Weird leaping mouse problems?Dave, I use a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse with a computer running Windows XP Professional. Generally speaking, everything works just fine EXCEPT THAT from time to time my mouse pointer "leaps" to the bottom left corner of my monitor screen .. and invariably JUST as I am about to "click!!" I've tried uninstalling and re-installing, but to no avail. Do you know how this little dilemma can be cured?? First off, my general rules for dealing with mouse problems:
The first thing I would look for with optical mice is any sort of obstruction under the optical sensor. Sometimes dust, lint, or similar impediments get stuck between the optical sensor and the surface your mouse sits on, causing unexpected behavior. My second guess would be a surface that isn't favorable for optical mice. Optical mice have problems on porous surfaces and surfaces like glass. Typically this causes more frequent and obvious problems though. To eliminate the surface you are using as the problem, try putting something like a blank piece of paper under the mouse and see if the problems continue. If obstructions and the surface are eliminated as problems, Microsoft has a knowledge base article on erratic mouse pointer movement that may help. As you can see in this article, there is more to it than uninstalling and reinstalling the mouse driver. Microsoft Support on Mouse Problems I have also seen reports of the new Gateway tablets doing this. These models vent hot air through the keyboard. If the lid is left closed when the tablet is docked, the touchpad heats up and causes the mouse to jump around. The only resolution have seen on this is just to leave screen up, though I'd be tempted to leave the unit on ice and see what happened! As I've said, it's possible that something has corrupted your mouse driver. You can either 1) re-install the driver, or 2) roll back the driver. Either one of these may help. To roll back your driver in Windows XP, go to Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Mouse. Click on the "hardware" tab. Select the appropriate pointing device, and click "properties." Click the driver tab, then select "roll back driver." Under the "hardware" tab, there may be more than one mouse. If this is the case, select the one that is not used, follow the settings above, and then select "uninstall." Or, you can go into Control Panel --> System --> Hardware --> Device Manager, and remove the device under "Mice and other pointing devices." Note: if you are on a laptop with a touchpad that you never use, don't remove the touchpad anyway. Another possibility is that the driver has a corrupted "jump to" setting. This is called different things by different manufacturers, but is a setting where it moves to the default button when a window pops up. It could be moving to the corner instead of moving to the button. This is also suggested because you note that it is often "when you are about to click." Find this setting under mouse properties (as above) and disable it.General rules of mouse problems: Hope that all helps you debut your problems! Thanks to Jeff, Chris Buechler and Tommy Martin for their assistance.
Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon
Categorized:
Windows Help
(Article 3978)
Tagged: Previous: How can I watch DVD movies on a Sony PSP? Next: How do I search my Gmail mailbox? Subscribe!
Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. Just FYI, A few of the sites I've worked at recently have "software deployment and auditing software" that periodically "snapshots" the screen to "capture what you're looking at". An unfortunate side effect of this screen cap process is that it moves your mouse pointer to one corner of the screen for each snapshot. The one I'm most painfully familiar with is called "Altiris". That application does it about once per hour. I've been on a site managed by Zenworks (Novell) and it seemed to do the same thing, but not as often. If I can talk the Admins into getting Local Admin rights to the box, I can disable the Altiris client, and the movement stops... If you can't get Local Admin, you're kind of stuck with the moving cursor... :P Posted by: Steve Parker at May 2, 2005 2:47 PMThe moving mouse happens on MOST machines with USB laser mice, it is a known bug. None of the other info above will help your situation if this is the hardware you are using. Posted by: anony-mouse at September 16, 2005 7:41 PMall of a sudden my mouse stops working while iam using the compurter. i see the cursor but the mouse does'not move the cursor whtat do i do? why did it stop working. And when i gone to CONTROL PANEL...