Mac: Bluetooth Mouse Set-Up pops on on booting, I cannot get around it. Out of the blue.

[cleantone]

Man this is stupid. I have a couple of Mac's. I also have bootable archives on hard drives. I was sent some music that I will be mixing on a USB2 drive. I use mostly firewire drives. I only have one USB drive and this has never happened. I have two boot discs on my music Mac. I plugged the drive in an turned it on. It didn't mount. That happens sometimes with my USB drive. I have to reboot for it to mount. Anyway, I went to reboot into the OSX.4 partition. I got no option to select boot drives when holding down "option" on boot up. Instead I have a Bluetooth setup assistant looking for a Bluetooth Mouse. I do not own one. I have two USB ports. One has my keyboard that has a mouse plugged into it. The curser is not responsive to the mouse and I cannot get past this assistant. It just keeps searching. Nothing works. I can't key stroke out of this. I don't think it even sees the keyboard or Mouse. I have forced quit a few times trying to unplug the new USB drive. Trying to unplug replug the keyboard. Trying to boot off an external drive. All I get is this crap.

Any ideas?

[rhinowing]

buy a pc?

Is there a way you can just boot into a different partition and kill the bluetooth thing?

[cleantone]

I tried booting from a few difference partitions. It doesn't seem to see my keying the option key to boot from a different boot disc. I found the same problem on the apple.com forums. The person was using a USB hub and taking it out solved the problem. I am not using a hub and have already tried unplugging and replugging my mouse and keyboard.

[wilson]

buy a pc?

Is there a way you can just boot into a different partition and kill the bluetooth thing?

what a stupid reponse why would anyone want a pc and even dumber of course you can turn off the bluetooth

--------------------------------------

try creating a different user and see if it still does it...

I had some similar problems with a drive showing up when I opened final cut... I just setup another user for when I need to use that particular drive

[Karst]

Have you tried to run Norton Systemworks or Diskwarrior?

[cleantone]

even dumber of course you can turn off the bluetooth

You can't turn off anything without being able to boot the computer.

Have you tried to run Norton Systemworks or Diskwarrior?

Can't run diskwarrior without being able to boot or use a keyboard. I can't boot in Unix mode without keystrokes. Neither can I boot in target mode. The whole computer is unresponsive. I cannot use a mouse or keyboard on startup and it instantly goes to this message without the option to hit cancel or to X out of the window. The mouse will not work and the keyboard will not work.

[cleantone]

I went and dropped a bill on a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. It got me past that screen but the USB ports seem to still not work. This PC keyboard and mouse are ugly and I need a Mac keyboard to work on anything. This sucks. Anyone know how to test the USB ports?

[ffooky]

What model of Mac do you have ? Have you tried unplugging ALL cables for 15 mins and then reconnecting/booting ?

[ffooky]

There's a utility that comes with the Developers install called USB Prober which can apparently sometimes magic USB ports back to life but of course you can't get far enought to install/run it.

Another quick thought...What OS do you have installed other than 10.4 ? Do you have Remote Desktop enabled or Screen Sharing (10.5) ?

[weesam]

zap the pram and then start in safe mode

[ffooky]

zap the pram and then start in safe modeHow can he do either of those things if his keyboard isn't recognised ? He may be able to reset the PMU etc but how exactly will depend on what Mac he has.

[rhinowing]

what a stupid reponse why would anyone want a pc
BUY A MAC BEST THING EVER LOLOLOL

[cleantone]

Thanks. This is a Mac Mini. I have only X.3 and X.4. I went out last night to get a bluetooth mouse and keyboard to try getting past this screen. It worked but so far nothing has brought back the USB functionality.

Have you tried unplugging ALL cables for 15 mins and then reconnecting/booting ?

I have something running right now. I haven't tried it for 15 minutes but I will. Is that an arbitrary number? I think I did have everything unplugged overnight now that I think about it. I feel like the ports got fried somehow from this drive. I would love to be wrong of course.

There's a utility that comes with the Developers install called USB Prober which can apparently sometimes magic USB ports back to life but of course you can't get far enought to install/run it.


Is this hard to do? Expensive?

[ffooky]

I have something running right now. I haven't tried it for 15 minutes but I will. Is that an arbitrary number? I think I did have everything unplugged overnight now that I think about it. I feel like the ports got fried somehow from this drive. I would love to be wrong of course.I'm guessing you have a PPC Mini so follow these instructions (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300574). There's a link to the Intel equivalent lower down. This isn't a magic bullet but *might* help.


Is this hard to do? Expensive?I'm not sure about 10.3 but I'm pretty sure the Developers package came on a disc with the installers. You can sign up here (http://developer.apple.com/products/online.html) and download the Xcode package for your flavour of OS X (BIG download, maybe overkill for a 648 KB application). I'd mail you the application itself, it's only a wee thing but I doubt it'll run on your machine. If you do manage to get things to a stage where you can at least install & run, let me know and I'll dig out. the 10.4 XCode disc.

[cleantone]

Thanks. I did forget to say it is a PPC model. There is a snag. I have this piece of shit PC keyboard here. There is on option key, no apple key. I poked around trying to figure out how to assign those to other keys but didn't figure it out. Any idea?

[ffooky]

option=alt and I think the left Windows one is command.

[fubar]

up a creek without a paddle

[cleantone]

up a creek without a paddle

Thanks for the helpful input.

[fubar]

Thanks for the helpful input.you might have fried your USB ports on your mini systemboard.
a powered USB hub for external hard drives is always a safer way to go.
you're probably fubar as well.

[cleantone]

Doesn't fubar mean "fucked up beyond all recognition"?

[fubar]

Doesn't fubar mean "fucked up beyond all recognition"?
fucked up beyond all repair

..That's the way lady luck dances.

[direwolf-pgh]

if your keyboard is responding 'somewhat' - get a powered USB hub.
(just a USB 2.0 hub with its own power brick)
hopefully all will be well then.
you arent the first with this problem.
http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Board=Forum39&Number=770630

[cleantone]

Well I have already ordered bluetooth mouse and keyboards for Mac's.

Is it even possible to use a bluetooth keyboard on startup? I can't figure out if I am not able to boot in target mode or from another boot disk because of this PC keyboard or if it is because the keyboard is not recognized before it boots. I keep having to reset this keyboard as well. I will absolutely need to boot from another boot disk.

if your keyboard is responding 'somewhat' - get a powered USB hub.

I don't know what somewhat would be. It doesn't seem to do shit for me.

[direwolf-pgh]

info..You can use a wireless keyboard to start up your Mac in Single-User mode or in Safe Boot mode.

Once the computer is started up in these modes, however, the Bluetooth software controller is de-installed and will no longer work.

To continue in Single-User mode or in Safe Boot mode you will need to use a wired keyboard and mouse.

[cleantone]

Okay. I have finally gotten past this. Unfortunately the USB ports are shot. I found out that you have to wait until AFTER the startup chime to hit Option on the bluetooth keyboard to boot from a different startup disk. Thanks for the help. I learn something with every problem that crops up.