Strange mac behavior: auto scrolling, shortcuts won't work, etc!

[rebmamber]

I have had this happen to me a few different times and I am not sure what the problem is. I will be working on my Macbook Pro (Tiger - OSX) and all of a sudden, the functions will change. For example, everything will scroll to the top, and if I use the mouse, touchpad, or tablet to scroll it down, it will immediately scroll back up again. This is true across applications, safari, finder, etc. In photoshop, it will automatically zoom all the way into my photo and I can zoom it out again by selecting "fit to screen", but as soon as the cursor goes over the photo, it will immediately zoom in again. Also, the tool buttons do different things. Also, on my desktop, I tried to drag a folder, and instead of dragging, it made a copy. Also, when I try to quit using cmd-Q, it won't work, I have to do it from the file menu.

If I shut down and restart, all is back to normal again. I am assuming that I am hitting some combination of keys that puts it into a different mode, but I have no idea what that may be (and honestly, sometimes, I don't think I was even using the keyboard when it happens). Also, it has happened on my imac running Leopard, so it's not specific to this computer.

Help! Thanks!!

 

[DoFoT9]

sounds like your hitting the key combination :Shift: 5 times. this activates the help functions for less advantaged people - by pressing shift 5 times, you can then press say.. "Q" without holding down the Shift button and it will quit an application....

im guessing that is your problem. i cant think of anything else that would do this sort of thing

 

[rebmamber]

hmmm, that could be, i will have to test it out. before i do, do you know if there is a way to disable it once it's been enabled?

 

[ihabime]

sounds like your hitting the key combination :Shift: 5 times. this activates the help functions for less advantaged people - by pressing shift 5 times, you can then press say.. "Q" without holding down the Shift button and it will quit an application....

im guessing that is your problem. i cant think of anything else that would do this sort of thing

I think you're way off on this one.
Pressing the shift key 5 times turns Sticky keys on, which simply changes the way the modifier keys work. IE. instead of pressing CMD and Q at the same time to quit you press CMD release it then press Q.

You can check to see if sticky keys is enabled in System Preferences->Universal Access->Keyboard There's a switch to turn it off and a checkmark for the shift 5 times behavior.

To the OP, it sounds like a key may be stuck on your keyboard or that there is some issue between your various input devices.

Try unplugging everything but the mouse and see if the problem persists, then try the other devices one at a time, maybe turn your keyboard over and give it a good shake to see if anything is lodged in there.

 

[rebmamber]

I looked in Universal Access, and I have sticky keys set to off, and the shift 5 box is unchecked.

ihabime, it can't be the mouse, I don't use one, just the track pad and a wacom tablet. I'm sure that no buttons are stuck down, since restarting the computer completely solves the problem. It has happened to me maybe 5-10 times over the last couple years, on two different computers, so I think it must be something I am doing to put it into this mode. Plus, for the scrolling issue, you would assume the up arrow was stuck for that to be the case, but that doesn't explain the other weird behaviors.

 

[ihabime]

Hmm, since it's happens so rarely and on more than one computer, it's hard to say what it could be.

Just to be clear, when you say it scrolls, you mean just the contents of the window, right, Not the whole screen scrolling or zooming in like the hardware scroll from the universal access Preference pane?

It could be some interaction between the wacom and your Mac, is the wacom always plugged in when it happens?

 

[rebmamber]

Yes, by scrolling I mean the contents of the window (ie. the scroll bar at the right side is always at top, even when you try to pull it down, it goes right back up again, as though the up key is stuck).

I do usually have the wacom plugged in, but it's hard to say because I almost always am using it anyway. I unplugged it after it happened, but it doesn't affect anything at that point. The only solution has been to restart.

It's not a huge problem since it happens so infrequently and I can restart it, but after this last episode, it's driving me nuts not knowing what I may be doing (if anything) to do this. I tried to search, but I found no other posts about this.

Thanks for your help with this!

 

[animatorishi]

Strange Scrolling and Zoomin

hey rab even m facing the same problm....my imac self scrolling n zoomin zoom out......i got headache ...its rly f**kng thing.....even restarting d mac is not solving the problem..dont know wts hpng...dude if u get the solution plzzzzzzz tell me...ny 1 get d solution tell me.......ASAP.......