Flickering cursor and self-scrolling

[KatieK]

Computer: Indigo PowerPC 750, G3, 320MB, recently upgraded to 0S 10.3.9
I was working away making a table in Word this morning when I noticed my cursor was flickering and then all of a sudden the little indicator bar started scrolling down the page, for 17 pages. I could only get it to stop by quitting the program (and losing my data).

Looking at my desktop, I noticed that when I hovered over folder icons, the tags flicker and a ghostly replica appears to the right. Then I opened my Internet brwser (Firefox) to get online and try to find some answers. When I began to type in the search box, it would only take two or three letters befor zooming off on its task. I'm on my other Mac now, typing this. What's up? What can I do to fix this?

I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks.

Kathryn

 

[mkrishnan]

Kathryn, when you see the "ghostly replicas," does it look like when you are dragging a file around (for instance, on your other mac, if you click on the hard disk icon and drag it to the right slightly)?

Have you checked the settings in System Preferences -> Universal Access -> Mouse & Trackpad to make sure that they were not somehow changed during the upgrade?

 

[KatieK]

Hmmmm

Thanks for getting back to me. I did the upgrade back in December and haven't had any troubles. I just checked the Systems Preferences and there didn't seem to be anything unusual. When I clicked on any of the icons on my desktop, the label (words) started flashing on and off. A little earlier I was making some changes to a page on a website I have online and the cursor just took off down the page, maybe a hundrer lines. I checked and double checked the connectiouns of my mouse and keyboard. It seems very strange. Any ideas?

 

[mkrishnan]

I know you said that you checked the connections, but have you tried swapping the keyboard and mouse with the ones on your other Mac (if it has an external kb and mouse), and/or using a different port, if there's more than one of the kind of port your kb uses (I'm not sure if its USB on that iMac?)?

 

[KatieK]

If I weren't so relieved, I'd be really embarrassed--- my 12 year old went over to the other computer, looked at the keyboard and said "Hey, this key over here is kinda sticking up funny", wiggled it and then everything was fine.

Imagine that.

I appreciate your help. Really I do.

(I'm so embarrassed, even though I am very very relieved)

Kathryn
Mac user continuously since 1986