Need Help Desperately!

You can find the latest version of Logitech MouseWare for your operating system here.  Please note:  If your device is not pictured, please select, 'Other'.

"EM_EXEC.EXE
Logitech Mouseware driver. Needed to support some additional functionality of Logitech mice/trackballs such as "SmartMove". If you disable it and find you don't need it leave it disabled"

If you are using the Logitech Mouse, disable Smartmove in the Mouse Properties dialog box, as follows:

  1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Mouse.
  3. Choose the Settings tab in the Mouse Properties dialog box, and click the Advanced button.
  4. Clear the Smartmove check box.
  5. Close the Mouse Control Panel and restart Windows.

Possessed Mouse
This week we had a tech support inquiry from a customer who was having problems with his mouse pointer. Sometimes it would get ‘stuck’, and other times it would seem to move of its own accord. Many of us have seen this at one time or another, and unfortunately there is no one single cause we can point to every time and say "this is it!" What we can do though is give you a list of 10 different causes, and one or another of these will be the culprit in about 98% of the cases.

1. Dirty Mouse –  (You took care of this already)

2. Virus Infection – (You took care of this already)

3. Driver Issues –  (You took care of this already)

4. Device Conflict – It is possible that a device that you just installed is causing some erratic conflict with your mouse. Try removing that last item you installed and see if the problem goes away. You can also check Control Panel/System/Device Manager and investigate any warnings or conflicts it shows.

5. Known Resident Programs – Be aware of how many resident programs and utilities are running in the background. There are start-up utilities that always load in your memory when you boot your system, and you add to that load when you start opening applications. If your system does not have enough available resources to manage all these apps running at the same time, it will surely affect your mouse movement. Another phenomenon that can occur is that you click away with nothing happening, and then while you are sitting back scratching your head, suddenly all the mouse clicks and keystrokes that you have made will execute in a second.  (These are your 'Running Processes' and O4 entries in HJT.  Look up the exe files at Computer Cops Startup List, and consider making all the "N's" "U's" non-autostart .  See suggestion 7 below)

6. Unknown Resident Programs – Viruses come under this category, and so do spyware and adware programs. Not only do these unwanted hitchhikers steal resources, they also steal information about your system and your web browsing habits that they send over the Internet to their evil masters. A few weeks ago we discussed how to detect and eliminate spyware and adware, and if you missed that tip you can find it on our website.  (You took care of this already)

7. Incompatibility Issues – There are a few utility programs that can affect mouse behaviour even when the system has enough resources. Examples are some anti-virus programs, firewall programs, and other utilities that get installed with particular pieces of hardware. Isolating the guilty program requires a process of elimination. You can use MSCONFIG (or sometimes the program itself) to prevent each program in turn from loading at Start-up. Once your mouse starts to move smoothly again, then you have found the bad boy. Go to that vendor’s website and search for patches or updates to fix the problem. (See the note in 5 above.  Do not disable auto-startt on any "Y's".)

8. Insufficient Memory – Many users have observed how much smoother everything runs after they have just added more RAM to their computer. As discussed in #5, memory gets used up as you open more applications. If you don’t have enough memory, your operating system starts to use more of your virtual (or scratch) memory on the hard drive. One clue that this is happening is that the LED indicator on the drive will be blinking furiously as the OS shuffles blocks of data in and out of RAM. This is called thrashing. Another indicator is that sometimes you’ll move the mouse and the mouse pointer won’t respond for a moment, or it will feel like it’s dragging its heels as you push it across the screen with effort. Memory is so inexpensive now, it’s not worth putting up with the aggravation of these little annoyances. My rule of thumb is: whatever Windows OS you are running, install 4X the amount of RAM that Microsoft says is the minimum requirement.  (I don't know how much memory your system has.)

9. Preventive Maintenance – There are a few routine actions to keep your system performing its best. One is to make sure you frequently monitor your start-up programs or run "MSCONFIG" to delete unnecessary programs at start-up. Defrag your hard drive at least quarterly. Monitor your system resources and see if you need to upgrade your computer. And please, be cautious in installing freeware or shareware that could also install hidden spyware.(Try the de-frag.)

10. Unstable OS – We had one system in our lab with very capable hardware (an AMD 2.6GHz Athlon with 726MB of DDR RAM) that performed very poorly with Windows 98SE. You could turn it on and leave for a coffee break, because it would take almost 5 minutes before that hourglass became a mouse pointer. Once up and running, the mouse would still freeze once in a while even if it was just using a simple email client program. Defragmenting the drive, closing all un-needed background programs, it seemed nothing would motivate this sluggish beast until we upgraded it to Windows XP Pro. The computer never had the mouse problem again and rebooting now takes less than 30 seconds to complete. Windows 2000 and XP have drastically improved their memory management system to better optimize your system resources when multiple apps are running. We grumble too at the cost and hassle of one upgrade after another, but sometimes newer really is better. (Please start Internet Explorer and select "Tools > Windows Update", and follow the online instructions from there.)