I can't believe it... I have to ask for help... (swallows troubleshooting pride)
Lately, and with increasing frequency, my G4 tower has been acting up- the mouse will freeze, but the keyboard will work and it seems that the computer is still running just fine. Or both won't work. Or the display won't wake up from sleep. Resetting seems to be the only way out of these situations. But this afternoon both were nonfunctioning at the sign-on screen, and it only worked after unplugging (I couldn't get it to turn off). My first instinct is to swap keyboards, but I don't have one and I don't want to buy one unless it seems a likely culprit. The keyboard is Apple, the small one that came with the original hockey puck mouse. The mouse is relatively new, third party. At first it seemed like plugging the mouse directly into its own USB port instead of through the keyboard helped, but then it went back to doing it. And sometimes the mouse will just hang, then go, then hang, then go, then back to normal.
Thoughts? Keyboard? Do USB ports just go bad (all at the same time?) My thinking is hardware, but could it be something else?
This is a hacked tower, to run quietly, so it probably has experienced higher temps than a normal tower. But it made it just fine throught the summer, and it's been on the cool side lately. And I'm not getting sudden system-wide lock ups that I usually associate with overheating.
TIA
Try a visual inspection of the socket. I've got an iMac 400 that had the USB ports broken inside. If I straightened the pins and held the plug in place I could get it to work, but if it moved at all it would lose the connection and hang for a bit until they were recognized again. It was a $1-2 part from Mouser and some de-re-soldering later and it works fine.
When I took out the old port, I carefully disassembled it and removed/cut what I could until all I had were the anchors and wwire individually seperated. That way I could heat them and gently pull them out one at a time, instead of trying to melt and remove the whole 8 pin+4 anchor part in one go. Desoldering is SO much easier when you don't have to retain the old part.
Have you tried a fresh install of os x?
Also, look in the console logs and see if any of the usb extensions are reporting problems.
Do you have an add on usb card?
Who the heck has time for fresh OS installs?
No add on card.
But the Console looks interesting. I'm not sure what I'm looking for exactly, but maybe someone could tell me what this sample should be telling me (sorry, kind of long):
Nov 28 13:42:39 localhost ConsoleMessage: Starting internet services
Nov 28 13:42:39 localhost SystemStarter: Starting internet services
Nov 28 13:42:39 localhost xinetd[347]: xinetd Version 2.3.11 started with libwrap options compiled in.
Nov 28 13:42:39 localhost xinetd[347]: Started working: 1 available service
Nov 28 13:42:41 localhost SystemStarter: Startup complete.
Nov 28 14:13:19 localhost /Applications/Xkeys 1.1.1/Xkeys.app/Contents/MacOS/Xkeys: *** Warning: ATSUSetFontFallbacks has been deprecated. Use ATSUFontFallbacks objects instead. ***
Nov 28 14:13:19 localhost /Applications/Xkeys 1.1.1/Xkeys.app/Contents/MacOS/Xkeys: *** Warning: ATSUMeasureText has been deprecated. Use ATSUGetUnjustifiedBounds instead. ***
Nov 28 14:39:12 localhost kernel: USBF: 3437.865 AppleUSBHubPort: Error 0xe00002c0: getting port status (4)
Nov 28 14:39:15 localhost kernel: USBF: 3441.438 AppleUSBHubPort: Error 0xe00002ed: getting port status (2)
Nov 28 14:39:16 localhost kernel: USBF: 3442.218 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x1c45100]: Error (0xe00002ed) getting device config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:16 localhost kernel: USBF: 3442.218 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x1c45100]::GetFullConfigurationDescriptor - Error (e00002ed) getting first 4 bytes of config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:16 localhost kernel: USBF: 3442.344 AppleUSBHubPort[0x1c42200]::ReleaseDevZeroLock()
Nov 28 14:39:17 localhost kernel: USBF: 3442.519 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x1c45100]: Error (0xe00002ed) getting device config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:17 localhost kernel: USBF: 3442.519 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x1c45100]::GetFullConfigurationDescriptor - Error (e00002ed) getting first 4 bytes of config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:17 localhost kernel: USBF: 3442.519 AppleUSBComposite[0x1c82900](IOUSBCompositeDevice) GetFullConfigDescriptor(0) returned NULL
