semi frozen imac but BT keyboard and mouse working but nothing is responding

[lopper316]

last night my imac semi froze on me. it's weird because I can still use my BT keyboard and mouse but when i try to click on anything it doesn't work. now the dashboard and expose functions work as well as do keyboard shortcuts but when i try to click on any icon nothing responds. it's like everything on the computer seems to be working except for clicking, has this happened to anyone else ?

any help would be great, i'm posting this on my iphone.


thanks !

 

[TEG]

Just restart the computer. The system just got caught in a starvation loop. Something on your computer was hogging the cycles on the computer, but Expose and Dashboard had high enough priority to over ride that "something". This happens from time to time on all systems, because it would require too much overhead to detect these problems and correct them.

TEG

 

[lopper316]

thanks i've restarted it a few times actually, i even left the computer off over night and turned it back on today and it was still in the semi frozen state, any other suggestions?

 

[TEG]

If you restarted, how could it still be in this state? Try holding down shift while the computer is starting up (you may need to use a wired keyboard) to open in safe mode and it will clean up problems.

TEG

 

[ebel3003]

Try resetting the PRAM and SMC.

PRAM http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
SMC http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543

This can sometimes fix scenarios where your computer consistently becomes unresponsive and unusable. It can also help diagnose if it is a power related issue if it's temporarily fixed, but then recurs.

 

[lopper316]

cool thanks guys, i reset the PRAM and SmC and all went back to normal ... no idea what the problem was but it worked.

thanks again

 

[joshua_msu]

I have the exact same situation as the orginal poster. I am having trouble resetting the SMC. I force quit. When I do, it only shows Finder, and the only available option is "relaunch". I cannot select this because nothing responds to mouse clicks. Next step is a resart, which requires control-command-power. Where is the power key, or do they mean the power button?