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Mouse trouble
About a month ago my friend fixed my old computer so that it would work again and I could have a computer in my room. It is a Windows 2000 Professional and it has been working without any problems for about a month now. However, today it started going weird.
First the mouse went crazy and wouldn't move right, it was just jumping all over the screen and opening random boxes. I restarted it and it worked fine again for about ten minutes before it started doing the same thing as it had done before. I restarted it again and the same thing happened, this happened about five times before it was okay.
I did a virus scan on it but the same thing as before happened a couple of times, although I was able to fix it without restarting the computer both times.
Then suddenly the mouse froze. Everything I tried failed so I restarted it. This time the mouse wasn't there at all, it wasn't even showing up on the screen. I restarted it a few more times but the mouse still isn't showing up.
I spoke to the friend who originally fixed it but he has no idea what is wrong with it.
This is a huge problem because I need that computer for schoolwork and I can't use my family's computer often.
Please answer as soon as you can because I really need to fix this problem.
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Want to answer more questions in the Technology category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Computers?
I don't know if you want to spend money on fixing it but if you do you can call GeekSquad to come and they fix it...
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While this is quite possibly a technical problem like an interrupt conflict, I thought I should mention that there is a chance it could also be a physical mouse problem.
It's possible your mouse's working parts might be physically dirty, as that can cause erratic behavior, and if it's gotten to the point where it doesn't move at all, it's possible that the pointer is just stuck right outside the view of your monitor, making it appear like it's not there.
If you have an optical mouse, turn it and look underneath it. Be careful not to point it right at your eyes, that's a laser in there. See if you can see any hairs or things like that. If so, try to pull them out. Tilt it around and look at it from all sides (being careful not to point it directly at your face) and make sure all hairs or lint have been removed. Then see if that helps. If not, try using a different mouse pad, as sometimes optical mice have trouble with certain patterns.
If you are using a ball-type mouse, turn the mouse over and twist off the round cover you will see right where the ball is. It's usually marked with arrows in the direction to twist.
Take the ball out, and clean off any foreign material off of it with a clean, dry, lint-free cloth. If you have to use something damp, try a little bit of alcohol. Never use anything oily, or that would leave any type of residue.
Then look into the mouse (no lasers here, so you can look with no worries). You should see a couple of little rollers. Those rollers probably have goop and lint on them, or they might even have hair caught in them. Carefully clean the goop and lint off and remove any hair. Make sure they are turning freely with no resistance. (if they still don't turn freely after cleaning, it may be time for a new mouse)
When everything is clean, put the ball back in, and twist the cover back on. If that was the problem, then hopefully it will be fixed.
Here are a couple of pages with pictures, to give you an idea:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
If that doesn't work, email me at DangerWench@gmail.com and I'll ask the nerd in the house about it. ;-)
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well crap, that really sucks! :P curse you bill gates, curse you and all your billions! actually, no. curse his programmers. curse you bill gates' programmers, curse you for being lazy and writing 100 lines of choppier code instead of writing 50 lines of better code!! <pausepause> um. yes. sorry...
ok, if i had to guess, i would say that either your mouse drivers are freakin' out (need to be updated, got corrupted, etc.), or you've got an overload of temporary files that you could get rid of in disk clean-up (although i can't remember if they have that in windows 2000), or you may need to defragment your harddrive.
but i'd rather not guess and inadvertantly screw your computer up more, so if you'll give me some more information about your computer, the programs on it, etc., i'd be happy to email back and forth and guide you through some troubleshooting. or, if it's after 5 oclock/4 o'clock central ^_^ then you can reach me live through googletalk, AIM, and YM.
ready, willing, and able to fulfill your techie needs,
~*kitty*~
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Hello there,
Here is the first thing I would do:
Power the computer down.
Un-plug the mouse.
Plug in a different mouse.
Power the computer back on.
Then see what happens.
If you don't have an extra mouse laying around, you can purchase one, they are cheap enough, or you can borrow the one from the family computer for just a few minutes to check things out.
When you swipe the one from the family computer, make sure you shut in down and power it off before un-plugging or re-plugging the mouse.
If that is not the problem, you may have a dead motherboard or any one of a dozen other serious problems.
For your sake, I will be hoping that it is just a dead mouse.
Let me know what happens.
DN.
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