phantom right mouse key?

  • Thread starter J. P. Gilliver (John)
  • Start date
J

J. P. Gilliver (John)

I sometimes have an effect as if the right mouse key is being pressed
with the cursor at or near the middle of the screen, at about one or two
second intervals.

First reaction is that it's faulty hardware, but a reboot - and IIRR
some other actions too, but I haven't noted what - cures it, so a
hardware fault seems unlikely.

It's a netbook, so has a touchpad, if that's relevant.

Any thoughts? I have up-to-date AV.
 
B

BillW50

I sometimes have an effect as if the right mouse key is being pressed
with the cursor at or near the middle of the screen, at about one or two
second intervals.

First reaction is that it's faulty hardware, but a reboot - and IIRR
some other actions too, but I haven't noted what - cures it, so a
hardware fault seems unlikely.

It's a netbook, so has a touchpad, if that's relevant.

Any thoughts? I have up-to-date AV.

No touch screen, right? Anyway find out the manufacture of the touchpad
and see if they have updated drivers. Sometimes an older driver works
better. If that is no help, I would disable the touchpad through the
Device Manager should do the trick. If it still acts up, I would remove
the ribbon cable between the touchpad and the motherboard.
 
V

VanguardLH

J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
I sometimes have an effect as if the right mouse key is being pressed
with the cursor at or near the middle of the screen, at about one or two
second intervals.

First reaction is that it's faulty hardware, but a reboot - and IIRR
some other actions too, but I haven't noted what - cures it, so a
hardware fault seems unlikely.

It's a netbook, so has a touchpad, if that's relevant.

Any thoughts? I have up-to-date AV.

You say "mouse" but mention "touchpad" (on the laptop). Are you using a
mouse in addition to the touchpad? That is, do you leave both enabled
at the same time? If so, either change the sensitivity of the touchpad
or disable it using the little button near its edge when using a mouse.
Likely your palms approach too near to the touchpad when it is enabled
which makes it think you are touching it. When typing on the keys, your
hands are probably getting too close to the touchpad.
 
J

J. P. Gilliver (John)

BillW50 <[email protected]> said:
On 5/18/2014 7:05 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: []
No touch screen, right? Anyway find out the manufacture of the touchpad

No touch screen; the machine dates from about the end of when new
machines were still being sold with XP (Vista was coming out, or was out
I think).
and see if they have updated drivers. Sometimes an older driver works
better. If that is no help, I would disable the touchpad through the
Device Manager should do the trick. If it still acts up, I would remove
the ribbon cable between the touchpad and the motherboard.

I don't want to disable the touchpad as I use it (-:!You're assuming it's hardware; I don't _think_ it is, as it's only
started happening in the last year or less, and a reboot cures it, so it
looks like some update. It's only intermittent though - I haven't yet
pinned down what combination of actions causes it.
 
J

J. P. Gilliver (John)

I sometimes have an effect as if the right mouse key is being pressed
[]
You say "mouse" but mention "touchpad" (on the laptop). Are you using a
mouse in addition to the touchpad? That is, do you leave both enabled[/QUOTE]

No, sorry - I just meant the right touchpad key.
at the same time? If so, either change the sensitivity of the touchpad
or disable it using the little button near its edge when using a mouse.
Likely your palms approach too near to the touchpad when it is enabled
which makes it think you are touching it. When typing on the keys, your
hands are probably getting too close to the touchpad.

No, sometimes it happens when I'm not touching the netbook at all. I
have Leeos's noisy keyboard and mouse installed, and it's sometimes the
sound from that that alerts me to the fact that it's happening; someone
said it sounds like a frog, as it ribbits about once a second. Often,
just starting to use the system stops it happening.
 
V

VanguardLH

J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
No, sometimes it happens when I'm not touching the netbook at all. I
have Leeos's noisy keyboard and mouse installed, and it's sometimes the
sound from that that alerts me to the fact that it's happening; someone
said it sounds like a frog, as it ribbits about once a second. Often,
just starting to use the system stops it happening.

I'd get rid of or disable all the startup items or services that are
related to the touchpad and just use the base driver in the OS to handle
the touchpad device. It sounds like you've got software that's getting
in the way. See if the same problem happens when you boot into Windows'
safe mode (which does not load startup programs and only critical
services).
 
J

J. P. Gilliver (John)

No, sometimes it happens when I'm not touching the netbook at all. I
have Leeos's noisy keyboard and mouse installed, and it's sometimes the
sound from that that alerts me to the fact that it's happening; someone
said it sounds like a frog, as it ribbits about once a second. Often,
just starting to use the system stops it happening.

I'd get rid of or disable all the startup items or services that are
related to the touchpad and just use the base driver in the OS to handle
the touchpad device. It sounds like you've got software that's getting
in the way. See if the same problem happens when you boot into Windows'
safe mode (which does not load startup programs and only critical
services).[/QUOTE]

Sorry for delay in coming back. I don't _think_ I have any startup items
that relate to it, and I don't know much about "services". It's not much
of a problem at the moment (usually just clicking once stops it), but
I'll keep your post for reference in case it ever gets bad. I'm
beginning to think it maybe _is_ hardware after all.
 

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