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Baffling computer issue

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Alex

Tue Feb 24 2009, 06:34PM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

Sorry for the poor title, but I really have no idea what's going on here. My friend has been having some problems with his desktop computer, it's an MSI P6N with an evga nvidia 9800GT video card. I'll describe the symptoms:

The problem occurs after an hour or so of operation. Sometimes more.

In Vista, when the problem occurs, you can move the mouse and alt+tab to different applications and use tab to select controls, and enter will actuate them. You just can't click on things. Also, pressing the windows key won't open the start menu. If the problem happens during a game, alt+tabbing away and back will allow you to continue playing without any problems. Restarting Windows Explorer will fix the problem temporarily.

In Ubuntu, it's pretty much the same. alt+tab works, you can switch workspaces, but clicking on things does nothing. alt+f1 highlights the ubuntu menu, but it won't open. alt+f2 opens the Run Application dialog, and you can start applications just fine. Graphics still work fine. Restarting gdm fixes the problem temporarily.

The problem occurs in Vista with and without aero. It even occured in the Vista installer. It also occurs in Ubuntu with and without compiz.

We updated to the latest BIOS for the board and the problem persists. The operating systems share the same HD. The machine passed a memtest run, but Monk is going to try letting memtest run for a full 10 hours or so. I don't know what else to add.

Questions? Thoughts? What could possibly be going on here?

...

Tue Feb 24 2009, 07:10PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

I had similar symptoms when using the brightness hotkeys (on a laptop) in ubuntu, if the brightness changed the computer would be responsive but the mouse doesn't click and you can't really open anything. Switching to a different console (ie alt-f1) and back fixed it, as did restarting X (control-backspace)

Maybe the same root cause? Otherwise I don't really know, I would try dropping in a different graphics card and see it helps.

Alex

Tue Feb 24 2009, 07:52PM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

I should add that this problem is a recent development. It didn't always happen, which suggests some sort of hardware issue. Why does the same thing happen in both OSs though?

joshua_

Tue Feb 24 2009, 08:58PM

Registered Member #61 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:50AM
Location: Mountain View, CA
Posts: 43

You mentioned this on #naim, but wandered off before I woke up...

I remember a similar issue that was confusing the hell out of me on my desktop. I just had no clue what was going on. Restarting X helped sometimes, and so did bashing my desk (sometimes).

It turned out that when I was installing OS X on my desktop, I had to plug in an external mouse into the PS/2 port to get the thing to boot, since that was just one of the Hackintosh quirks. Some time later, I was rummaging through my desk, and the PS/2 mouse was upside down -- and resting on one of the buttons. So, uh... make sure you didn't do that. You can try 'xev' on Linux to see what events are getting through to applications (click in the window a few times and see if click events are showing up, etc).

[15:36:39] <joshua_> aw I missed grackle
[15:37:12] <epictetus> with every shot so far!
[15:37:48] <joshua_> if grackle comes back, tell him I have a potential solution to his A :P
[15:38:39] <Eminence> "to his A"...
[15:43:33] <Eminence> you say the weirdest things
[15:50:32] <joshua_> he mentioned suffering from some type A
[15:52:43] <Eminence> i'm sure he did

Alex

Wed Feb 25 2009, 01:33AM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

Well that's not entirely impossible. I'll have monk run xev and see if anything interesting happens.

Carbon_Rod

Wed Feb 25 2009, 07:02AM

Registered Member #65 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155

try a setting a job to log to a USB key drive:

lsusb | cat >> /mnt/thumb/usblog.txt
lsmod | cat >> /mnt/thumb/modlog.txt
sync

And shutdown upon event detection.

try:
* Swap out the HD for the day as it may be a drive mismatch DMA related issue
* Remove all USB items from the bus, and use the PS/2 ports

Cheers,

Steve Conner

Wed Feb 25 2009, 12:10PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Maybe the mouse button is faulty

Alex

Wed Feb 25 2009, 07:42PM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

I don't know if swapping out the drive is really an option, but maybe Monk can disable DMA with hdparm. We could try out a different mouse.. He took his apart to replace the RMB with the MMB after it failed. Maybe that has something to do with it. :)

Tom540

Thu Feb 26 2009, 08:12PM

Banned on 3/17/2009.
Registered Member #487 Joined: Sun Jul 09 2006, 01:22AM
Location:
Posts: 617

Alex wrote ...

I don't know if swapping out the drive is really an option, but maybe Monk can disable DMA with hdparm. We could try out a different mouse.. He took his apart to replace the RMB with the MMB after it failed. Maybe that has something to do with it. :)

I hate to sound like "general no shit" but always start with the simple solutions first that are directly related to the device giving you problems. Like the mouse.

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