Two stupid questions

[TechnoPagan]

I swear I'm not a newbie! I've had an Apple of some sort for 11 years. I'm just new to Tiger (my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

1) Is there a way to adjust the tracking pad? My new MPB only seems to work if I'm touching the center third. I've already tried goofing around in System Preferences

2) I'm using Migration Assistant to import files & applications from the G4 desktop to the laptop. I know I'll have to dig out all of my product keys, but did this just save me from having to find the FinalCutPro discs that have mysteriously disappeared from the vicinty of the Production Suite box (DVD Studio seems to have stayed behind to mock me)?

 

[Makosuke]

1) Not past what's in the preferences. But mine certainly works fine on mine from edge to edge. You might try turning off "ignore accidental input" and see if that helps, otherwise perhaps you've got a hardware problem? Or incredibly dry fingers?

2) Had to read that a couple of times to figure out what the question was... and in theory, yes--I believe it's supposed to migrate programs as well as user settings, but I can't rightly remember. Can't you just try it and see?

Also, I don't know how the Final Cut Pro install works, but if it doesn't spread stuff all over the place, you may be able to migrate just by copying the relevant files/folders over. In most cases this is just the app itself and a folder in Application Suport, but with FCP maybe there's more to it.

 

[TechnoPagan]

Thanks, Makosuke--I wasn't being lazy, just wanted to know if I should be dismantling the office in search of the discs. Migration seems to have moved all of my applications which means I don't have to find the discs. It wouldn't launch because it said I was missing an AGP graphics card. So now I'm trying to solve that problem. I've downloaded the FinalCutPro HDUpdate 4.5. Now I'll try rebooting!

 

[Egosphere]

About question number one: you might want to try MouseFix (http://www.knockknock.org.uk/mac/) or actually a GUI version iMouseFix (http://lavacat.com/iMouseFix). It lets you control the acceleration of the cursor.

 

[jsw]

1) Is there a way to adjust the tracking pad? My new MPB only seems to work if I'm touching the center third. I've already tried goofing around in System Preferences

It might very well be defective. If it's not sensitive except for a small central area, you should have it looked at. I don't think software's causing that.

 

[TechnoPagan]

Well, it's not too annoying yet--sometimes the arrow cursor just gets a little lost and I have to drag around on the trackpad to find it.

Plus it's intermittent which means if I haul it to a Genius, it's going to be a perfectly well-behaved trackpad.

 

[Makosuke]

Well, it's not too annoying yet--sometimes the arrow cursor just gets a little lost and I have to drag around on the trackpad to find it.

Plus it's intermittent which means if I haul it to a Genius, it's going to be a perfectly well-behaved trackpad.

The arrow getting lost is just a side effect of a high-resolution monitor--that's not hardware. I don't know if you ever used old laptops that had LCDs with really poor response times, but on those the cursor would literally disappear if you moved it too fast.

It could also be "ignore accidental input" bugging you, espeically if it's intermittent. At least on mine, I'll unintentionally bump the trackpad with my palm or something on occasion, and then the mouse will refuse to respond for a moment (which can make the pointer hard to find if I don't know where it is), until it decides that my input is "intentional", at which point it'll move and I can find it again.

If you pick your hand up for a second then try again, and it goes away, then this is probably it. If it's just irregular, then maybe it's hardware.

Try changing that setting to the opposite of whatever you've got it at, and see if it's any better.