Cursor mysteriously moves all by itself

[MattW]

Have noticed an odd little occurrence of late.
I am sitting reading something on the net, my hands are not touching the
mouse or the keyboard...and suddenly the cursor/arrow starts moving
horizontally ..all by itself?
I have remote access turned off but wonder if this indicates a possible
remote user incursion?
Thanks in advance

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Daniel_Mart=EDn?=]

Optical mouse? If so, clean the mouse pad and the mouse sensor.

 

[MattW]

not optical mouse...
Optical mouse? If so, clean the mouse pad and the mouse sensor.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Daniel_Mart=EDn?=]

Any third-party drivers installed for that mouse? Does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

 

[Jone Doe]

If it's one of the new ones, no mouse ball, but a red beam of light, and it
is NOT sitting on a mouse pad, that will sometimes happen. Apparently the
beam bouncing off the shine of the surface confuses it. Put it on a black
mouse pad and see if it stops. If not, then start looking for a virus
perhaps.

 

[MattW]

not sure.
only use safe mode in emergencies...
Any third-party drivers installed for that mouse? Does the problem occur in
Safe Mode?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Make sure you do not have a microphone enabled.

Download and install the latest drivers for your video card and mouse.
If the problem is not corrected, then:

Replace your mouse with a new one. If that does not solve the problem,
replace your video card with a new one.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Have noticed an odd little occurrence of late.
| I am sitting reading something on the net, my hands are not touching the
| mouse or the keyboard...and suddenly the cursor/arrow starts moving
| horizontally ..all by itself?
| I have remote access turned off but wonder if this indicates a possible
| remote user incursion?
| Thanks in advance

 

[Stan Brown]

Have noticed an odd little occurrence of late.
I am sitting reading something on the net, my hands are not touching the
mouse or the keyboard...and suddenly the cursor/arrow starts moving
horizontally ..all by itself?
I have remote access turned off but wonder if this indicates a possible
remote user incursion?

Perhaps, but probably not if you're seeing no other symptoms.

I used to have this problem, and the following worked for me (which
is why it's on my Web site):

http://oakroadsystems.com/tech/winxptip.htm#MiscWandering

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the
variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of
evolution is simply ignorant -- inexcusably ignorant, in a world
where three out of four people have learned to read and write."
--Daniel Dennett, /Darwin's Dangerous Idea/ (1995), page 46

 

[Charlie Tame]

I doubt it's anything more than spurious signals on the mouse, I've had
optical and ball type mice (mouses?) that do it and found nothing of
consequence. Yes it "Could" just possibly be someone or something else but
these days they concentrate more on your not finding out than on worrying
you with mouse movements.

If however the mouse is in your hand when this happens consider the
possibility of government "Mind Control" rays and visit this site for
details of how to combat it...

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

(And yes by the way, I am joking and hope you have a sense of humor, it's
not intended as an insult to your perfectly legitimate question, just a bit
of amusement).

Oh I forgot to mention that making sure your sound input is turned off just
might be a valid point, someone else mentioned it. I have seen all kinds of
spurious electronic signals induced in all kinds of different cables over
the years, including police radios being picked up by public address
systems, radio station coming in on computer speakers with a poor connection
on the audio jack plugs and lots of things caused by a poor ground
connection on your main electric supply, especially if it's also connected
to a phone line and or cable TV... to find such odd behaviour is difficult
because for one of theose phenomena the mouse cable and connector is
probably the last place to look

Even ball mice have optic in them, could just be a stray hair picked up
inside that's bending with humidity changes.

Have a good day,

Charlie

 

[-rwxrw-r--]

Make sure you do not have a microphone enabled.

Download and install the latest drivers for your video card and mouse.
If the problem is not corrected, then:

Replace your mouse with a new one. If that does not solve the problem,
replace your video card with a new one.

And when you've reached the point of getting tired of spending your hard
earned money as Mr. Frisch so easily suggests you do, look at using a real
operating system. I do and never experienced something like a mouse pointer
moving by itself. You're not sitting in the middle of an active earthquake
zone are you? If not, I can only assume it's part of the wonderful Windows
eXPerience, because I've never heard of anyone outside the Windows world
complain about this type of problem.

