menus and volume control go haywire--help pls

[steelhead522]

Hard to describe what keeps happening to my desktop. In the menus (e.g., apple menu, upper right), the highlight zips up the list, then zips up again from the bottom, I can't click on any one of them. Likewise the volume control (upper left), the little circle zips along jerkily, all the way to the right then starts over again, cycling. I restart the computer and it's OK, until a few days later it does it again. some sort of bug, virus? Mac High Sierra 10.13.6. Any tips appreciated.

 

[chscag]

More info needed. Which desktop, year and model?

The Apple menu () is located in the upper LEFT side of the screen. Is that what you're referring to or do you mean the top menu that's located on the RIGHT side (volume control, date, time, etc.)?

What list is zipping up?

In any event, it's not a bug nor is it a virus.

 

[IWT]

My thinking on what "zipping" might mean is that the cursor/or highlighted list is caught in a continuous scroll starting at the bottom of the dropdown list, reaches the top and starts scrolling up from the bottom again.

Similarly, clicking on the Volume control causes the white circle to move from left to right, then starts again from the left in a continuous cycle.

I haven't a clue what is causing this, but it disappears after a reboot, only to return several days later.

We must get clarification from the OP. My thought at the moment is that a reinstallation of the OS via Recovery Mode might help, but it's really too early to speculate at the moment.

Ian

 

[steelhead522]

Oops, I mean apple menu on upper left, volume on right. iMac mid-2010

 

[steelhead522]

Yes, "continuous scroll" is a better description than what I wrote.

 

[krs]

Have you tried unplugging and replugging your mouse?
Or better yet - try a different mouse if you have one.

On my 2012 Mini running Mojave every once in a while a normal click is recognized as a right click.
Stays like that until I unplug and replug the mouse - then everything is fine again for quite while.
"Continuous scroll" could also just being the mouse input eing misinterpreted or a problem with the mouse.

 

[steelhead522]

Thanks I will fiddle with my mouse next time it happens.

 

[steelhead522]

Hmm. Changed my mouse and it still happens. Any ideas, anyone? I keep having to restart.

 

[krs]

Did you run malwarebytes and DetectX swift yet to see if they pick up anything that could cause this?

 

[Rod]

I think it's worth doing everything by the numbers in cases like this. More as a process of elimination really.

Boot into Recovery (Command an R) till Recovery window appears then select Disk Utility and Macintosh HD in the side menu then run First Aid.
Do run anti malware apps but that seems like an unlikely cause.
You might like to download and run OnyX in it's Maintainence script. Available free from here; https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html (make sure to get the version for your operating system).

I suspect that (if it's not a hardware issue) it may be an app or an extension running in the background and normally I would suggest starting up in Safe Mode to eliminate that possibility but you say restarting fixes the problem temporarily so that's not going to work.
Does it happen while one app is running or many, does quitting any of those apps stop the problem?

Is your computer running normally in all other ways? Do you have adequate HD storage eg 10+% free?