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Chris Lee · Dec 18, 2001, 02:17 AM

This is actually a bug that I noticed in the stock OS X 10.1 installation, but it hasn't been fixed in the OS X 10.1.1 update nor the iTunes 2.0.3 update that was just posted.

So I open up iTunes, start playing some music, and then hit the Apple-T to turn on Visualizations. After that, hitting Apple-F to go full-screen works pretty well most of the time (framerate is crappy, compared to Winamp/Geiss on my desktops, but maybe I'm just spoiled, and that's irrelevant to the bug). After exiting full-screen mode, my cursor is totally black. Same standard pointer, but there's no white outline anymore. Sometimes, the cursor will actually just disappear. I can fix the all-black cursor by clicking on a Terminal and then on the desktop again (or by doing anything that changes the cursor) but to get the cursor back when it disappears, I have to log out and then log in again.

My hardware is an iBook2, DVD. 384MB of RAM, 600MHz G3. OS X 10.1.1, iTunes 2.0.3. Has anybody else experienced this?

-clee

Kbee · Dec 18, 2001, 03:40 AM

And I thought I was the only one. I even had this problem with iTunes 1.whatever . I still get the cursor going black, but ever since I stopped using classic, I've never had it disappear. It seems to be related to keyboard entry in iTunes. I've had in happen when I press "b" to bring up the Apple logo even when no framerate info is displayed. The "invisible cursor still funtions, and I found that if you use the Process Viewer application in the Utilities folder to quit the Windows Manager Process, you will get your cursor back. Unfortunately it's almost as bad as logging out because it quits everything (including Classic, god I hate rebooting classic), but it doesn't take quite as long. I haven't found a more benign process to quit to restore the cursor although I'm sure there is one, I just haven't really looked that hard. To fix the black cursor you just have to get the OS to use another cursor, so going over a text field or launching a new app does it. I'd be interested to know if anyone has a cure for this.

Chris Lee · Dec 18, 2001, 04:57 AM

Interesting thing is that I'm not even running Classic. The first thing that I did when I got my iBook was reformat the drive and put OS X on there, all alone. (I'm not an old-school Mac user, and I have no use for the old stuff; I'm a freshly converted Linux/UNIX guy. : )

I'm not sure exactly what's causing the cursor corruption, although I noticed it also happens when swapping back and forth between the full-screen G-Force plugin in Audion. So - is it maybe an issue with the drivers for the ATi chipset?

-clee

agentz · Dec 18, 2001, 09:52 AM

I started this self same discussion a while ago, been archived now here

It still happens even though I've applied every patch or update I can find! I've submitted to Apple via several sources including face to face with an Apple UK manager. Only slightly weird thing is that I reckon that it now only happens 10-15% of the time instead of half of the time.

Chris Lee · Dec 18, 2001, 04:59 PM

agentz: Hey, thanks for the link - that's funny, too, because I spent about an hour doing a search to see if anybody else had noticed this before.

So - nobody knows why this is, eh? I have noticed that it doesn't happen on the PowerMac G4 desktop systems. Very weird.

-clee

chabig · Dec 23, 2001, 12:43 PM

I have never noticed this before, but my iBook does it too.

It keeps the black outline until the cursor changes to something else, then when it goes back to the standard pointer, all is normal.

So I don't see any need to force quite anything, just put the cursor in any text area and click to get an I-beam pointer. Then when you move the cursor out of the text area, you'll have a normal arrow pointer again.

Chris

agentz · Dec 23, 2001, 04:39 PM

So two slightly different problems related to the cursor/iTunes/X then... I've been trying this out on as many different machines as I can lay my hands on... so as well as my iBook I've been able to replicate it on an old Blueberry iMac, a 500MHz iBook, a PBG4, a PowerMac G4 (not QuickSilver), and a PBG3 (Bronze keyboard). So just about everything recent(ish) then... I'll have a go on a QuickSilver when I get back to work after new year and see if I can make it do the same. Some of the machines the cursor disappears totally, some of them its the outline as described above. Cursor always comes back after it completely disappears after a logout and login.

Anyhow, back to making chocolate trifle for christmas....

Cellery · Dec 23, 2001, 05:37 PM

Wow, strange how I had never seen that happen before on my machine until just now. iTunes 2.0.3, Powerbook G4 550/Radeon, OS X 10.1.2. Software/ATI chipset bug perhaps? Weird!

ccsccs7 · Dec 24, 2001, 04:45 AM

I get this from iTunes in OS X and also got in from either Bugdom or Nanosaur in OS 9. This makes me think resolution/full screen changing might be responsible.

Cipher13 · Dec 24, 2001, 06:18 AM

I only read the first post, so bearing that in mind...

To the people who have the problem, do you all have the same video card? Lets all post what you have.

CarpetFluff · Dec 24, 2001, 06:52 AM

I've had problems using Open GL games which change the resolution of the screen in OS X, in some cases the pointer has disappeared entirely but still works and I have to scramble around the screen blindly trying to logout, when I log back in everythings right again.

I think this must be a generally buggy area of X, i'm using a Powermac G4 and I have an Nvidia card.

wunderkind · Dec 24, 2001, 07:09 AM

I've had the same symptom (totally black cursor), but with a completely different "setup".

I get it after running Setting Sun screen saver (slide show mode) in OS 9.2.2 on iBook 500 which of course runs full screen. I can get cursor back to normal, with white outline if I click with a mouse elsewhere on a desktop or another window.

As somebody already suggested, this may be caused by a change of display resolution from one to another which happens when running full screen iTunes visuals or screen savers.

Metro · Dec 24, 2001, 08:00 AM

After I installed OS 10.1.2 and updated to iTunes 2.0.3 was the first time I had noticed this. I was wondering what was going on! I can't remember it doing this before the update. This is on IBook 600 DVD.

Metro · Dec 24, 2001, 09:26 AM

I just checked this problem out and it results in a problem I first had when I installed the 10.1.2 update. Many of my songs I imported would not play the first time I clicked on them in the iTunes and OS 10.1.2 update. The ones that came on my iBook did. I quit and they played then, but I just checked the problem witht the cursor again and some of the songs I have burned (imported) would not play. I went into the Finder and tried to open them that way and they still wouldn't play. They did play through the Preview window in the Finder.

The only way I could get them to play was to quit iTunes and open it up again, and they play. Like I said this has never been a problem before and when I installed the updates is when I noticed the cursor and had this problem the first time, and now after checking the Full screen they started to not play again. They are in the correct folder. Has anyone had this happen?

ccsccs7 · Dec 26, 2001, 06:48 AM

Just wanted to add that I got the black cursor in OS 9.2.1 with a game emulation program which switched resolutions and went full screen.

OJ · Dec 26, 2001, 03:08 PM

I'm on 10.1.2 with iTunes 2.0.3 and my mouse pointer completely disappears after full screen visualization. Moving my finger around the trackpad I can feel my way through the screen (easy to do if you got magnification setup on your dock) as if I was walking in the dark. I have to restart to get my pointer back. Was wondering if anyone had similar problems?