Problems with my new old mac

[Corona688]

It's only a G3, but it works...mostly. It's running 10.4.2. I've got it hooked up to a USB KVM so I can switch between my primary computer and my mac with ease. It has only given me one major problem:

Whenever I switch from my primary computer to my G3, the mouse doesn't cooperate for a while. It thinks it's trying to select something on the desktop and WILL NOT GIVE UP until I hit random buttons for up to several minutes. Lately it's developed an even more annoying trick, that of not letting me click anything but spotlight -- no matter what I click, it's just that little thing in the upper right-hand corner that keeps popping in and out. Flipping back and forth a couple times sometimes fixes it somehow. The symptoms are in abeyance for now, but I don't doubt they'll come back. Is there any way to deal with this?

[Ari]

Maybe your mouse is drunk, you should make sure it isn't going out and partying all night.

A guess,
The second problem makes me vaguely think of a problem I had after installing 10.4. How much free space do you have on the G3's boot drive?
Mac OS X for some reason likes to have a certain amount of free space or else it starts to go crazy. I am unsure if it's based on percentage or a specific number, but I like to keep my 60GB boot drive with at least 20GB free. I got too low after installing 10.4 and all sorts of strange stuff started happening, from the mouse going crazy to programs crashing. Freeing up space fixed the problems.
That may not have anything to do with your problem though.

[ChuckF]

It's only a G3, but it works...mostly. It's running 10.4.2. I've got it hooked up to a USB KVM so I can switch between my primary computer and my mac with ease. It has only given me one major problem:

Whenever I switch from my primary computer to my G3, the mouse doesn't cooperate for a while. It thinks it's trying to select something on the desktop and WILL NOT GIVE UP until I hit random buttons for up to several minutes. Lately it's developed an even more annoying trick, that of not letting me click anything but spotlight -- no matter what I click, it's just that little thing in the upper right-hand corner that keeps popping in and out. Flipping back and forth a couple times sometimes fixes it somehow. The symptoms are in abeyance for now, but I don't doubt they'll come back. Is there any way to deal with this?
I'm not sure if it's related, but this same thing happens to me when I switch from 10.4 to 9.2.2. It stalls for a few minutes on the 9.2.2 desktop, and I can't do anything. If I do click on something when it starts up, nothing pops up for a few minutes.

Is your Mac on a network?

[Corona688]

My mac is on a network, yes. And there is no way I can free up 20GB more space since it only ever had 10.

[ChuckF]

Hm, ok. Is Appletalk enabled? I disconnected mine from the network and disabled Appletalk, just to see what would happen. It booted much faster, and I could click as normal. I don't know why that was.

[Corona688]

Appletalk is disabled, yes.

Maybye I could have made this clearer. Sorry.

This is not a boot issue. This happens every time I switch from my mac to my PC with my USB KVM. It's not stalled, either -- just stuck thinking I'm holding down a mouse button or key or something.

[ChuckF]

Ah. I understand the problem now. And have no solution to offer.

[Ari]

Some quick searching has shown that freezing mice and KVM switches is a known problem. Couldn't find a fix however. It seemed like switches that used keyboard hotkeys had the most problems.

[Corona688]

Yes, that's precisely it. My KVM switches by double-tapping the scroll lock key. Sorry to hear there's no known solution, but at least it's not totally inexplicable now. Thanks.