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Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 6:54 am
by Joanna
Hi, I have iMac mid-2011 model with Mac OS X version 10.7.5. Not yet upgraded to Maverics. I have been using it for almost 2 years. Suddenly the bluetooth mouse stopped working. Went to the shop, they checked it and it was working. Came back home, did exactly the same via System Preferences > Mouse and did get the following error: "The pairing attempt was unsuccessful."
Below the screen shots.
I am planning to upgrade to Mavericks and extend memory but wanted to fix the mouse first.
I have also another problem which occurred at the same time: my Epson printer doesn't print from this Mac. (I will start separate topic on this one).

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 8:18 am
by Turboladdade
Is this an Apple Magic Mouse or some other bluetooth mouse?

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 10:04 am
by Joanna
Apple magic mouse the bluetooth one.
My Mac just died. Doesn't switch on.So now the problem is enormous as all my data are on th hard disc and did not do recent copy. So I lost all my data?

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 10:47 am
by mark_42
Your data is likely still on your HD, just take it out, pop it in a case and plug it into another Mac to check.

I don't recall if Lion had a recovery partition but it's worth a try. Turn it on and hold down ⌘ R for a while and see what happens.

2011 iMac, still on Lion and no backup?

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 10:57 am
by Turboladdade
And actually, you could try target disk mode first, which turns your whole mac into a sort of external hard drive.

See here: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 1:07 pm
by Joanna
Thank for helping…
Update: Mac is on again. Mouse detected but pointer not moving.

Printer: only the print option does not work, the scanner works. The printer appears "offline" with a grey dot next to it instead of a green one "online".
I have a bootable ext HD made with trial version of Carbon Copy from 1,5 week ago (some data not included).
Will have to buy Carbon Copy Cloner now.
I will check if I have recovery partition although it does not show from the Computer menu.

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 1:33 pm
by mark_42
Check if you have a recovery partition by holding ⌘ R while booting (disk utility will show it grayed out). Try reinstalling the operating system. It can cure a lot of ills and is less painful than it sounds.

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 1:46 pm
by Joanna
The mouse is sort of connected. The problem is that it won't scroll or move the pointer. But when I click on something, the mouse is working. Very strange.
It worked perfectly on another iMac at the shop.

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 2:44 pm
by mark_42
It might be the hardware or it might be a munged driver. Reinstalling the OS would clear up the driver problem and is no more painful than an OS update, it just takes longer.

It's also handy to have a wired mouse around and they can be very inexpensive. I picked up a few for $3 each.

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 5:09 pm
by Joanna
I tried to do the repair permissions and disk via disk utility in repair mode (indeed there is this option).
Also noticed an option of reinstalling Mountain Lion OS. Should I do that or should I back up and do the upgrade to Mavericks instead? Does apple have drivers for that mouse?
I tried also switching off the power, unplugging all the cables and other wireless things near and waited for some time before plugging them again. Every time the same result: the clicking works but the cursor doesn't move...

I have a wired mouse but it's not so nice as the one from apple. So I really would like to get it working.

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 5:24 pm
by Joanna
So it scrolls and clicks but the pointer won't more…never seen something like that

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 16th, 2014, 5:27 am
by Joanna
With no other suggestions, I will back up my data, then proceed to reinstall Mountain Lion from Recovery partition. And then hundreds of updates since 2011…..

Re: Wireless mouse not being detected

Posted: August 18th, 2014, 9:12 am
by Joanna
OK so this topic can be closed now.
I had to buy a new "Apple Magic Mouse" and the new one works.
Sometimes things do get broken. I did everything possible to avoid spending money, insulting reinstall of Mac OS from Recovery partition, installing upgrades and changing settings and following all other suggestions I could find, it didn't work. Even after installing (upgrading) memory from 4 GB to 16GB and upgrading OS to Mavericks then installing all the updates, this one problem persisted. I had a haunch it was a hardware problem because it worked partially.
But by trying to solve this one I did solve a lot of other problems on the way, like my printer which wasn't printing. I had to fix a wifi connection at home, upgraded the memory and OS, reinstalled another computer and solved problems there (laptop, Windows) so, all in all, something positive came out of it...I cleared all my IT-related issues. During this whole process, a lot of new countless issues came up and I solved them all so I learned a lot, but in reality, it is never ending learning process.