>MOUSE...>HARDWARE...>PROPERTIES... the properties button is not selected...even the troble shooting is not working Posted by: manoz at October 22, 2005 5:07 PMI have a weird and serious problem with my mouse... When I start my computer the mouse cursor appears on the screen just as it is supposed to. But when I try to move my mouse, the cursor does not move. However the "ghost" of the mouse moves and I can click and use all the buttons as normal. Only the cursor stays still like it's nailed to my desktop.. I have tried an optical USB mouse and a PS2 mouse with a ball, without luck. Using a mouse without knowing where it moves, is pretty difficult. If anyone can help me, please, email me! Thank you. Posted by: Anssi Ikonen at November 30, 2005 6:25 PMI got the same problem like manoz and Anssi Ikonen, the two persons that posted above. Hi I have the same problem as Anssi and Frank could you please help me and send me an solution for that problem I tried everything I can I would really appreciate it thank you very much Posted by: chalid at March 9, 2006 11:24 AMHi Dave I have the same issue. It started about a week ago. Some days it works, and others it doesn't. This is with an optical mouse corded. Now I've switched out to a wireless, and it stoped for 1 day. Now it is back, and nothing is happening. I know it isn't the mouse pad for me, because the wireless reciever doesn't pickup on the mouse either. So no matter which I have in, corded or non, it does the same. I pressthe connect button on the reciever, and then the mouse. They are supposed to connect, but the reciever doesn't recognise the mouse at all. What are my options???? Posted by: nick at June 2, 2006 1:15 AMHi, I have a touchpad mouse and anytime i am typing it moves me from a line to another in the paragraph. even when i am typing in ms outlook it move itself and send the message when i am typing and i didn't put the finger on the touchpad. it is making me crazy and i would really appreciate if you can give me an idea about how to fix it up. --Ivan. Posted by: Ivan at June 14, 2006 5:31 AMHi I have found with the "ghost" mouse problem mentioned above (pointer graphic stuck, but pointer position/clicks are normal) that turning down the windows graphic acceleration setting helps (you will notice the setting description says that mouse acceleration is disabled on the lower settings). Then I turn it back up on the next restart (until it happens again). This happened only when using a PS2 mouse, USB ones never did this to me! Posted by: Neil at November 14, 2006 9:43 PMI have an optical mouse hardware to my pc with windows xp installed. the right click is not working. it is new and hardly 2 yrs since purchased. I cant believe how easy this fix was !!! I have been cursing my sticky (rollerball USB connected)mouse for months and the following solved my problem in a few minutes !! 1. Click the start button in the lower left of your screen. When the device was unplugged its driver was automatically uninstalled at startup... when plugged in again the drivers are automatically reinstalled at startup.... Problem solved for me anyway !! Posted by: Keenan at November 24, 2006 6:32 AMI have an issue with my pc/mouse. It jumps to the corner of the screen when I move it, it tries to close windows programs and log me off, I thought it was a virus and in the end Did the drastic thing and formattedd my pc completely and reinstalled mindows xp. THE PROBLEM STILL PERSISTS! So I have no idea what to do now!! Posted by: Vodka at December 3, 2006 2:36 PMHi! Vodka, the problem might not be as complicated I had the same problem and as it turns out the mouse was sensing the wood grain on the desk, so i put a piece of paper under it and it works fine. wierd Posted by: jeff at February 18, 2007 7:37 AMHey, my mouse problem is that the computer always highlights a folder/window when I hover the pointer over it. Meaning if I have two folders active side by side, and am working on one folder but slide the pointer over the other without clicking, that second folder becomes the active. This is very frustrating. I tried messing with the mouse configuration but to no avail. I have a WinXP Pro with a dell optical mouse with scroll middle button. It has to be a software issue since I tried using differing