Virus on my Macbook - can't click anything - HELP!

[timelessmelodee]

Hi all,
I have what I think is a virus on my macbook. Simply, I can't click on anything. The keyboard works, the trackpad works, but it won't allow me to click anything.

This definately isn't a hardware issue as it won't allow me to click when I use my wireless mighty mouse either, again it just lets me move it.

Has anyone heard of this fault before, and how do I fix it? It's so annoying!! (I'm on someone elses computer writing this).

Thanks alot,
David.

 

[Morod]

Repair permissions and/or reboot?

 

[chrono1081]

There are no known viruses for Mac OS. GGJ Studios should arrive here any minute with links.

Not to mention what Hollywood shows as "viruses" is not what viruses do. Even if it were possible to have a virus on your computer you would most likely have no idea it was on there. It would just continue what it wanted to do and keep itself hidden.

Try resetting the PRAM and see if that helps. Hold control + option + P + R and restart the machine. Keep holding these down until you hear the startup chime twice then release.

 

[AFPoster]

Repair permissions and/or reboot?

If he can't click anything how is he going to repair permissions? Reboot your mac. If it doesn't work turn it off then put in your OS X disc / reinstall.

Morod I know there are keyboard commands to open files, etc but I doubt he knows them.

 

[timelessmelodee]

tried rebooting many times, and cant get into repair as i can't click anything.

any help please? thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi all,
I have what I think is a virus on my macbook.

There has never been a virus in the wild that runs on Mac OS X. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

Have you activated tap to click in your trackpad preferences?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

tried rebooting many times, and cant get into repair as i can't click anything.

any help please? thanks

Can you provide more information?
What exact Mac do you have and what Mac OS X version is on it?
Do you still have warranty?
Is your data backed up, thus you could do a Clean Install?
Do you have access to another Mac with Firewire, if your Mac has Firewire?

 

[chrono1081]

There has never been a virus in the wild that runs on Mac OS X. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

Yes! See I said GGJ studios would arrive any minute (And I messed up your name in the original post so I fixed it )

tried rebooting many times, and cant get into repair as i can't click anything.

any help please? thanks

Did you try resetting the PRAM? I posted how to do it towards the top.

 

[ArtursBoy]

Or You can try installing and antivirus, some have free trials

http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/free-home-trials/anti-virus-for-mac

 

[timelessmelodee]

its osx 10.3.

i tried rebooting with PRAM, but alas it has done nothing.

i can't repair any disk's, and can't enable trackpad clicking as i can't click anything in the first place to do any of these!

theres literally nothing more i can add to the problem - other than i cannot click anything, and it is not a hardware error. does anyone know what on earth this could be?
thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

Or You can try installing and antivirus, some have free trials

There is no virus that runs on Mac OS X. Antivirus will not help.

timelessmelodee, try shutting down. Then power up. Do that instead of restarting, and see if it makes any difference.

 

[notjustjay]

Try pressing both the left and right buttons repeatedly (in sequence, together, whatever). I've found on my computer occasionally the mouse input driver gets confused and it thinks the button is being held down, so it is constantly waiting for a phantom drag operation to finish. As a result it won't let me click anything. Mashing the buttons seems to get it sorted out eventually. However, that is a random occasional glitch, and if your system still has problems after a reboot, that probably won't help...

As for the virus possibility, if you ever suspect there's a virus on your Mac, check out MacRumors first, as any such virus would be the first of its kind (so far) and would be major breaking news. If your problem really was a symptom of a virus, then the front page news story would probably describe the symptoms in detail. If it's not there, you can probably safely assume it is a hardware or software glitch, and not a virus.

 

[blaster_boy]

You can also boot from your mac os x disk (more info http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2956 ) and then see if you can click (or not).

That should bypass any virus or config change you made on your hard disk, and you can then run disk repair / verify permissions from your disk utility.

Let us know how it goes,

Alex

 

[seb-opp]

No offence to the OP, but I find that its a general misconception among the less computer-literate that anything that's gone wrong with their machine is a 'virus'.

Do you know anyone with a USB, non Apple mouse you could test with?
or
Do you have access to another Mac and an external drive that you could use to create a boot disk from, to see if its a problem with your installation?
or
Use Target disk mode or Time Machine to back up your data and reinstall OS X

If you can't do either of these, or none work, the best thing would be to take it to an Apple store and hopefully get some answers

 

[timelessmelodee]

tried everything suggested, and no luck. if anyones had an issue like this before please help me with it! its driving me crazy (writing this on housemates computer).

a few times tonight whats happened is i've switched it on, and its had the toolbar at the top highlighted, except i can't click anywhere to unhighlight it. other times, i've switched it on and its clicked on nothing and won't click onto anything.

please help someone!!

