Microsoft mouse slows WAY down for no reason

I have a Microsoft Trackball Optical mouse. It's several years old, but I can't find another mouse with this many features and a thumb ball, so I'm desperately trying to keep it. I'm so desperate that when the left button started to wear out I opened it up, got the part number for the button, ordered a few samples from Omron, and installed a new button. Being an electrical engineer and circuit board designer does have it's perks, lol, free samples AND I know how to use a soldering iron. OK, so I got that problem fixed, on both the mouse I use at work and the one at home, because they both went out at the same time (even though the one at work gets considerably more use). Around the same time that the buttons started getting flaky I started having another problem. It must have been caused by a Windows update (running XP pro at work, and XP home at home) because I didn't change anything else. It happened at home first, and then at work. Everything would be working fine, and then all of a sudden my mouse movement would slow down, and no amount of banging on the mouse itself helped, it wasn't a hardware issue. I tried going into the mouse settings and speeding it up, and I can adjust the speed, but it never quite gets to where it's supposed to be. In fact, after the mouse has slowed down, if I go into the settings and set the pointer speed to the lowest setting, it becomes almost imperceptibly slow. Apparently the computer had decided my mouse was going to move at about 1/3 the speed I wanted it to, and the only thing I could do to fix it was to reboot. So, at home I updated the driver, from 4.1 which is what came with the mouse when I bought it, to 5.5 which is the latest version. This particular mouse uses a piece of Microsoft software called Intellipoint to help you define different functions for the buttons, even having different functions in different applications, which is why I love it. Well, to update the driver you just download the latest version of Intellipoint and it updates the driver at the same time. At home this was not a problem, and it seemed to fix things. At work is a different story. Updating the driver doesn't help, and it causes the scroll wheel and some of my button assignments to not work in OrCAD….that is the program I use to do circuit board layout. It is the most important program I use. The customizable buttons in OrCAD are the whole reason I want to keep using this mouse, but the latest driver screws them all up. The custom assignments and wheel seem to work everywhere else, except this most important program. Plus it doesn't solve my slowing down problem, the mouse will still suddenly slow down for no reason. So I went back to the old driver so that at least my button assignments work, but now I have to reboot my computer several times a day so that I don't end up getting a cramp in my hand from having to roll the ball three times as much, and it's negatively affecting my productivity. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't remember when exactly it started to be a problem, so I have no idea what Windows updates might have caused this problem. I think it was probably around July or August of this year. I can't find any info at Microsoft's website, and it would cost me $35 to ask them….the mouse only cost $30. But I really want to keep this mouse, because the only thing I've been able to find with this much versatility is $90-110 and has a center ball, instead of the ball being under the thumb. I will be eternally grateful to anyone who can help me fix this!

Hi,
Sorry to hear of the problems with your mouse. I can appreciate how maddening this must be for you, but unfortunately I don't have a magic solution.

As no one else has responded yet, it might help if I gave my views, but on the other hand it might not!

I understand that:
1 The problem of a "lazy" mouse can be fixed by rebooting.
2 Installing updated drivers fixed the problem on XP Home but not on XP Pro.

I am sure you will have had a look at this site which gives some folk's efforts at solving the problem (you are obviously not alone in having these sort of problems.)

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/microsoft…bb6a2f2481c44aa

I have found that users with Win 98 don't have this problem and one guy felt so strongly that he dumped XP and went back to 98….however your works IT dept may not be too happy with that "solution"

Sorry I cannot be more helpful, its more than likely that it's a driver/memory/problem/incompatibility and if a more experienced practitioner than me doesn't come up with a solution that works I can only suggest that you try as many drivers as possible (it may not, contrary to usual advice, be the latest driver that will actually solve the problem.
Regards
paws

Thanks for the response Paws. I've tried several different versions of the driver, none of them fixed the problem, and anything newer than what came with the mouse when I bought it severely reduces it's functionality. I had gone back to the old driver, because that was the only way I could get all the functionality out of it that I required. Yeah, Win98 is not an option. Not only would our sysadmin be really cheesed, I'm not sure all of my software would run on it. Plus, I hated 98, and was absolutely thrilled when we upgraded to XP. It has to be some sort of conflict. Something brought on by a Windows update, because it started at home and at work at around the same time. Oh well…..I broke down and bought the expensive Kensigton trackball. It does everything I need it to, and get really high reviews from trackball users. It's going to take time getting used to a fingertip trackball when I've spent years using the thumb trackball, but I'll deal with it. If the powers that be want to close this thread, since I'm not really looking for answers anymore, I'll understand.

Hi Judi, I guessed you would have already done the usual things, perhaps someone else on the forum can come up with a solution. I run a small repair shop just outside London (England) so I have lots of competitors, I will contact some of them (the really nice guys and gals!) and see if they have come across the problem before and if so get a solution from them. The problem is, of course, that it's probably the competitor who would refuse to share his/her experience and knowledge, who actually has come across this before and who has the answer, but is not telling! I will post back when I have some further information…but please don't hold your breath! Regards paws