Problems with menulets

[ShadowSKAR]

Several of my menulets such as the wifi and time machine will not stay open when I click on them. For example, the dropdown list of available networks won't even stay open long enough for me to select a network. Additionally, it stays blue as if it's being clicked.

I can't think of any obvious reasons why this is happening.

Any idea what's going on and how it can be fixed?

 

[GGJstudios]

Several of my menulets such as the wifi and time machine will not stay open when I click on them. For example, the dropdown list of available networks won't even stay open long enough for me to select a network. Additionally, it stays blue as if it's being clicked.

I can't think of any obvious reasons why this is happening.

Any idea what's going on and how it can be fixed?

First, have you tried restarting your Mac? That's a basic first step in troubleshooting that solves many issues. Second, are you using an internal or external trackpad or mouse? What year and model is your Mac? What version of Mac OS X are you running?

How to maximise your MacRumors troubleshooting experience

 

[ShadowSKAR]

Yes I have tried restarting my mac but the problem persists. it's a macbook, so i mainly use the trackpad. However I have tried an external wired USB mouse too. Same problem.

It's a macbook 5,1 running 10.8.3. This issue only started recently.

 

[ShadowSKAR]

Does anyone have an idea as to what's causing this?

 

[r0k]

Does anyone have an idea as to what's causing this?

I've never seen this sort of thing on any of my Macs but I do remember a similar experience on Windows. It was caused when the alt key got stuck. Try tapping your cmd and option keys a few times to make sure they are not stuck. This is also the sort of thing that is ideal for a visit to the Apple store. Whether you are still in AppleCare or not, you can have a free appointment for about half an hour of troubleshooting. They can boot from a "stock" 10.8.3 OS image over their network and if the problem doesn't persist, it proves you aren't having a hardware issue. Perhaps at that point, a fix could be to reinstall OSX.

Reinstalling OSX is not a big deal unless your internet connection is slow during "internet recovery". I use Comcast which is famous for throttling anything bigger than half a gigabyte and my recovery time estimate was 12 hours. I was glad I had made a USB recovery stick for myself and I got the job done in under an hour. Of course I then had to sit through several updates to get back from 10.8 (what I had on my USB stick) to 10.8.2. But by downloading combo updates from Apple support rather than allowing the app store to do the updates, I was in complete control of the process rather than at the mercy of Comcast's stormy "internet weather".

I would not leave your machine with them unless you have it backed up! Normally when I leave a machine for repair, I get it back including all my stuff but I've heard this isn't always the case. I would do a brand new fresh TM backup or use a third party backup tool such as Carbon Copy Cloner to make a backup before walking in there with your machine.

 

[benwiggy]

They can boot from a "stock" 10.8.3 OS image over their network and if the problem doesn't persist, it proves you aren't having a hardware issue. Perhaps at that point, a fix could be to reinstall OSX.

The usual method is to test a brand new user account, as this rules in or out system-level or user-level problems.

Personally, I doubt reinstallation is necessary.
Try deleting com.apple.systemuiserver.plist in your User Library, and then add the menulets back by checking the boxes in System Pref panes for each thing, or by going to
/System/Library/CoreService/Menu Extras and double clicking on each one.

 

[r0k]

The usual method is to test a brand new user account, as this rules in or out system-level or user-level problems.

Personally, I doubt reinstallation is necessary.
Try deleting com.apple.systemuiserver.plist in your User Library, and then add the menulets back by checking the boxes in System Pref panes for each thing, or by going to
/System/Library/CoreService/Menu Extras and double clicking on each one.

I agree they can create a test user. At the time I went to the Apple store, my Macbook was too unstable for them to do this so they simply booted from a good OS image over their network. This took about 30 seconds. It proved there was no hardware issue and I could focus on the OS I had at the time as well as on the SSD I had in the system at the time.

 

[Krazy Bill]

I can't think of any obvious reasons why this is happening.

Any idea what's going on and how it can be fixed?

What other menubar items do you have running "up there". Something is doing a "timed" poll and refreshing the menubar (too rapidly it seems).

Remove all the 3rd party menubar apps that you can... especially those designed to run on startup. Try to isolate the culprit.

 

[ShadowSKAR]

What other menubar items do you have running "up there". Something is doing a "timed" poll and refreshing the menubar (too rapidly it seems).

Remove all the 3rd party menubar apps that you can... especially those designed to run on startup. Try to isolate the culprit.

I think that may have solved the problem. I had iStats Menu installed from earlier versions of OS X and apparently it is no longer compatible with ML.
Removing that menulet seems to have fixed the problem.

----------

Thanks for all the help everyone

 

[Krazy Bill]

I think that may have solved the problem. I had iStats Menu installed from earlier versions of OS X and apparently it is no longer compatible with ML.
Removing that menulet seems to have fixed the problem.

Well, there you go then. Typically the source of the problem lies truly "at the source" and doesn't involve reinstallation, terminal hacks, file deletions or jumping through new hoops.