iMac completely frozen

[dernhelm]

Hi all,

This is the oddest iMac problem I've ever experienced. I was hoping someone could give me a hint or two. I can't try anything until I get home tonight - but I thought I'd post now while I have access to a working computer...

I was surfing around the internet last night, and just before I headed off to bed, my iMac stopped reacting to user input. You could mouse around (even mousing over the dock) but clicking on anything wouldn't work. I have a "mighty mouse" that I've had no real trouble with up to this point - and I don't think it is the mouse - but it could be I suppose. Any dock item you mouse over will "tooltip" but not respond to click. The keyboard is likewise unable to invoke any response except for the "reboot" sequence.

Any ideas out there? Is there something I am missing?

 

[dllavaneras]

Have you tried disconnecting and reconnecting the keyboard/mouse?
If it's really, really bad, keeping the power button pressed will automatically turn off your computer. You can then turn it on again to see if the problem persists. You'll lose anything you didn't save, though.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Sounds to me like the Dock has stopped responding. This happens to me sometimes - invoking the Force Quit dialog and quitting it usually gets it working again. If that fails, or you can't get the dialog to come up, restart your Mac.

 

[dernhelm]

Sounds to me like the Dock has stopped responding. This happens to me sometimes - invoking the Force Quit dialog and quitting it usually gets it working again. If that fails, or you can't get the dialog to come up, restart your Mac.

That's the weird thing. I've restarted my mac several times, and everytime it starts up it starts up in this crazy state. Can't click on anything, but mousing over the dock invokes the correct tooltips...

 

[Coca-Cola]

Try a different mouse

I had a similar and annoying problem with an old iMac CRT. It was the mouse. Who would figure?

 

[dernhelm]

Solved

Well CocaCola was right (sounds like a commercial) or nearly so, anyway. It wasn't the mouse, but the keyboard that had a couple of stuck keys.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[agrohippy]

Thank you!

I just want to say Thank you as I about freaked out. It wasn't my keyboard but my wireless mouse. Once I turned it on and off my computer started reacting again. Such a valuable thread!!!

 

[Yorky08]

Great tip, thanks!

I just had this 'freezing' problem so was glad to see the replies and try them as I had tried shutting down, restarting etc to no avail.

I simply shut the machine down again, took the batteries out of my wireless mouse, re-inserted them and hey presto! my screen was unfrozen.

Thanks guys

 

[Legonerd27]

Worked for me too!!

Yes, everything seemed fine but I couldn't click anywhere. I took the batteries out of my mouse before shutting down, and after waiting a minute for the mouse to be found again...my computer woke right up..without even having to restart...(thankfully as I had not saved my large .ai file )

A great help!!!!

 

[internetbazaar]

This is the oddest iMac problem I've ever experienced. I was hoping someone could give me a hint or two. I can't try anything until I get home tonight - but I thought I'd post now while I have access to a working computer...

Hi dear if you try disconnecting and after reconnecting the mouse & keyboard so then your PC will shutdown automatically.and after this you gain a error message.So don't use this