 

[Consultant]

its osx 10.3.

i tried rebooting with PRAM, but alas it has done nothing.

i can't repair any disk's, and can't enable trackpad clicking as i can't click anything in the first place to do any of these!

theres literally nothing more i can add to the problem - other than i cannot click anything, and it is not a hardware error. does anyone know what on earth this could be?
thanks.

There is NO such thing as a 10.3 MacBook.

There are no known viruses for Mac OS. GGJ Studios should arrive here any minute with links.

Fail! He posted just one link!

 

[blaster_boy]

tried everything suggested, and no luck.

Even when booting from the mac os x cd ?

Another thing to try : Try booting up in safe mode (holding the shift key down when booting).
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564

 

[timelessmelodee]

Hi again all,

I have tried booting up in safe mode, nothing changed. I then remembered I had an old hard disk, so I put that in, and I still have this problem. But surely if it was a hardware problem, when I then use my bluetooth mouse with it, it would work again?

Does anyone have any idea what this may be or have experienced it themselves - and any ideas of how to fix this please?! thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi again all,
I have tried booting up in safe mode, nothing changed. I then remembered I had an old hard disk, so I put that in, and I still have this problem. But surely if it was a hardware problem, when I then use my bluetooth mouse with it, it would work again?

If you have the same problem with your trackpad not clicking while in safe mode and with another disk drive, then you have a hardware problem. Take it to the Apple Store and let them diagnose what it is.

 

[Mal]

It sounds to me like your trackpad is essentially permanently down (where you said that the menubar was highlighted and you couldn't click to deselect it). That can happen when a battery swells up, as some do toward the end of their life or because of a catastrophic failure. Try removing the battery and see if the problem goes away.

Either way, it's probably worth a trip to an Apple store after that.

jW

 

[AlphaBob]

Wow, this is odd.

The OP states he is using Panther (10.3). That pretty much says that it was circa 2003. 10.3.nothing was the original release in October of 2003. He also claims access to a blutooth mouse, which says the only possible laptop-like apple computers available in that combination (Blutooth and 10.3) would be an iBookG4 or a PowerBookG4.

It is also odd that either of those would be referred to as a "macbook" as that did not come out until 2006 and looks nothing like a PowerBook or iBook.

I hate to suggest this, but is someone pulling the groups leg?

 

[Mal]

Wow, this is odd.

The OP states he is using Panther (10.3). That pretty much says that it was circa 2003. 10.3.nothing was the original release in October of 2003. He also claims access to a blutooth mouse, which says the only possible laptop-like apple computers available in that combination (Blutooth and 10.3) would be an iBookG4 or a PowerBookG4.

It is also odd that either of those would be referred to as a "macbook" as that did not come out until 2006 and looks nothing like a PowerBook or iBook.

I hate to suggest this, but is someone pulling the groups leg?

I'd more easily suspect that the OP simply doesn't understand his computer very well, and either doesn't have a MacBook but believes he does because that's the name of Apple laptops he's seen around, or doesn't have 10.3 and thinks he does for some similar reason.

jW

 

[MacCracken]

You said anybody else...

Started a new post about my issue...

 

[AlphaBob]

I'd more easily suspect that the OP simply doesn't understand his computer very well, and either doesn't have a MacBook but believes he does because that's the name of Apple laptops he's seen around, or doesn't have 10.3 and thinks he does for some similar reason.

jW

You are a kinder soul than I am, sir. My hat's off to you!

If indeed you are correct, then that PowerBook/iBook is so old I doubt it can be repaired for less than the cost of a new MacBook. I never asked Apple to support any hardware that was out of production (and they have been out of production for five years). I bet a second hand current generation MacBook would be the least expensive solution.

The puzzle, of course, is that an external mouse is not working, nor is the internal one, but everything else seems fine. Given the type of processor, the ability to resolve things by changing the OS is very limited too. Maybe if the trackpad is stuck 'down' the software prevents other instances of a mouse from clicking too. If it is a hardware failure then it will not be worth fixing.

So ultimately I would have to ask -- has this six-year old laptop been working fine for the past six years and just kicked out recently? If so did anything new get installed around the same time? It sure couldn't have been an OS update as none has been available for years.

 

[timelessmelodee]

wow, lots of paranoia floating round these here parts.

its a white macbook running osx version 10.4.11, not 10.3 as was previously stated (i was going off the top of my head, as i wasn't near the computer itself and don't revise these things.)

if anyone does have some constructive tips, that would be great. it's definately not the battery swell problem (i had that problem before, and just recently bought a new one which is totally fine). the mouse physically clicks fine, but thats about it.