I had a few problems with my G5 iMac lately with random kernel panics (is that when it tells you to reboot machine in several languages?) so I decided to reinstall OS. But let me take a step back.
I had a kernel panic once about 3-4 weeks ago. Rebooted imac, fixed permissions and it was fine after that. Then about a week ago my wife was doing something on it while I wasn't here and it happened twice or three times. She was only typing her uni assignment in Writely. Since then it was happening here and there, once or twice a day. Did a bit of maintenance with Onyx and that improved things slightly but last two days were crap. When I think back - I have installed a mouse driver called Steermouse or something like that but then uninstalled it the next day as it wasn't good as i thought it would. Then I figured out MS has just released intellipoint 6.0 that FINALLY had the function to enable me to use middle click to close tabs in Firefox by simply middle-clicking them. I'm not sure but I think this would be the point where the things ahve gone so bad that I have backed up all files and did a clean OS install (10.4+ online updates to 10.4.5)
It all worked fine until just recently, I opened the iPhoto and scrolled and - bang - kernel panic again. Rebooted, tried the same thing again - another panic.
Then I ran TechToolDeluxe to test hardware - it said all is OK. For some reason I have a feeling that middle click or scroll could be the culprit and this is why: in intellippoint 6.0 there is option where I can assign mouse buttons but what I could do is to assign middle click to "Let OS X handle this button" I went back to settings and assigned it now to Cmnd-Click where I liost the tab functionality, but hey... I can scroll in iPhoto.
I wonder if there might be some "fight" for resources when MS driver controlls the mouse but lets one of the functions be handled by OS X ? has anyone experienced something like this ?
The other question is - could the way I plugged in my mouse be the reason for the kernel panic? This how it looks: three USB ports on the back:1- Keyboard, 2 - iPod cable and 3 - wireless LAN adapter (ASUS WL167g) The mouse is MS Wireless Optical Mouse blue and the receiver which is about the same size as the mouse is plugged into the USB1 port on the keyboard (MacAlly IceKey).
I have since moved the mouse and plugged it straight into the back of the computer.
Any thoughts ? Thanks.
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