Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Sounds to me like a hardware flaw. I've never seen or heard of anything like this, but there's nothing in software that should allow that to happen.

FWIW, the MacBook has passed the Disk Utilities, Disk Warrior, And Apple suite of diagnostics.

Glenn, I think it's more likely what's technical known as Bad Mojo on my part. (Got to get my mojo workin', unless that turns out to be really embarrassing once I find out what it means.)

thank you

The screen weirdness sounds like it's related to the Universal Access mode (see System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing). If I turn it on and hit cmd-opt-= the screen zooms in and every subsequent cursor movement scrolls the entire screen around just as you described. Try it, it's fun. (Unless it's unintended!)

The only problem I've ever had with my Macbook Pro is the fact that the volume buttons didn't always adjust the actual volume even though they would bring up the appropriate heads up display indicating that they were doing as I asked. Doesn't seem to be doing it anymore, though. Must have been fixed in a software update at some point.

David, Scott is correct. The problem with the larger pixels and slight shifts of the screen is caused by an accidental activation of the Zoom feature of Universal access. Just hit Command-Option-8 to cause it to happen again. Then once more to turn it off.

Saw the exact same thing with the first customer I saw this morning.

While reinstalling the OS twice probably wasn't necessary, it also probably didn't hurt.

I think a lot of the problems you've been reporting are an indirect result of how Apple configures OS X out of the box: One user account with full administrative privileges. What this means is that you get to use the computer with the ability to shoot yourself in the foot, screw up the OS and make work for Apple phone support, Genius bars and private consultants like myself.

The preferred and safer way to operate is this:

Create a second user account, let's call him "sysadmin". Use your favorite password if you like, just make sure you'll remember this user's credentials. Give this user full administrative rights (check "Allow user to administer this computer"). Now select your account settings in the Accounts preference pane and uncheck the administrator preference.

You can still log in automatically as yourself, and do virtually everything you need to do day to day. The difference is when you're about to make a change that will affect the entire system, not just your account, you'll get a dialog box which says:
"Type an administrator's name and password to make changes...".

Type in sysadmin and the password you chose and you'll be all set. You should be able to install 90% of the applications you need doing this. A handful will require you to log in as the admin.

Additional benefits of this scenario are that if a malicious hacker were to gain control of your computer while you're logged in, (unlikely at this juncture, I know, but not impossible) they won't have full control of the machine, only your account. Also, you'll have a handy second account to test issues like your recent prefs corruption with Terminal.

Give it a try. It's a fairly painless way to work, and provides a lot more stability to an already rock solid OS.

-max

It also happens if you hit Control and use the scroll button on your mouse (or, since you're on a mac book, two-finger scroll on the trackpad).

The other advantage of having a second user is that it allows you to troubleshoot corrupt preference files. I keep a second non-admin user to help diagnose problems. Saved me lots of troubleshooting time if I can't reproduce the problem with another user on the same machine.

Thanks! You folks are aces!

I can still zoom via control-mousewheel, even with the zoom feature turned off in the Universal Access panel. I assume that's to spec.

(For comparison purposes, this problem strikes me as oddly similar to Windows "filter keys" feature, except the Mac one is easier to turn off.)

jeez, sound like Mac the Knife to me! I'll stick w/ my dell windows pa-leeze.

And I thought it was your bad electricity again ...

I hardly try to make friends my Mac and PC, now it is possible on protocol level only, do you know any possible ways?

Dave

saw this on the RISKs list. Not sure if its related but it might illustrate the problems between .9 and .10

Dermot

From : RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Wednesday 11 July 2007 Volume 24 : Issue 72
---------------------

Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:59:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: T Yip
Subject: The risk with the Mac OS X 10.4.10 version number

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070628105254900

Mac OS X 10.4.10 is the first iterative release of Mac OS X to have 5 digits in its version string (1, 0, 4, 1, 0). It is also the first iterative release of Mac OS X to use the ".10" extension. This is causing some significant issues.

The initial three [sic] digits for "10.4.10" are the same as "10.4.1," an earlier release of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). Since the "MAC_OS_X_VERSION_ACTUAL" string (used by Cocoa applications to determine the current OS version) can carry a maximum of four digits, Mac OS X 10.4.10 and and 10.4.1 are both labeled "1041."

This means that some applications recognize Mac OS X 10.4.10's version string as Mac OS X 10.4.1 and refuse to properly run, erroneously thinking that the system version is too old. For instance, the application UNO requires Mac OS X 10.4.4. When running under Mac OS X 10.4.10, it recognizes the Mac OS X version number as 10.4.1 and refuses to operate.

Essentially, the built-in Cocoa method for forbidding an app to run on too low a system breaks against Mac OS X 10.4.10.

We're still searching for a viable method for tricking applications into thinking that the system version is 10.4.9, which would largely obviate this problem.

RISKS: This sounds almost like a repeat of the Y2K scenarios, with all its attendant risks.