Is there a ghost in my desktop???

[Elorah Dannon]

I'm not sure what's going on here. I suppose it could be one of
several things. I just bought a new board and did an upgrade to XP
Pro (which I used many times before on another machine). Another
thing that is different is that I'm now using a wireless mouse. The
things that are happening are very.....ghosty. Random windows will
shut themselves down for no reason. The start menu will appear out of
the blue. I'll get the 'shut down' dialog prompt when I didn't press
anything. I'll come back to my computer with a clean desktop and see
the right-click menu is up. I've never used a wireless mouse before
so I don't know what problems to expect. I'm just trying to narrow
down what the problem could be. I've downloaded all sp's and updates.
This happens whether I'm online or not. And it happens when my
computer has been idle for a little while. I've got all screen savers
and power mgmt turned off. What's going on?????

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I'm not sure what's going on here. I suppose it could be one of
several things. I just bought a new board and did an upgrade to XP
Pro (which I used many times before on another machine). Another
thing that is different is that I'm now using a wireless mouse. The
things that are happening are very.....ghosty. Random windows will
shut themselves down for no reason. The start menu will appear out of
the blue. I'll get the 'shut down' dialog prompt when I didn't press
anything. I'll come back to my computer with a clean desktop and see
the right-click menu is up. I've never used a wireless mouse before
so I don't know what problems to expect. I'm just trying to narrow
down what the problem could be. I've downloaded all sp's and updates.
This happens whether I'm online or not. And it happens when my
computer has been idle for a little while. I've got all screen savers
and power mgmt turned off. What's going on?????

Try cleaning up the system:

Turn on that firewall...
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/home/using/howto/homenet/icf.asp
If you are getting "Messenger Service" popups - this will also remedy those.
(If you have AOL, you will have to get a third party firewall. IMHO -
another reason NOT to use AOL. Although, I suggest highly that if you want
to get better protection, you should get a third party Firewall anyway, it
still does nothing for my AOL dislike.)


Make sure you have all the updates (critical) installed from:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
(Scan for updates, Review and Install)


Get rid of the spy/ad/mal-ware..
(Yes - using MORE than one of these.. I recommend at least the first
three.)

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Lavasoft AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de

Hijack This!
(For browser Hijacks - also look into CWS Shredder)
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

And Assortment of Others:
http://www.merijn.org/downloads.html


After you cleanup your PC somewhat of spy/ad/mal-ware, verify your antivirus
software is updated and run a full scan of your computer. If you have no
antivirus software - get one NOW!
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php


Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to about
80-120MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 80MB and 120MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes
or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.


Uninstall any software you do not use often/ever. (If you have something
installed but never use it, uninstall it. If you go through Control
Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and see things you seldom if ever use, it is to
your advantage to remove it.)

 

[Guest]

It's either the mouse, or the board. Try using a normal
wired mouse, and see if that fixes it. If not, get
another board, or have a tech look it over.

 

[kenny-knight-jackson]

You did not tell us what brand the mouse is...If its a microsoft wireless
optical mouse then its the mouses fault, since the design of the mouse is
faulty. ( I have the same mouse)

 

[Guest]

Hi, first of all there are a pile of microsoft wireless mice. second of all, you can get another one for free. phone microsoft, tell them yor problem, then they will ship you out a new mouse for free. and you dont have to send your old one back! one of my freinds needed a mouse, so i phoned microsoft and told them mine wsnt working, so they sent me out a new one. i gave the new one to my freind, and mine wasnt even broken in the first place! LOL.