Frozen cursor remains after reboot

TidBITS Talk
1

I have a 2023 Mac Studio, running Tahoe. All was fine yesterday, but today I went to use it and the cursor was frozen. I have shut down and rebooted, booted in safe mode, plugged in the trackpad, detached all peripherals, and it is still frozen. What else can I do?

2

Have you tried plugging the mouse or trackpad into a different USB port? If using a mouse, is the tracking light lit? Are you sure the trackpad battery is OK?

I have a mouse plugged into my (Dell) monitor and sometimes it doesn’t power up until I disconnect and reconnect it.

3

Note, however, that not all mice use a visible tracking light.

In addition to old models that have mechanical balls (does anyone still make these?), some use infrared LEDs for tracking.

4

What kind and brand of mouse? Or are you using just a trackpad? Does the mouse/trackpad work connected to another Mac?

I use Contour Design mice. The wireless ones have to recharge occasionally. When that happens, I just switch the cable from the signal thingy (I apologize for being overly technical) to the mouse, and it recharges while I used it wired.

5

I use an Apple wireless keypad - the latest version. Today, I did finally get it to work, plugged into the computer. It still will not work wireless, even though it had 15% charge remaining. Strangely, it has been plugged in now for several hours and still shows the same 15% charge. Note that I also have 3 monitors and cannot get a successful reboot with all three connected. But if I boot up with just one, and then plug in the other 2 after booting, then all 3 work. Strange things are happening, but as long as I can make it work, I will settle for that…

6

How are the monitors connected? It sounds like there isn’t enough power to go around.

Are you using a powered hub or dock for any of this? I had to get TB hubs for my M1 Macs in order to get more than one connected TB or USB-C drive to function.

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7

Monitors are all connected directly to the MacStudio - 1 html and 2 displayport into USB-C, They ran fine for years, so there must have been enough power. They are running fine now.

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