Hi there, I've just got a Mac and one or two simple things annoy me and I wondered if there's a simple answer: If I go into system preferences and set my mouse tracking to the fastest it will go, it is still too slow! It makes a lot of 'leg'work for my right hand which keeps having to move around like I'm trying to rev up a friction toy. Part of the problem is caused by the fact that the pointer is Shy!: Every once in a while the pointer takes it upon itself to leap into a corner of the screen and it takes a few mouse sweeps to persuade him to come out again! Any clue? Lastly and most nigglingly, in the displays preferences I have found a very useful screen brightness slider. Lovely. Except it doesn't dim enough. I've slid it to minimum and it's still not tinted enough. Daytime, not much of a problem. Night time though, it's too bright. I don't seem to have the same brightness controls on my Mac monitor I find on a PC CRT. Otherwise of course, my Mac has been the most usable interface for me of that and the other two popular ones.

Try zapping the PRAM (command+option+p+r on start- up until you hear 3 chimes) and maybe repairing permissions using disk utility. If it is a 3rd party mouse reinstall the drivers. If you mac uses open firmware, you could also try a NVRAM reset. This procedure can vary depending on what Mac you have, a quick google will tell you which procedure. Doing this may also solve your monitor problem, you monitor should go completely black if with the slider in it's lowest setting. What machine/monitor are you using?

just caught your machine ID, sorry. Your machine is an Intel Mac, I'm not sure the steps I outlined will work on an IntelMac (I haven't played with one yet).