 

[McGrandpa]

And when you've reached the point of getting tired of spending your hard
earned money as Mr. Frisch so easily suggests you do, look at using a real
operating system. I do and never experienced something like a mouse
pointer
moving by itself. You're not sitting in the middle of an active earthquake
zone are you? If not, I can only assume it's part of the wonderful Windows
eXPerience, because I've never heard of anyone outside the Windows world
complain about this type of problem.

then you haven't run most of the Linux distros available for Free download!
Oh, I've located and downloaded the ISO you reference for ELive. Will burn
and try that dvd today. I have a LOT of experience of trying and failing to
get the odd or even common hardware drivers to work in dozens of distros of
Linux. I started with Slackware 1.0 many years ago and have been at it with
both Windows and Linux ever since. Now I'm going to level with you: you're
coming off as a FanBoi and some number appear to have killfiled you already.
You haven't been completely honest with your representation of Linux.
Here's another thing: You CAN download a "free" version of every major
vendors distribution of Linux. However, it will NOT be the full stable
package. If you want that then you'll spend almost as much for it as you do
XP Professional retail. Those vendors have to make a living too, right? No
problem with that. Be adventurous, get the free download and figure it out
for yourself! OR, spend the dosh and let their "retail equivalent" take the
hassle out of it for you.
Or just buy XP Professional retail

McG.

 

[Jmagerl]

I have seen this happen from RF overload. I personnaly have experienced it
with a bluetooth headset placed on my desk. My daughter has experienced it
living next to a FM radio transmitter. Can't say I have a fix as it was
never annoying enough to spend the effort.

 

[-rwxrw-r--]

then you haven't run most of the Linux distros available for Free
download!
Oh, I've located and downloaded the ISO you reference for ELive. Will
burn
and try that dvd today.

It's a CD not a "dvd". In any case, you might have some fun with it.

I have a LOT of experience of trying and failing
to get the odd or even common hardware drivers to work in dozens of
distros of
Linux.

Sorry, but I haven't had that unpleasant experience. All of my hardware on
all of my computers work fine. In many cases better than they do on my
Windoze box, hence the reason that of the 6 computers I have, 5 run
GNU/Linux of one distribution or another. The only pieces of hardware that
has caused some problems are wireless NICs that don't have native Linux
drivers. But using Ndiswrapper allows a Windows driver to be run. Unlike
with Windoze, an installation of GNU/Linux provides one with full driver
support during the installation (not to mention hundreds of applications)
without the need to go searching after the install for hardware drivers and
hours of work loading (and rebooting the OS) from additional vendor CDs.

The real icing on the cake is that once Linux is installed and running
nicely with all your hardware, it just keeps on doing so. None of this
silliness that fillup this newsgroup of situations where "my computer has
started to run slower and slower" or "my computer won't boot" or "go into
Safe mode and run this that or the other malware sniffer" or "why won't my
computer shut down" or "I just got the latest Windows update and now X no
longer works" or "I changed some hardware and now have to re-activate" or
"my mouse pointer is moving by itself".

I started with Slackware 1.0 many years ago and have been at it
with
both Windows and Linux ever since.

Well if you've been doing it "ever since" you must appreciate how
wonderfully GNU/Linux has evolved to the desktop.

Now I'm going to level with you:
you're coming off as a FanBoi and some number appear to have killfiled you
already.

Not nearly on the scale of the FanBozs that belong to the MickeyMouse Fan
Club here. Like you they continue to spread their FUD, even though they
have not successfully run Linux on their computers so that they can
appreciate just how powerful and wonderful an operating system it is.

You haven't been completely honest with your representation of
Linux.
Here's another thing: You CAN download a "free" version of every major
vendors distribution of Linux. However, it will NOT be the full stable
package.