Nov 28 14:39:28 localhost kernel: USBF: 3454. 69 Apple USB Keyboard[0x1c55400]: Error (0xe00002ed) getting device config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:28 localhost kernel: USBF: 3454. 69 Apple USB Keyboard[0x1c55400]::GetFullConfigurationDescriptor - Error (e00002ed) getting first 4 bytes of config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:28 localhost kernel: USBF: 3454.370 Apple USB Keyboard[0x1c55400]: Error (0xe00002ed) getting device config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:28 localhost kernel: USBF: 3454.370 Apple USB Keyboard[0x1c55400]::GetFullConfigurationDescriptor - Error (e00002ed) getting first 4 bytes of config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:28 localhost kernel: USBF: 3454.370 AppleUSBComposite[0x2a03600](Apple USB Keyboard) GetFullConfigDescriptor(0) returned NULL
Nov 28 14:39:33 localhost kernel: USBF: 3458.513 AppleUSBHubPort: Error 0xe00002ed: get status (second in port status change)
Nov 28 14:39:33 localhost kernel: USBF: 3458.513 AppleUSBHubPort: Error 0xe00002eb: get status (second in port status change)
Nov 28 14:39:34 localhost kernel: USBF: 3459.751 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x2eacf00]: Error (0xe00002ed) getting device config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:34 localhost kernel: USBF: 3459.751 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x2eacf00]::GetFullConfigurationDescriptor - Error (e00002ed) getting first 4 bytes of config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:34 localhost kernel: USBF: 3459.883 AppleUSBHubPort[0x2f6dd00]::ReleaseDevZeroLock()
Nov 28 14:39:34 localhost kernel: USBF: 3460. 52 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x2eacf00]: Error (0xe00002ed) getting device config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:34 localhost kernel: USBF: 3460. 52 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x2eacf00]::GetFullConfigurationDescriptor - Error (e00002ed) getting first 4 bytes of config descriptor
Nov 28 14:39:34 localhost kernel: USBF: 3460. 52 AppleUSBComposite[0x1b7b000](IOUSBCompositeDevice) GetFullConfigDescriptor(0) returned NULL
Nov 28 14:39:40 localhost kernel: USBF: 3465.801 IOUSBHIDDriver[0x1c57d00]::start - aborting startup
Nov 28 14:39:40 localhost kernel: USBF: 3465.804 IOUSBHIDDriver[0x1c57b00]::start - aborting startup
Nov 28 14:39:40 localhost kernel: USBF: 3465.807 IOUSBCompositeDevice[0x1c42100]: error setting feature. err=0xe00002ed
Nov 28 14:40:40 localhost kernel: USBF: 3526.470 AppleUSBOHCI[0x1bef800] Watchdog detected dead controller (hcca #: 41324, hc #: 42295)
Nov 28 14:40:41 localhost kernel: USBF: 3527.470 AppleUSBOHCI[0x1bef800] Watchdog detected dead controller (hcca #: 41324, hc #: 43257)
Nov 28 14:40:42 localhost kernel: USBF: 3528.470 AppleUSBOHCI[0x1bef800] Watchdog detected dead controller (hcca #: 41324, hc #: 44219)
Nov 28 14:40:43 localhost kernel: USBF: 3529.470 AppleUSBOHCI[0x1bef800] Watchdog detected dead controller (hcca #: 41324, hc #: 45181)
...Goes on like this for a long time...
Nov 28 14:42:10 localhost kernel: USBF: 3616.471 AppleUSBOHCI[0x1bef800] Watchdog detected dead controller (hcca #: 41324, hc #: 64898)
Nov 28 14:42:33 localhost syslogd: exiting on signal 15
Nov 28 14:42:55 localhost syslogd: restart
Nov 28 14:42:55 localhost syslogd: kernel boot file is /mach_kernel
Is there another portion anyone would like to see? Does this mean the controller is dead on the motherboard, or the hub on the keyboard, or none of the above?
OK, the computer appears to have completely died. Wouldn't turn on at all. After going inside, dusting it out, reseating connections and RAM, still dead. So I brought my Cube out of retirement, transferred the HD, dug the PSU out of a giant stack of boxes, and fired it up. The mouse still didn't work though. In fact, unplugging and plugging it in caused the cube to shut down. At this point I thought maybe I have a killer mouse! So back into the stack of boxes for my only other USB mouse. Works just fine.
Has anyone ever heard of a faulty mouse killing a computer?
Unfortunately I won't have a chance to really troubleshoot components from the tower for a few weeks. Man, I put a lot of work in that sucker. If it's really dead, it will be the first computer that has died rather than retired.