usb mouses with same problem. Any suggestions? Thanks Posted by: Isaac at February 23, 2007 3:37 PMHi, I have a Microsoft Optical 2.0 Mouse. The problem is that it scrolls in the opposite direction on the screen that you are moving on the pad. When I move it up on the pad the cursor moves down on the screen...it's like having to pat your head and rub your tummy..not fun. Can you help? I had a jumping mouse and was ready to replace it. Then AOL quit working so I uninstalled and reinstalled AOL. Mouse got well. At least it is a no cost "possible" fix. Posted by: Scott Nelson at May 12, 2007 3:55 PMhai in My system windows xp was loaded when i try to move my mouse , my mouse pointer not follow the my mouse movement ,it is comming after some time to requred position. please help me, what is the solution for this one. Posted by: venu at July 13, 2007 6:03 AMhelp needed: arrow pointer has hour glass along with it cannot get just arrow pointer, what can I do to correct this? sig Posted by: sig at August 8, 2007 9:26 PMI have a weird and serious problem with my mouse... When I start my computer the mouse cursor appears on the screen just as it is supposed to. But when I try to move my mouse, the cursor does not move. However the "ghost" of the mouse moves and I can click and use all the buttons as normal. Only the cursor stays still like it's nailed to my desktop.. I have tried an optical USB mouse and a PS2 mouse with a ball, without luck. Using a mouse without knowing where it moves, is pretty difficult. If anyone can help me, please, email me! Thank you. Hi everyone! Wel, I'm having quite a weird problem. My system features: Operating system: winxp version 2002 servicepack 2 Processor: Intel pentium 3, 801 mhz Memery: 128mb ram
This problem happens after I have reinstall Winxp S.P 2. Note that previously, I have zero my HDD, partitioned it and format it. (I have reinstall Win Xp for a fresh start) So, it is not a virus, not a trojan. It is not related to memory coz I before I never got this problem. This problem started after I install winxp after formatting my harddisk. Now, though I have zero my HDD, The problem remains. I'm having ANOTHER problem. My PC don't shut down COMPLETELY. Though it told me that "now you can turn off your computer safely", My harddisk do not shut down and the GREEN light don't switch off. My God, Could someone help me. SURELY, IT IS NOT A VIRUS OR A TROJAN .. I think that it has something to do with drivers, windows configuration, etc Note, winxp has itself installed my mouse by itself!! Posted by: Ryanxxl at September 15, 2007 3:49 AMI have a logitech optical ps/2 mouse. I struggling with a strange problem . . . the mouse scrolls very automatically & violently from top to bottom and also horizontally in all applications. I was using the mouse without any problem for last 8 months .. without any paper below it or mouse pad. I also tried re-installing the Win Xp Pro OS suspecting it as virus attack... but same problem persists. Norton antivirus 2005 could detect any virus either. Can any body help me with this?? Do i need to replace it??? Posted by: shiva at October 21, 2007 9:44 AMI have this same problem. I lose control of my mouse and can't do anything with it. I end up using my key board skills to navigate my computer. Have scaned computer with various virus spyware malware programs with no help. Someone please help I don't want to have to reformat the whole thing. Posted by: Ravenloe at November 3, 2007 9:05 PMHey guys Hi My mouse is not work when i open my computer and my mouse is not work but i can not understand this problem. please help me Posted by: Kaibaua at December 12, 2007 2:11 PMHey, I was searching around for an answer to my problem about my leaping mouse, and I thought nobody else would have an answer, but your site, Dave was the very first one that came up in my results! Thank you so very much for helping me solve my problem! Posted by: SNLocked at January 1, 2008 12:44 PMI have a dell laptop and I also use an optical mouse attached thru USB port.My mouse is either falling down or falling up , it does;nt stay in the center. It has become very difficult to work this way. Posted by: AM at January 14, 2008 11:57 PMGo to Control Panel \ Mouse \ Pointer Options and uncheck the box under that says, "Hide Pointer While Typing." It seems to have worked for me! I love simple and easy solutions. Posted by: steve at January 26, 2008 3:14 PMmy gembird mouse (though evry mouse i