesn't have a MacBook but believes he does because that's the name of Apple laptops he's seen around, or doesn't have 10.3 and thinks he does for some similar reason.

jW
 
AlphaBob

AlphaBob

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
193
0
Rhode Island
Mal said:
I'd more easily suspect that the OP simply doesn't understand his computer very well, and either doesn't have a MacBook but believes he does because that's the name of Apple laptops he's seen around, or doesn't have 10.3 and thinks he does for some similar reason.

jW
Click to expand...

You are a kinder soul than I am, sir. My hat's off to you! :)

If indeed you are correct, then that PowerBook/iBook is so old I doubt it can be repaired for less than the cost of a new MacBook. I never asked Apple to support any hardware that was out of production (and they have been out of production for five years). I bet a second hand current generation MacBook would be the least expensive solution.

The puzzle, of course, is that an external mouse is not working, nor is the internal one, but everything else seems fine. Given the type of processor, the ability to resolve things by changing the OS is very limited too. Maybe if the trackpad is stuck 'down' the software prevents other instances of a mouse from clicking too. If it is a hardware failure then it will not be worth fixing.

So ultimately I would have to ask -- has this six-year old laptop been working fine for the past six years and just kicked out recently? If so did anything new get installed around the same time? It sure couldn't have been an OS update as none has been available for years.
 
T

timelessmelodee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
10
0
wow, lots of paranoia floating round these here parts.

its a white macbook running osx version 10.4.11, not 10.3 as was previously stated (i was going off the top of my head, as i wasn't near the computer itself and don't revise these things.)

if anyone does have some constructive tips, that would be great. it's definately not the battery swell problem (i had that problem before, and just recently bought a new one which is totally fine). the mouse physically clicks fine, but thats about it.
 
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