Request aid: strange PC behaviour

[Bijo]

Perhaps someone can help me.

Very often it appears the mouse cursor moves irregularly: it occasionally stops moving; when pressing the middle mouse button a current page, document, etc., will sometimes scroll slightly up or down; sometimes the cursor stops and suddenly appears somewhere it shouldn't be; sometimes the cursor is suddenly selecting a menu; sometimes a popup menu appears even if I haven't right-clicked; etc., etc.

Sometimes there are various combinations of those points up there in different degrees.

Everything -- as far as I know -- is installed properly and I am not one who would mess up a system. It leads to somewhat terrifying thoughts regarding the perceived possibilities.

He who has the solution will be endowed with... well, I don't know -- a cookie? A beer?

[Slug For A Butt]

You have, of course, tried another mouse haven't you.
I'm sure a respected poster like you has already done that, just thought I'd check. I sometimes put my T-shirt on inside out until my wife notices, it's obvious but easily overlooked.

EDIT: Terrifying thoughts indeed, have you ever thought your system may be possessed? If changing your mouse doesn't make any difference, you may want to hire a young Priest and an old Priest to shout "The Power of Christ Compels You!" at your PC repeatedly.

[Papewaio]

Laser mouse? Try another surface... piece of paper, book...

[Bijo]

Yes, sometimes somehow the obvious answers or directions elude me.

I have tried other surfaces but it still occurs. In fact, just now -- as no user input took place -- the message I was typing disappeared as the page was reloaded (or something similar). Does this point to a faulty mouse? I think not, but perhaps someone can enlighten me.

I will also try another mouse (as I should probably have one lying around).

I will also perform an extra check to rid the machine of any negative datas and such.

The mouse is an optical Wheel Mouse from Microsoft by the way. Maybe this would help you help me?


EDIT:
To Slug:
Respected poster? Me? That's the last thing I would expect from people ANYWHERE to suggest, but perhaps I'm too negative
Certainly your words are well-received.

[Caius]

Perhaps someone can help me.

Very often it appears the mouse cursor moves irregularly: it occasionally stops moving; when pressing the middle mouse button a current page, document, etc., will sometimes scroll slightly up or down; sometimes the cursor stops and suddenly appears somewhere it shouldn't be; sometimes the cursor is suddenly selecting a menu; sometimes a popup menu appears even if I haven't right-clicked; etc., etc.

Sometimes there are various combinations of those points up there in different degrees.

Everything -- as far as I know -- is installed properly and I am not one who would mess up a system. It leads to somewhat terrifying thoughts regarding the perceived possibilities.

He who has the solution will be endowed with... well, I don't know -- a cookie? A beer?

I had that problem. Repleace your mouse.

[Sigurd]

Yes definitely try another mouse.

I have written many small applications that move the cursor around and clicks stuff.
It would be easy to put this in malware.
The ones I wrote were test applications, you know – writing a program that tests another program that you have written. Quite handy when you want to retest stuff. Visual studio has many libraries that will help you in this.

Another thing that I could think of is: Is your machine old? I have an old laptop that I use (Dell Latitude D600) with only a 1.3 GHz processor. I run basically Lotus Notes, Office 2003, SAP GUI and Symantec Firewall and AntiVirus on it. Sometimes I get what you describe. The staggering cursor, and the cursor suddenly in another place than what I wanted.
I think it has something to do with the machine barely coping with its tasks. Don’t get me wrong I have 1GB RAM and the Radeon 9000 graphic card installed on the laptop.
The machine is working perfectly most of the time, but when I have lots of stuff open (Lotus, several SAP GUI’s and several web browsers) it is the pointing device that noticeably “hangs”…

[Husar]

I have written many small applications that move the cursor around and clicks stuff.
It would be easy to put this in malware.
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]The ones I wrote were test applications, you know – writing a program that tests another program that you have written.

It's too late to hide you evil scriptkiddy, we now know that you put the trojan on the .org.

In topic, I'd also suggest to try another mouse and see what happens. I've had a mouse that started acting weird when I clicked on something, it would either click, not click at all or double click, replacing it solved the problem. I now have a Razer Krait, the cheapest Razer mouse but I quite like it, seems pretty decent and is faster then I am when it's at full sensibility

[Bijo]

Another thing that I could think of is: Is your machine old? I have an old laptop that I use (Dell Latitude D600) with only a 1.3 GHz processor. I run basically Lotus Notes, Office 2003, SAP GUI and Symantec Firewall and AntiVirus on it. Sometimes I get what you describe. The staggering cursor, and the cursor suddenly in another place than what I wanted.
I think it has something to do with the machine barely coping with its tasks. Don’t get me wrong I have 1GB RAM and the Radeon 9000 graphic card installed on the laptop.
The machine is working perfectly most of the time, but when I have lots of stuff open (Lotus, several SAP GUI’s and several web browsers) it is the pointing device that noticeably “hangs”…

Hmm, well... old, what is old? You could say it's slightly old altogether, perhaps. I just pressed backspace as I wanted to delete some text in a typing field and instead of deleting the text the page went to the previous page, heh heh. Oh look, a 'k' suddenly appeared even if I didn't press the corresponding key. It leads me to think of another possibility which is dirt underneath the keys that perhaps somehow influence the keyboard as well. Anyway...

The computer itself:
* Core 2 Duo something
* 2GB RAM (forgot brand and speed)
* Radeon X-something AGP 512MB

I hardly even recall since I pay no attention to the specs anymore. I will try another this evening and show the result.

[Togakure]

Is your mouse connected via USB? I use a Microsoft laser mouse as well, which I connect via USB. Sometimes it does odd things like you describe, but not often. Occasionally I just have to unplug it from my USB port and plug it back in.

