I have owned a few noise canceling headphones and I actually found this pair of Audio Technica headphones to be better than the Bose Quiet Comfort.

[link]

They are also a third of the price.

Thanks, ND, I knew youse guys would know.

Does anyone have thoughts on why my mouse would suddenly go all wonky?

It is as if it is 'cutting out.' It freezes or disappears with no consistent stimulus that I can see.

Sometimes I can bring it back by hitting multiple keys on the keyboard or unplugging it from the usb port and plugging it back in.

I tried an old Mac mouse and it did the same thing.

Ultimately, I went to Logitech and downloaded their marble ball software but that does not seem to have fixed the problem.

If the mouse is wearing out, why would it work sometimes and not others?

Sounds like a usb driver problem, maybe.

what port are you plugging it into? Is this a Mac/PC portable/desktop?

But I think the flash drive was the final nail in the floppy coffin.

Oddly, I needed to use a floppy disk just the other day when building my new 'puter. I needed to use third party drivers during the Windows XP install (the "F6" option), and the floppy drive seemed to be the only way to transfer them.

Daniel, I have been switching from one side of the keyboard to the other AND into the usb cord extention I was using for the keyboard itself.

This morning, however, an entirely different problem presented itself and I am well and truly screwed. The fact that I'm not crying right now is something of a miracle.

The power button on the G4 has stopped working. i've been leaving it on, in sleep, most days so as to avoid having to power up.

Last night I thought I should power down, thinking that might have something to do with everything being a bit skittish.

At first, the button worked, but the mouse froze on startup so I couldn't maneuver to log in. I unplugged and tried to restart but the button won't light.

Seriously. I'm so incredibly screwed.

Is there any way to hotwire a G4 tower?

To say that I have no money for a new computer...in fact, this one was a hand me down...is putting it mildly.

God. What am I going to do?

eta: I should say that I'm coming to you from my 10 year old iMac that has been languishing in the closet for the last 10 months. I can do my email, thank God. And come here...but that's about it.

Sometimes the small battery on the motherboard gets low on power and makes the computer behave oddly. Can you open up the G4 and remove it? It won't remember the date anymore between boots, but it might power up.

The other thing to do while it's open is give it a vacuuming. An appalling amount of dust can collect inside a computer and that can sometimes be an issue. Just be careful not to dislodge any components while doing it.

Thanks Rob. I'll give that a try.

bonny,

have you tried rebooting the computer? that might be all it needs.

Yep. That was the whole point of turning it off last night. I've rebooted several times but cannot do so now because the power button is not working.

I took the battery out and cleaned up the inside but the button just won't engage.

What else can I do?