Ghost in my computer?

[JP]

Happy New Year!

While online early this morning the web page I was on started to scroll
itself up and down rapidly and randomly. I closed IE and started Firefox and
it happened there too. Fearing an intrusion I yanked my connection.

It was then I found out that this *auto-scrolling* behavior happened offline
in any application that involved a vertical scroll-bar : Explorer, MS Word,
MS FrontPage, even in the Windows Fax & Picture Viewer, if the image was
expanded to produce the scroll-bar! This behavior stops when the mouse
cursor is moved to the title or status bars or the scroll-bar itself - it
occured only when the cursor is within the area covered by the scroll-bar.

I rebooted the PC and things reverted to normal. To be sure I ran AdAware,
SpyBot, AntiVir, SFC/scannow, CHKDSK/f - *nothing* came up. Hence this post.

I am wondering what could have caused this.

Regards and thanks in advance for any insight.

JP

 

[dev]

/JP/ said:

Happy New Year!

While online early this morning the web page I was on started to scroll
itself up and down rapidly and randomly. I closed IE and started Firefox and
it happened there too. Fearing an intrusion I yanked my connection.

It was then I found out that this *auto-scrolling* behavior happened offline
in any application that involved a vertical scroll-bar : Explorer, MS Word,
MS FrontPage, even in the Windows Fax & Picture Viewer, if the image was
expanded to produce the scroll-bar! This behavior stops when the mouse
cursor is moved to the title or status bars or the scroll-bar itself - it
occured only when the cursor is within the area covered by the scroll-bar.

I rebooted the PC and things reverted to normal. To be sure I ran AdAware,
SpyBot, AntiVir, SFC/scannow, CHKDSK/f - *nothing* came up. Hence this post.

I am wondering what could have caused this.

Regards and thanks in advance for any insight.

Just perhaps - a crazed mouse. I have seen similar here with the wireless
MS Explorer.
Troubleshoot, if it happens again, by replacing the battery or testing
another mouse.

 

[Vanguard]

Happy New Year!

While online early this morning the web page I was on started to scroll
itself up and down rapidly and randomly. I closed IE and started Firefox
and
it happened there too. Fearing an intrusion I yanked my connection.

It was then I found out that this *auto-scrolling* behavior happened
offline
in any application that involved a vertical scroll-bar : Explorer, MS
Word,
MS FrontPage, even in the Windows Fax & Picture Viewer, if the image was
expanded to produce the scroll-bar! This behavior stops when the mouse
cursor is moved to the title or status bars or the scroll-bar itself - it
occured only when the cursor is within the area covered by the scroll-bar.

Sounds like the auto- or universal-scrolling function of your mouse is
stuck. Go into your mouse's software or the Mouse applet in Control Panel
to see what buttons or keys are defined to enable a scroll mode, and what
turns it off. Could be you have stuck buttons or keys. Could be you have
yet to use whatever buttons or keys will turn it off.

 

[JP]

Thanks for the response. I have a PS/2 MS standard optical mouse. I do have
a spare somewhere and will change to it later this morning and see if the
behavior returns.

Regards and thanks again.

JP

 

[JP]

Thanks for the response - after reading it I checked the mouse settings in
CP, as well as device properties in DM, and they are as they should be.
However, sometime later today, I will be changing the mouse and see if the
phenomenon recurs. It was very weird and almost caused me to fall off my
chair.

Regards and thanks again.

JP
---

 

[Bob Knowlden]

Weighing in on this a bit late, but...

I've seen similar things, apparently related to the mouse. It mainly seems
to occur when I have Outlook Express (which I use as a newreader) and
Internet Explorer open at the same time.

I have a USB mouse (MS Intellimouse Explorer), and the problem disappears if
I unplug it and plug it in again.

OE appears to be the culprit. I've had glitches with it for 10 years, but I
continue using it because it's free, handles multiple news servers, and
supports killfiles. I guess that I'm prepared for the occasional flame about
top posting. (That's what I'd prefer with a threaded newsreader, anyway.)


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[JP]

Thanks for the insight. Very interesting. I have OE set as my newsreader
too, with connections to four different news-servers. I tried duplicating
the phenomenon with IE and OE open at the same time. No go! Tried it with
OE, IE as well as Firefox open at the same time - still no go.

I do agree with the assessment of the mouse (or the mouse driver) as the
likely culprit. I already changed the mouse and am waiting to see if the
behavior recurs.

Incidentally I have been using OE the better part of a decade myself but
with no glitches anytime. I use it only for newsgroups - never for email
though, for which I prefer Outlook. And I think OE is an outstanding
newsreader for its price!

Regards and thanks for the response.

JP

 

[Steve N.]

Thanks for the insight. Very interesting. I have OE set as my newsreader
too, with connections to four different news-servers. I tried duplicating
the phenomenon with IE and OE open at the same time. No go! Tried it with
OE, IE as well as Firefox open at the same time - still no go.

I do agree with the assessment of the mouse (or the mouse driver) as the
likely culprit. I already changed the mouse and am waiting to see if the
behavior recurs.

Incidentally I have been using OE the better part of a decade myself but
with no glitches anytime. I use it only for newsgroups - never for email
though, for which I prefer Outlook. And I think OE is an outstanding
newsreader for its price!

Regards and thanks for the response.

JP

I think the culprit is more likely the MS optical wheel mouse. I've seen
this and other odd scrolling behaviour with several of them on several
different machines in a variety of situations and applications.

Steve N.

 

[Charlie Tame]

I think the culprit is more likely the MS optical wheel mouse. I've seen
this and other odd scrolling behaviour with several of them on several
different machines in a variety of situations and applications.

Steve N.

Could well be, I have a couple that tend to fly off the screen at random...

Charlie