tried) dont move a window directly to the desired spot but scrolls it slowly from one point to another as soon as i click it to replace. How to solve it? Posted by: johnkingsize at February 13, 2008 2:24 AMDell Inspiron/2200 Laptop, windows XP I saw my problem in these posts but no answer, so I'm hoping you can help: everything working fine when all of a sudden, up and down are reversed like the other poster mentioned...when I move down it moves up, when I move up on the mousepad, cursor moves down - completely opposite to what I expect. However, side to side movements are correct. This is making me crazy. Did numerous checks for virus, spyware, the works...nothing! Tried uninstalling and reinstalling driver - unplugging mouse, etc. Posted by: MicZ at March 16, 2008 9:57 AMPS - Forgot to mention, running XP Pro sp2, no recent updates etc etc...MS Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 Posted by: MicZ at March 16, 2008 9:59 AMmy mouse wont stop moving Posted by: taylor at April 25, 2008 6:02 PMHey i want to comment a problem that it's been annoying me in the past month. i have a dell computer with a wireless mouse(also dell) and the mouse stopped working for some reason is hard to explain but the cursor was going back to the same point on the screen when i tried to move it or making small movements by itself. the first time i deleted the drivers and when plugged it back it worked again but during the week it happened over and over again, restarting the computer or turning it off didn't help at all, i tried to change mouse(corded, another brand) but i still had the same problem. finally i decided to format the computer and that's how i fixed it(the OS was XP pro) BUT NOW this problem followed me to my house .... my home computer(vista ultimate x64) started doing that. my first thought is that is a virus or some problems with an update on windows, but i have no idea what to do ... as i said i tried everything. deleting drivers, updating them changing mouse, running anti virus. Hi my computers mouse gets stuck and doesnt work.I need to restart my computer to get it work but then half an hour laterhe does it again pentium 3 ram 256 996 MHz Posted by: Hello at July 27, 2008 12:23 PMHi my computers mouse gets stuck and doesnt work.I need to restart my computer to get it work but then half an hour laterhe does it again pentium 3 ram 256 996 MHz Posted by: Hello at July 27, 2008 12:29 PMVery educative site. I will always contribute and share nowledge. Posted by: ROSE AOJA at July 31, 2008 7:58 AMI, too am experiencing the freezing optical mouse problem, mostly on HP Compaq DX2000mt boxes. No Virus, No Spy, malware. 1)Update mouse drivers, 2)rollback mouse drivers and 3)reinstalled the correct drivers,I 4)reformatted, with a clean copy of XP Pro and still had the same problem. You can unplug mouse and plug it into another USB and it will reload it's drivers and work again, without having to reboot. There are no errors in Device Manager. It's got me baffled.... Posted by: sdutra at September 18, 2008 10:16 AMguys,
my mouse while stationary shows a small box then the last sentence or headline i visted please help Posted by: tim dempsey at November 7, 2008 9:08 PMWhy would my mouse and keyboard stop working when I turn on my printer? All 3 are usb connected. Posted by: Gina at February 24, 2009 11:25 AMDave I need help, I moved house and I misplaced the CD for my One Touch 5800 USB scanner. I went on the website and was told that they no longer have the installation CDS. I cannot afford another scanner. Please help me anyone, please. While I'm typing, I find that the text moves to the location of the "text select" which might be lying somewhere on the page but is not actively clicked. Any advice for how to fix this? Thanks. Posted by: Fred B. at March 18, 2009 9:37 PMMy mouse pointer jumps to the bottom-right corner of the screen by itself. It's a tablet PC with a mouse pad. I have lots of experience fixing software/hardware problems and tweaking. It's my first tablet pc and it is frustrating nothing worked so far. I formatted the disk and reintalled the system did bios updates and all the firmware and driver updates... Shoot. I have a problem with my PC(XP), when i move the mouse a blank outline of that window moves first, then the actual window moves a second later. I even did a CD recovery and it was working find till i intalled my printer. I still have over 200 GB on my C Drive so i know its not a space