First odd iMac behavior

[TheBrazilianGuy]

Ok, I just arrived at home and booted my wife's iMac G5, where
I have an account.

Everything goes fine until I access my account (or any account)
and notice that the wired keyboard does not work. For a few seconds
I can see a new icon at the dock showing a circle and a key on it
before it disappears. It looks a sort of locker but there is no
indication of any restrictive access.

This is a first for me. Could someone hint what could be happening ?

Thanks !

 

[TheBrazilianGuy]

After a small digging, I noticed that every user did not have permission
to write on the drive. I fixed the permissions and now the group is "system",
which does not allow to use the keyboard. It seems that
I can not alter anything on any account ! (ie, no input is allowed)

 

[TheBrazilianGuy]

I think I found the problem but still I need assistance.
After Verifying the disk, here is the report :

Verifying HFS Plus Volume
Verifying Extends Overflow file
Verifying catalog file
Verifying multi-linked files
Verifying catalog hierarchy
Verifying extended attributes file
Verifying volume bitmap
Verifying volume info

VOLUME HEADER NEEDS MINOR REPAIR

THE VOLUME MACINTOSH HD NEEDS TO BE REPAIRED

What a **** is this ?

 

[TheBrazilianGuy]

Well...I repaired the disk, permissions...now the reboot is much faster
but the problem remains.

I will check the SMART logfile...maybe it IS a hardware failure
after all.

 

[Makosuke]

What I think you're describing doesn't sound like a drive problem, although it might be--the fact that it boots ok means that the drive is probably alright--the minor volume header issue does just happen sometimes. If it were stallig or panicking randomly, that might be a failing drive, but if you just can't seem to get the keyboard to do anything, that sounds like a different issue.

First thing I'd try is moving where the keyboard is plugged in in the back, to check if there's a bad USB port.

I'm guessing from your description that you can use the mouse, so something's working, but maybe try plugging it in separately from the keyboard, if it isn't already.

If you are able to access the System Preferences, try going to the Accounts section and creating a new account, then see if that account displays the problem--that'll narrow it down somewhat.

It could also be that something like StickyKeys got turned on in the Universal Access Preference Pane--you might have a look in there and make sure everything is off.

 

[maxrobertson]

maybe if you tried plugging it in to a different USB port? Or check if any settings are wrong in System preferences.

 

[TheBrazilianGuy]

Thank you, thank you very much for the input.

I was/am in despair.

First of all, my HD does not indicate any failure.
I had tried all USB ports before posting here and the keyboard
does look to be working (at least the shortcuts and eject CD button).
As you well noticed, my mouse is ok which indicates that its cable is
not ruined.

I checked the StickyKeys and they are not on. Good idea though.

Now, regarding the creation a new user, how can I do that if
I can not use the keyboard ? There is no way to enter any
character/symbol there (I tried).

The only thing I could do was to hook up my external drive and
backup everything.

Oh, last thing...if I log in user A and check its HD permissions,
it says that user A can read and write. When I go to account B,
HD properties indicates that user A (!) is the only one who can
read/write. After fixing this, the keyboard is still off and if I
switch back to user A, now its permissions are gone (and user B is
the new owner).

That's puzzling !!!

What I think you're describing doesn't sound like a drive problem, although it might be--the fact that it boots ok means that the drive is probably alright--the minor volume header issue does just happen sometimes. If it were stallig or panicking randomly, that might be a failing drive, but if you just can't seem to get the keyboard to do anything, that sounds like a different issue.

First thing I'd try is moving where the keyboard is plugged in in the back, to check if there's a bad USB port.

I'm guessing from your description that you can use the mouse, so something's working, but maybe try plugging it in separately from the keyboard, if it isn't already.

If you are able to access the System Preferences, try going to the Accounts section and creating a new account, then see if that account displays the problem--that'll narrow it down somewhat.

It could also be that something like StickyKeys got turned on in the Universal Access Preference Pane--you might have a look in there and make sure everything is off.

 

[TheBrazilianGuy]

Solved

That's hard to believe.

Even though the mouse was working (it was hooked up to the
keyboard), I put it in a different port and now the keyboard is
functioning again.

Was this a hiccup ?

What a relief !!!

Thanks a million for your help !

 

[Makosuke]

Even though the mouse was working (it was hooked up to the
keyboard), I put it in a different port and now the keyboard is
functioning again.

Was this a hiccup ?

It sounds like there's something wrong with the mouse, or (possibly) the port on the keyboard. The mouse could well function but screw up other things on the chain (the keyboard in this case). Alternately, if there's something wrong with the keyboard USB ports, having something plugged into them might be the cause of the problems.

You won't really know unless you can get your hands on another mouse to experiment.

If the combination of the mouse and keyboard was drawing too much power it might act a little like that, but I've never seen that happen and you should have gotten a warning anyway.