What a load of crap. On my main Linux box I run Mandrake/Mandriva. I have
access to ALL of the open source packages available at no cost and it is
the stable release. The same applies to Debian that I run on another box.
OK, one could maybe argue that one has to purchase RedHat or can use Fedora
for free. The latter has more packages available and is in constant
development with newer features, so maybe not as "stable" as RedHat that
has its released dates spread out much more. But Fedora is stable on a
magnitude far beyond XP for stability and it doesn't cost anything. Nor is
anyone forced to run the latest version.

If you want that then you'll spend almost as much for it as you
do
XP Professional retail. Those vendors have to make a living too, right?

In most cases Linux distros are free. If you purchase a distro you're doing
it not because the purchased version is any better than the free version,
but because the purchased version will come with support from the
distributor and in some cases proprietary software and a printed manual.
Anyone prepared to roll their own, can get a stable GNU/Linux running on
their systems at no cost. The distros available now are generally easier to
install than Windoze. Because Windoze comes pre-packaged with an OEM
license, the end-user is forced to go to the manufacturer for "support" and
we all know how futile that support is. Their answer 9 out of 10 times is
re-install the OS. If an OEM user goes to MickeyMouse for support, the
costs of ownership rise very very quickly! What does MickeyMouse charge per
support call now? You do the math.

No
problem with that. Be adventurous, get the free download and figure it
out
for yourself! OR, spend the dosh and let their "retail equivalent" take
the hassle out of it for you.
Or just buy XP Professional retail

And leave your computer open to worms, viruses, trojans, spyware,
instability, lack of useful programs (unless you purchase third-party
applications) and stupid things like mysteriously moving mouse
pointers. No thanks!

 

[Stan Brown]

You CAN download a "free" version of every major
vendors distribution of Linux. However, it will NOT be the full stable
package.

If by "not the full package" you mean that the purchased material may
have additional utilities beyond the free download, that's possible.

But if you mean the free downloads are crippled, I challenge you to
prove it. And by throwing in that loaded word "stable" you give the
impression that the downloads are of lower quality than the purchased
packages; again, I challenge you to prove it.



--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the
variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of
evolution is simply ignorant -- inexcusably ignorant, in a world
where three out of four people have learned to read and write."
--Daniel Dennett, /Darwin's Dangerous Idea/ (1995), page 46

 

[Stan Brown]

I have a LOT of experience of trying and failing to
get the odd or even common hardware drivers to work in dozens of distros of
Linux.

Well, only you know your experience; but this "dozens of distros"
business is awfully hard to swallow. These days even Ethernet cards
and wireless cards seem to be supported by distros like Knoppix and
Fedora right out of the box.

The only major unsupported class of devices I know is Winmodems, nd
even there some progress has been made.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the
variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of
evolution is simply ignorant -- inexcusably ignorant, in a world
where three out of four people have learned to read and write."
--Daniel Dennett, /Darwin's Dangerous Idea/ (1995), page 46

 

[MattW]

Boys boys boys!!!.........
This thread's subject is about my mysterious mouse movements on the
"windowsxp.general" newgroup.
It is NOT about your pointless windows vs linux flame war that doesn't solve
the problem in the subject header

 

[Bob I]

Try Mouse properties and Uncheck "Enhance pointer precision" under
Pointer Options.

 

[Guest]

I have a little different program. I can be typing - it can be in MS Word or
in an email or it seems like just about anywhere - and my cursor will jump to
my pointer, which has turned up somewhere else in the document. So all of a
sudden I'm typing in the middle of a sentence somewhere else. Any idea how
to stop that?

Thanks,

 

[Doug]

It's probably the 'spook of Microsoft past'. Use a little voodoo
to eliminate it.

Doug
=

 

[Uncle Joe]

Are you perhaps using a Ouija board as a mouse pad?

Suggestions from the web:

1. Clean your mouse thoroughly
2. Replace the batteries if a wireless mouse
3. Make certain mouse is sitting on a level surface
4. Retard the mouse sensitivity using control panel

and the strangest of all suggestions

5. Use a piece of blue paper for a mouse pad. Poster
claimed this worked. I don't why it would work.

Good luck.