problem. A friend thought it might be my video card starting to go, please help !!! Thanks Posted by: mitch at April 25, 2009 11:25 AMhaving problem playing men of war pc game. inside the game the mouse arrow cursor just dont move. My mouse troubles seem to be slightly different than everyone elses. My pointer only jumps into the upper left corner when I click. It always jumps to the upper left and only in certain a program. I've reinstalled this program several times. I've searched all over the interweb and google search. I've tried getting a new mouse, but my problem persists. The program is RPGMaker2003, an older program, worked fine when I had XP. Now I have Vista. Please, any help would be gratefully received. Posted by: Joey Luau at August 3, 2009 11:52 AMGoodday,pls i am experiencing problem with my mouse since yesterday,the mouse is not responding and the4 the pointer is not moving it just only stick to one point hence the computer cannot be formatted.My computer mother is Asrock P4.Am confused help pls. Posted by: Felix at August 17, 2009 11:31 PMHey..... I'm Using A PC (windows xp) My mouse seems to have a problem... If i go to Mouse Properties It writes : Windows succesfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device..... (CODE 41) Posted by: MouseWithProblems at November 10, 2009 10:59 PMHi, I have an optical mouse and when you move it the light indicates that it is working but it is not working on the computer. What should I do? Posted by: Allie at December 10, 2009 5:54 PMI have a problem. I use a Microsoft Xp Professional platform with Service Pack 3. I use a ballpoint mouse and lately, it starts moving all on its own! The mouse pointer will randomly start moving at unbelievable speeds and click all over the screen. I `ve checked my computer for viruses and the regular stuff but to no avail. I`ve even rebooted my computer but there is nothing I can do. I`ve tried inputting a new mouse but my computer will freeze. Any help Posted by: somebody at December 21, 2009 12:07 PMHi Dave I've been searching the net in depth but cannot find an answer to my problem. I have a Sony flat screen I was running off my nVidia 8800 card throuigh the vga port. My daughter was playing Nancy Drew games fine. I recently bought an Acer 23" wide screen and connected it as the primary screen through the DVI port on the 8800. Everything works fine, except when my duaghter plays Nancy Drew, the mouse pointer is slow & extremely erratic. I used DeviceDoctor to tell me there were newer mouse drivers which I d/loaded & installed, yet still no joy. Worse though, the mouse settings will not retain my left-handed swap of the buttons. any thoughts? thanks & regards I began to have problems with my mouse recently,the pointer was freezing. I decided to remove the ps2 adapter and use a usb port instead and the problem seems to be resolved for now... Posted by: Remy at January 24, 2010 12:22 AM""""I got the same problem like manoz and Anssi Ikonen, the two persons that posted above. i have this problem too :( i buy new mouse but i cant fix the problem .Please contact me by mail. Posted by: leon at March 7, 2010 9:05 AMRespected Sir/madam, i have a problem in my computer... i installed XP operating system.. when i opened a microsoft word the cursur is moving on up and down...... if any ome know how to solve this problem please inform me............ Posted by: selvakumar at March 11, 2010 2:40 AMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
|
 
Search
Find just the answers you seek from among our 2300+ free tech support articles by using our Lijit search engine.
Help!
Subscribe to
Ask Dave Taylor! 
Free Updates!
Sign up and get free weekly updates and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.
Articles and Reviews
Auctions and Online Shopping Blogs and RSS Feeds Building Web site traffic Business and Management Cell Phones and Mobile Phones CGI Scripts and Web Site Programming Computer and Internet Basics d) None of the Above HTML and CSS Industry News and Trade Shows Mac OS X Help MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Social Network Help Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engine Optimization Shell Script Programming Sony PSP, MP3 Players, Etc. The Writing Business Unix and Linux Help Video Game Tips and Help Windows Help
Recent Entries
Book Links
|
Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site.
![[whiteboard marker tray]](/Graphics/marker-tray.gif){kind=small}