You might consider a mouse that connects via a dedicated mouse port rather than via a USB port, if you are using one that connects via USB.

[Bijo]

I've been using a USB mouse but always attached to a converter for PS/2 connection.

I have unplugged it and connected it to the USB port but, indeed, that is worse.

What I just noticed, though, is that I very often -- usually unconsciously -- lift up the mouse and place it onto the surface again. That's when most of its erratic behaviour possibly comes from, but this shouldn't be a problem really, or is it? One time it is irregular when I do it, and other times not. And now, for some reason, the mouse is behaving better, almost as if normal. If I didn't know better and if I was a foolish faerie tale believer I'd say this apparatus is playing some devious trickery :)

I will finally test with a genuine PS/2 mouse now.

[Slug For A Butt]

Hey Bijo, I forgot for a second that post count means nothing.

But seriously, it's amazing what uour mouse can do to thwart your attempts at a hassle free environment.

EDIT: You can keep the cookie, I want beer!

[Sigurd]

Hmm, well... old, what is old? You could say it's slightly old altogether, perhaps. I just pressed backspace as I wanted to delete some text in a typing field and instead of deleting the text the page went to the previous page, heh heh. Oh look, a 'k' suddenly appeared even if I didn't press the corresponding key. It leads me to think of another possibility which is dirt underneath the keys that perhaps somehow influence the keyboard as well. Anyway...

The computer itself:
* Core 2 Duo something
* 2GB RAM (forgot brand and speed)
* Radeon X-something AGP 512MB

I hardly even recall since I pay no attention to the specs anymore. I will try another this evening and show the result.

Your machine is top notch... It shouldn't be the problem.

I remember a story that a friend of a friend experienced. He worked at an IT help desk in a company that I shall not mention.
There was this user, a lady that had bugged this help desk with her problems. She too had a machine that behaved erratically. She claimed that letters were written that she had not pressed. When she tried to type something… the words became corrupted.
This guy suggested this and that and even re-installed the OS (remotely via the network). The problems continued and when he took control of the machine there were never a problem.
So he decided to go to the office of this lady and take a look at the hardware (you know what I am referring to .. yes the computer hardware).
He noticed that this lady was a rather full bosomed woman in her best years. Nice… he thought but took a seat at the desk. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the keyboard or the computer.
It must be possessed suggested the lady. He then asked if she could take a seat and type something on the computer. The lady did this and her fingers flew over the keyboard. She then proceeded to look at the screen and she was obviously near-sighted because she leaned over with her face just inches from the screen and exclaimed: See, there it goes again writing stuff that I haven’t written. This guy had to flee the office laughing.
For those of you who didn’t get it… her boobs were firmly planted in her keyboard every time she looked to see what she had written.

You don't have stuff on your desk that happens to press a key or two on your key board?
I have "helped" many people that have had books pressing the odd key such as [Ctrl] and had a machine acting erratically.

[Husar]

Nice story Sigurd.
Though I guess Bijo would have noticed and he doesn't have boobs.

[Bijo]

Heh heh: boobs pressing a keyboard. How could the woman not have noticed it? But, indeed, from the top there is nothing except for my fingers pressing the keys. Or maybe there is ectoplasma here in the room which Ι ψαν'τ νοτιψε aha, look... the language for the keyboard suddenly turned to Greek without my doing, and without any other thing pressing it from above.

And now the erratic mouse bahaviour is starting again. I cannot find a genuine PS/2 mouse either to buy because they only sell USB ones. The only PS/2 mouse I have is an old two-button Microsoft with a normal mouse ball.

Ah well... I will look for a total new mouse then. I think I will need both a new mouse AND a keyboard.

[Slug For A Butt]

Bijo, I think you are missing the pount man. Just try that old 2 button mouse and see if the haunting stops.
If the problem continues, don't buy a new mouse because that's not your problem. If it works OK, THEN buy a new mouse. Don'y buy new shit that you don't have to, hoping that it works. If you have a ratty old mouse, it will do to test if it IS your mouse that's the problem.

EDIT: you have tried a reformat and reinstall too haven't you?

[Bijo]

I have not attempted any reformat and reinstallation: I cannot take the time for it. I have just connected the old mouse and thus far this seems okay. I will have to use it for a while and observe the results over time. I doubt this would solve the strange keyboard behaviour. If it does, then... heh. I will post another time (maybe a couple days) to see if any erratic behaviour occurs.

Another thing I must say is how "refreshing" this old mouse is. A genuine old PS/2 with two buttons. Well, at least it's not the standard Mac that has only one(!)

I had also found this link which looks useful.

[Bijo]

I have tested my original "broken" mouse on a laptop and it seems it functioned quite alright. It leads me to think there must be something erring on my desktop apparatus. I will test the mouse once more perhaps tonight or this weekend.

Another thing remarkable is the peculiarity of the sudden switch to the Greek keyboard layout. It is actually very simple: as I type I occasionally hold/press [Ctrl Shift] to quickly select words with the arrow keys, and it happens to be that I set the combination of [Ctrl Shift] to switch language (-- it used to be [Shift Alt]). This explains the sudden unexpected switch, for that particular moment only however. I am uncertain whether this was the case before as well, as I paid no attention to it then, but it is plausibly the case too.

This still leaves the sudden appearance of letters I did not type nor were the keys pressed by anything else noticeable. Thus far the situation with the old PS/2 mouse is good, and the fact that my original one works fine on another computer certainly signifies -- as said -- trouble on this desktop. Yes yes, indeed, I will test.

[Slug For A Butt]

Seems like you are on to something.