Odd behavior in latest update 10.8.5

[chriskleeman]

Best Holiday wishes to all of you!

So, my office manager sent me the following after she upgraded to 10.8.5:

QUOTE

I did an update on my computer and every since then, I cannot use the
"delete" button in Finder or select/highlight multiple files with the scroll
pad, or drag and drop file to trash or another folder etc!! I have gone
online and they say it is something wrong with system preferences and to
reset, but I don't know how to do that...also the sleep tactic doesn't seem
to work.

Any ideas? I'm not working in Mountain Lion, still in Lion, fyi.

And of course, I suggested she join TS, but she's "way too busy" so I'm trying to help her out.

Thanks!

Chris  

[jchuzi]

An often tried and often true solution is to download and (re)apply the 10.8.5 Combo Update. That can cure weird problems.

[kimmer]

QUOTE

I did an update on my computer and every since then, I cannot use the
"delete" button in Finder or select/highlight multiple files with the scroll
pad, or drag and drop file to trash or another folder etc!! I have gone
online and they say it is something wrong with system preferences and to
reset, but I don't know how to do that...also the sleep tactic doesn't seem
to work.

1. I'm running the latest upgrade to 10.8.5 and haven't had any problems, but I'm not using the scroll pad. Does she have a mouse she could try working with, and if so, does this occur with the mouse?
2. I'm also curious as to where she found this info, as I'm not finding the same -- but I'm not always the best searcher.
3. Is she running any 3rd party pieces of software that might be conflicting?

[chriskleeman]

Hi Kimmer,

QUOTE

I plugged in a mouse and am able to
do drag and drop and highlight, but when trying to delete a file or pic i can't use
the delete butting (it works in every other way) It is so weird...

She found the info here:

I sent her an email with Jon's link to the Combo Updater, been so long since I used it, it's true that sometimes it will fix weird problems...

So a partial fix with the mouse. Also, forgot to include this info on my first post about her machine:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name:    MacBook
  Model Identifier:    MacBook6,1
  Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:    2.26 GHz
  Number of Processors:    1
  Total Number of Cores:    2
  L2 Cache:    3 MB
  Memory:    4 GB
  Bus Speed:    1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version:    MB61.00C8.B00
  SMC Version (system):    1.51f53
  Serial Number (system):    W89460UM8PX
  Hardware UUID:    C7FDD21D-2B98-5816-AC14-01A8941B3E16
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:    Enabled

[kimmer]

Wow. That's quite a thread. This appears to be an issue with MacBook's and it goes back a few years. Hopefully the combo update will fix things as I didn't see a definitive fix anywhere. Since I don't run a MacBook I'm not much help from here on, but hopefully someone with a MacBook will step in here and help.

[krissel]

Have her go to the Finder and hold down the Option key while opening the Go in the menubar. It will show the user “Library” directory as an option. Then, once there, open Preferences and  delete (or at least remove from location) "com.apple.desktop.plist" and "com.apple.systempreferences.plist", and restart.  

Try the easy things first.