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Hi, I know this isn't strictly a mac support forum but I'd hugely appreciate any user insight into the following problem.
As of last night my trackpad button just stopped working. No slow degradation of clicks or anything....it just stopped. As in I couldn't click anything on screen....the trackpad movement was absolutely fine...just no click ability.
So, my immediate thoughts were "it's a mechanical problem...gonna have to replace it. I know, I'll use a USB mouse for now." So, I plug it in and the left mouse button does not work. This is a brand new mouse....but just for the sake of it I tried another one from my PC with left and right buttons on it.....same problem.
I knew that it couldn't be mechanical because surely the mouse clicks would have worked ok even if the track button didn't. It had to be a problem with the OS or the firmware that drives it. So, as per the usual troubleshooting drill: I repaired permissions, I reset the PRAM, reset the PMU and even opened up the Open Firmware screen on boot-up and 'reset-all' in there. No joy.
I then booted up from CD....same problem.
Regardless I 'Archived and Installed' new version of OSX anyway (and it's amazing how incredibly hard this process is without being able to actually click anything on the screen!!)....same problem.
I have now completed erased my hard drive and installed a completely clean version of OSX.....and I get the same no-click situation.
I'm now back to the feeling that it IS a mechanical problem and that the top casing (cause you can't just replace the button of course!!) needs to be replaced.
BUT, before I do this....can anyone suggest why the trackpad failing would disable also the use of a USB mouse button???
Powerbook G4 15" Alu 1.5Gz
As of last night my trackpad button just stopped working. No slow degradation of clicks or anything....it just stopped. As in I couldn't click anything on screen....the trackpad movement was absolutely fine...just no click ability.
So, my immediate thoughts were "it's a mechanical problem...gonna have to replace it. I know, I'll use a USB mouse for now." So, I plug it in and the left mouse button does not work. This is a brand new mouse....but just for the sake of it I tried another one from my PC with left and right buttons on it.....same problem.
I knew that it couldn't be mechanical because surely the mouse clicks would have worked ok even if the track button didn't. It had to be a problem with the OS or the firmware that drives it. So, as per the usual troubleshooting drill: I repaired permissions, I reset the PRAM, reset the PMU and even opened up the Open Firmware screen on boot-up and 'reset-all' in there. No joy.
I then booted up from CD....same problem.
Regardless I 'Archived and Installed' new version of OSX anyway (and it's amazing how incredibly hard this process is without being able to actually click anything on the screen!!)....same problem.
I have now completed erased my hard drive and installed a completely clean version of OSX.....and I get the same no-click situation.
I'm now back to the feeling that it IS a mechanical problem and that the top casing (cause you can't just replace the button of course!!) needs to be replaced.
BUT, before I do this....can anyone suggest why the trackpad failing would disable also the use of a USB mouse button???
Powerbook G4 15" Alu 1.5Gz
