funny mouse

Hi again Seem to have my freezing problem solved. Now my mouse is acting up. Say I put the cursor at the end of a sentence I want to copy, press the button, and move toward the beginning of the sentence. Sometimes it starts selecting, then stops after a few words even thought I keep moving the cursor. Sometimes during that passage it selects a few words, then they deselect and selection starts from that point. Just basically wonky behavior. This description make sense? It's only in the past few days, after a trouble-free week or so after the cleaning-up that seemed to fix the freezes. I have a Dell Vostro 200 running XP Home, and a logitech optical wired mouse. TIA denno

Hi denno,


Remove and reinstall all USB controllers-

To remove and reinstall all USB controllers, follow these steps:
1) Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
2) Click the Hardware tab.
3) Click the Device Manager button.
4) Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
5) Right-click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click Uninstall to remove them one at a time.
6) Restart the computer, and then reinstall the USB controllers.
7) Plug in the removable mouse, and then test to make sure that the issue is resolved.

Cheers,
Lee

Did you try another mouse? Make sure there is no hair or dust in the optical area? Does it do this with all programs? Word? Notepad? Your browser?

Hiya Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. This morning I started with the USB uninstall. Did the top one, and my mouse stopped working. "Rebooted" by shutting off the power. It found and reinstalled the mouse, and, I guess for good measure, the external floppy drive. On first test the select function works fine, but will take longer to see if it's fixed. Any opinion whether I should go back and to more uninstalls? Starting from the bottom of the list? Will it make more things not work, like the HD? Does that prevent doing anything at all? Does that automatically reinstall on startup? Digerati, no I did not try another mouse (yet). When something blocks the optics I detect that by mouse's poor movement, and blow it out of there, so I don't think it would be that sort of thing. Thanks to you both; I'll see if there is any problem in the next day or two and report. denno

Any opinion whether I should go back and to more uninstalls? Starting from the bottom of the list? Will it make more things not work, like the HD? Does that prevent doing anything at all? Does that automatically reinstall on startup?

Uninstalling all USB drivers in Device Manager will not do any damage at all and nor will it affect your internal hard drive. If you uninstall those USB drivers and then re-boot you will see that they have all been renewed / replaced by your operating system.

If you are still having trouble with your mouse, take Digerati's advice and try another mouse, as obviously the USB driver is not the problem, it's probably the mouse itself.

Cheers,
Lee

A "weird" idea…. Have you been using your mouse on the same surface that you always have? I know that sounds a little far fetched… but I moved a computer a few months ago and started having some wonky behavior with a Logitech optical mouse. I finally figured out that it was the surface of the tabletop in the new location that was the problem. The surface has a slightly roughened surface. It is some sort of fake marbling effect. Those tiny bumps mess up the digital mouse. If the mouse is used on a pad - or simply a piece of paper, it works fine. If operated directly on this roughened surface… all kinds of strange behaviors. I do not recall it ever deselecting previously selected text and then starting again… but selecting text was almost impossible as the cursor would jump around. It would appear that the mouse was working as desired… then cursor would stop while mouse was still moving… cursor might start moving again but not from the same spot that it stopped at. Clicking on a button was an interesting experience as you might think the cursor was on the button you wanted to click… but when you clicked you select the button beside the one you wanted. Just a thought.

Nah, quite a reasonable thought, actually. Nothing is "weird" when it comes to computers.
In this case, though, I'm using the same old surface: the rough, grubby, unevenly dark surface of my desk. Only problem I seem to have is occasionally a bit of dust or a Golden Retriever hair seems to get into the laser and the cursor moves erratically. Always fixed by blowing it out and blowing on the desk. Go figure.

Meanwhile, the select function has been working fine for the past couple days, since my adventures with the USB controller. Thought it acted up slightly only once, but could've been operator error. Another couple trouble-free days and I'll announce "fixed."

grazzi
denno

Nothing is "weird" when it comes to computers.

You might want to try a cheap mouse pad though as Tomk had a good point there about mouse surfaces. Blowing out your PC case (outside) about once a year with a can of compressed air wouldn't hurt either.

Anyhow, glad to hear the mouse problem seems to have disappeared. Probably just needed that USB driver refresh.

Cheers,
Lee