ibook g4 - what might these symptoms indicate?

[AmandaH127]

I bought an ibook g4 from a reseller and had problems with it so I sent it back. I just received the replacement and there are new and different problems with it. Naturally I'm furious but rather than going to war with this company of idiots and being stuck even longer without a computer I was hoping maybe the problem with the computer is something I can resolve on my own.

I've dealt with my share of computer issues but these particular ones have been just weird and I'm curious if they're related in some way and there's some kind of simple fix.

1. After starting the computer up I found that simply having the cursor over a file would open it without my clicking. And the same was true for open windows when the cursor was over the red "close window" circle. I don't know if I resolved this by screwing around in the keyboard/track pad preferences or if it stopped doing this on it's own. But in any event it stopped doing it.

2. The keyboard is screwy. At first, none of the typing keys worked. Naturally my immediate thought was that the keyboard may need replacing, but the function keys worked fine. Then after cluelessly fiddling around I found that the keyboard worked and I could actually use the letters, space bar etc. But whenever I hit the return key it would create a string of random letters and slashes and had a strange distorting effect on the screen like some of the function keys do. Some time later the letter keys stopped working again.

Otherwise the computer works fine.

Thanks a lot for any help in this regard.

[sananda]

Originally Posted by AmandaH127

1. After starting the computer up I found that simply having the cursor over a file would open it without my clicking. And the same was true for open windows when the cursor was over the red "close window" circle. I don't know if I resolved this by screwing around in the keyboard/track pad preferences or if it stopped doing this on it's own. But in any event it stopped doing it.

I think you had "clicking" checked in the System Preferences for the trackpad.

[celticpride678]

1- Have Clicking enabled under Trackpad in System Pref.
2- Might be drivers. i would take it to the Apple Store or try a reinstall of the OS you are using.

[AmandaH127]

Originally Posted by celticpride678

2- Might be drivers. i would take it to the Apple Store or try a reinstall of the OS you are using.

Thanks a lot. So are you saying it doesn't sound like a hardware issue or is that still a strong possibility?

[Stevo B]

Could be hardware. Possible spill damage on the keyboard causing shorting? Defective keyboard/trackpad ribbon? I would try an external keyboard and see if it acts the same. If so then you know its not hardware.