Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

My top-of-the-line iMac has been humbled by a mouse!

S

SilentCrs

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 2, 2006
215
0
I just got off the phone with Apple, and this is so ridiculous I have to share it. :p

So I bought a new iMac in April with the best configuration available:

3.06GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO
4GB 800MHZ DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GS W/512MB
1TB SERIAL ATA DRIVE
APPLE MIGHTY MOUSE
WIRED KYBD & USER'S GUIDE
COUNTRY KIT,IMAC 2

Last night, I was playing Wow I got a kernel panic. I'm thinking "that's odd", but I rebooted the machine and started again. Another kernel panic. I restart the machine again and I get 2 post beeps followed by 3 beeps. No Apple logo. Do it again: 2 beeps and 3 beeps.

I look online and this is usually cause by a memory error. Great. I load up hardware diagnostics and run a check. 4mem/1/40000000 error. Looked it up online and it could be due to bad memory. Ouch. So I go about it systematically. I take one of the 2GB chips out and run the test. No error. Take the other out. No error. Swap the chips to the other memory slot. No error. This is getting ridiculous.

So I look online again: "Could be caused by a 3rd-party mouse attached at startup." I look at my MS Optical Mouse (one of these: http://wellcom.co.il/catalog/images/Microsoft/MOMB.jpg). They've been around forever. They're probably the simplest 2-button USB mice you can get nowadays. I use it for Warcraft. That can't be the cause.

So I take the mouse out, put the Apple mouse back in and reboot the machine. Boots fine. Run the diagnostic tests. Checks out fine. I call up Apple this morning and explain the situation. I get to the part about the MS mouse. They stop me and say "yes, that's a known issue". A mouse causing kernel panics? Showing up as an invalid memory error? Are you kidding me?!? :p I say "you better be working on a firmware update for this" and they said yes.

Well, I'm flabbergasted. What can I say? lol Never seen a mouse cause memory errors on an Intel-based machine. A word of warning: your $20 optical mouse could crash your Mac! :)
 
That is some good diagnosing. Weird though, glad you know what the issue is and can work around it, shame that you have to.

Thanks for sharing.
 
iJohnHenry said:
Oh, sorry, not a gamer.

Move along then. Nothing to see here. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, the important thing is not the fact that I was playing a game. I got post errors on boot and diagnostic errors regardless. The point is that a normal old USB mouse caused the machine to wig out. :)
 
D4F said:
That's funny :)
Fact is the mighty mouse sucks bad. It's the worst piece of hardware I ever used.

:)
Click to expand...

Agreed, I use a Logitech G7 for all purposes (including gaming). If I were you i'd grab one or the new Mac compatible Razer....
 
The error "Could be caused by a 3rd-party mouse attached at startup." suggests that, after startup, you can swap the Apple mouse for your 3rd-party one. Weird error though.

HB
 
ya, if you game or were a previous pc user, the MM seems very akward. But that is one of the wierdest things i've ever heard of!
 
I have been playing a little warcraft 3 on my new iMac and I would agree that the mighty mouse is pretty bad for gaming.

Outside of that though, I think it's a pretty neat device for normal day to day mouse needs.
 
Brother Michael said:
I have been playing a little warcraft 3 on my new iMac and I would agree that the mighty mouse is pretty bad for gaming.

Outside of that though, I think it's a pretty neat device for normal day to day mouse needs.
Click to expand...

Man you're using polite words in here :D
Let's face it. It's really impossible to play games with it. That one button is a stone age drawback.
Not only in games. Any 3D app that I use require 2 buttons at the same time so I wonder if design didn't blind apple designers and was put on top against functionality.
 
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107)

David G. said:
Just be thankful you didn't have a live one chew off your power cord for your iMac.
Click to expand...

Lol when I read the thread title I was thinking it would lead to this... Hehe

Anyways glad you figured it out! What a strange story hah

And about the mighty mouse - damn I hate that thing (just recently switched last week)... I paid up for wireless combo and bought wired keyboard after to 'save' $ but ended up payin 2x to get a new mouse (the logitech v470) - oh and I don't game.
 
The mighty mouse is great as a normal mouse, but for gaming it sucks. You can't click both buttons at the same time, plus sometimes it misreads it and does left click instead of right. Very irritating.
 
Hilarious! Props for going through the whole tedious process of troubleshooting and researching the problem. It's too bad Apple didn't suggest the problem in the first place, but only said "oh yeah we know about that" after you've done all the dirty work.
 
D4F said:
Man you're using polite words in here :D
Let's face it. It's really impossible to play games with it. That one button is a stone age drawback.
Not only in games. Any 3D app that I use require 2 buttons at the same time so I wonder if design didn't blind apple designers and was put on top against functionality.
Click to expand...

I get the feeling that Steve Jobs is still clinging on to the 1-button mouse out of some bizarre principle. As in, he never thought 2-button mice would catch on. But then contextual menus happened, drastically increasing the usefulness of the 2-button mouse, but still he resisted. Every day that goes by, he digs the hole deeper and deeper. Along the way, he's come up with every argument imaginable against 2-button mice, so to introduce a true, useable 2-button mouse now would be like admitting he's been wrong for the last 20 years. Which is why they came out with the mighty mouse... allows for contextual-menu clicks while still being able to call it a 1-button. That just makes the mouse harder to use IMO though.

Apple has never been a great mouse designer. All you need to do is look at the original iMac hockey puck to be reminded of that.
 
anubis said:
I get the feeling that Steve Jobs is still clinging on to the 1-button mouse out of some bizarre principle. As in, he never thought 2-button mice would catch on. But then contextual menus happened, drastically increasing the usefulness of the 2-button mouse, but still he resisted. Every day that goes by, he digs the hole deeper and deeper. Along the way, he's come up with every argument imaginable against 2-button mice, so to introduce a true, useable 2-button mouse now would be like admitting he's been wrong for the last 20 years. Which is why they came out with the mighty mouse... allows for contextual-menu clicks while still being able to call it a 1-button. That just makes the mouse harder to use IMO though.

Apple has never been a great mouse designer. All you need to do is look at the original iMac hockey puck to be reminded of that.
Click to expand...

But the mighty mice look so slick! :p My mighty mouse is fine for me, but then I don't do much requiring 2 buttons.
 
nidserz said:
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107)



Lol when I read the thread title I was thinking it would lead to this... Hehe
Click to expand...

Yeah, count me as one of those thinking a real mouse chewed a wire (mostly because I have rabbits who have chewed more than their fair share of wires, I should get shares in electrical tape & terminal blocks)

Interesting reading peoples feelings on the MM, I'm soon to be buying an iMac and was going to go for the wireless option on both KB and mouse, guess it might be wise for me to look for another mouse option elsewhere, which is a shame because the MM looks quite nice.
 
Kudos on your diagnotics.
That issue would never have occurred to me, being so out in left field.
Next thing your know your space bar will reduce hard drive capacity.
 
I just bought my first Mac, a Mini, and I took the Logitech LX7 from my PC. Worked for a while then I would get random issues with it. I rebuilt the PC for my mom and gave her that mouse. Wasn't impressed with MM so I bought the RocketFish Bluetooth mouse. I love this thing. For the same price as a wired MM too. I highly recommend it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back