Cursor bugs, applications wont respond

[TxCarGuy]

Hi everyone. I am having an intermittent problem and can't seem to find out whats wrong. At random, I will be using my computer and then the program I'm in(any program) stops responding and when I try to click on anything, the cursor jumps back to a specific spot on the screen. I can move the cursor anywhere but when I click on any place, it goes back to one spot. And when I try to move the cursor over the dock, none of the applications respond by getting bigger(when you hover over them) or opening. And pressing option-command-esc doesn't help. I have also tried unplugging and plugging my tablet/mouse back in without any help. The computer I have is an aluminum iMac, 2Ghz Core2Duo, OS 10.6.8, with 3 GB ram. I have had multiple applications open up when this happens and only one or two(different programs of course). Does anyone have any clue as to whats happening and how I can repair this? I have downloaded VirusBarrier from the App Store and there aren't any Mac threats found. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[toMACsh]

Wild guess here... The cursor actions you describe might be (emphasis on might) controlled by the System User Interface "module". There's a plist for that.

Go to Home folder/Library/Preferences and find com.apple.systemui****.plist (I can't remember the exact name, thus the ****, but it's the only one starting out that way.)

Drag that file to your Desktop.

Restart. That will create a new, default plist file for you.

Now how does it behave?

 

[TxCarGuy]

Hi toMACsh.

Thanks for the suggestion but it didn't help. I didn't have a file starting with com.apple.system anything to try this out on. As an update, I have downloaded Lion 10.7 and am occasionally having the same problem. I noticed it was on start up and the dock froze when I had the cursor over an app. I tried to move it but the app remained large. And when clicking the mouse, the cursor jumped to another part of the screen and always moved back to the same place. Any ideas? I don't want to have to go the the Genius bar if I don't have to. Thanks!

 

[toMACsh]

Hi toMACsh.

Thanks for the suggestion but it didn't help. I didn't have a file starting with com.apple.system anything to try this out on.

Yea, I think you did. Whether it is totally different now in Lion, I can't say. You were probably looking in the wrong place.

HD/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

There are several Library folders. You have to be in the right one. HD/Users/YourUserName is your "Home" folder, the one with the little house.

But, since you upgraded the OS, if this was the problem, it would have been fixed.