Mouse freezes

[MyVeryOwnSelf]

At unpredictable times, my mouse freezes. When this happens, its cursor
stops tracking and there's no response to the mouse buttons. The PC still
responds to the keyboard, though.

I've managed to limp along by resuscitating the PC as follows:

1. Use the keyboard to save my work and restart the PC. Sometimes the
mouse is back in action, and I get back to work. Sometimes it takes two
or three restarts. Sometimes switching to a different USB port seems to
help.

2. Otherwise, I do a more radical restart, shutting down the PC,
unplugging it, waiting a few minutes, plugging it back in, and
restarting. Over time, the problem crops up more and more frequently.

3. When things get bad, I swap the mouse with a spare. Usually the spare
mouse is ok at first, but later I find myself repeating steps 1 and 2
over again.

4. When things get worse, I swap the spare mouse back with the original
one. This seems to have the same impact as the opposite swap.
 
Is there some way to prevent the mouse from freezing?

Configuration:

There are two PCs displaying the same symptoms. Both are Dell Dimension
desktop PCs.

Each PC uses the Dell USB HID-compliant mouse that came with the PC. One
is a ball mouse; the other, optical. The spare mouse is a Microsoft Basic
Optical Mouse.

Microsoft mouse driver 5.1.2600.0 dated 7-1-01.

The first PC has a Samsung 22UW monitor with built-in USB hub. It makes
no difference whether its mouse is plugged into the monitor or directly
into the PC.

The second PC has a hub-less Dell monitor. Its mouse always plugs
directly into the PC.

Both PCs run Windows XP SP3. The update from SP2 to SP3 seems to have
made things worse, but I'm not really sure there's a connection.

I disabled power management for the USB hubs, but it didn't help.

I don't use standby mode or hibernation. I don't have Bluetooth.

Thanks for any help.

 

[ANONYMOUS]

At unpredictable times, my mouse freezes. When this happens, its cursor
stops tracking and there's no response to the mouse buttons. The PC still
responds to the keyboard, though.

I've managed to limp along by resuscitating the PC as follows:

1. Use the keyboard to save my work and restart the PC. Sometimes the
mouse is back in action, and I get back to work. Sometimes it takes two
or three restarts. Sometimes switching to a different USB port seems to
help.

2. Otherwise, I do a more radical restart, shutting down the PC,
unplugging it, waiting a few minutes, plugging it back in, and
restarting. Over time, the problem crops up more and more frequently.

3. When things get bad, I swap the mouse with a spare. Usually the spare
mouse is ok at first, but later I find myself repeating steps 1 and 2
over again.

4. When things get worse, I swap the spare mouse back with the original
one. This seems to have the same impact as the opposite swap.
 
Is there some way to prevent the mouse from freezing?

Configuration:

There are two PCs displaying the same symptoms. Both are Dell Dimension
desktop PCs.

Each PC uses the Dell USB HID-compliant mouse that came with the PC. One
is a ball mouse; the other, optical. The spare mouse is a Microsoft Basic
Optical Mouse.

Microsoft mouse driver 5.1.2600.0 dated 7-1-01.

The first PC has a Samsung 22UW monitor with built-in USB hub. It makes
no difference whether its mouse is plugged into the monitor or directly
into the PC.

The second PC has a hub-less Dell monitor. Its mouse always plugs
directly into the PC.

Both PCs run Windows XP SP3. The update from SP2 to SP3 seems to have
made things worse, but I'm not really sure there's a connection.

I disabled power management for the USB hubs, but it didn't help.

I don't use standby mode or hibernation. I don't have Bluetooth.

Thanks for any help.

Next time your mouse freezes, you can “un-freeze” it or thaw it by
unplugging it from its USB port and re-plugging it. Don't take any
drastic actions like switching off the system because this could
thrash your HD!.

Also don’t try to update the mouse drivers because a PC mouse is a
very simple device that requires no drivers for basic functions.
Microsoft’s generic drivers would be quite adequate for basic
functions.

 

[Tim Meddick]

On most systems, trying to "hot-swap" a wired mouse has the result that
the mouse pointer freezes solid and nothing but a reboot will unstick
it.

All I can say about this is that a break in connection would reproduce
the same symptoms.

It's very unlikely that two PCs have got issues with dodgy USB ports and
that all the ports were affected.

But it is not beyond the realms of possibility that both mice have a
broken or damaged cord.

Try a totally different mouse, that has no issues with it, on these
machines.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Gerry]

Change batteries in mouse and keyboard?


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Tim Meddick]

Mice are wired - not wireless - please re-read the OP!

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[MyVeryOwnSelf]

Next time your mouse freezes, you can “un-freeze” it or thaw it by

unplugging it from its USB port and re-plugging it.

Thanks. I'll give it a try and report back.

 

[MyVeryOwnSelf]

Try a totally different mouse, that has no issues with it, on these

machines.

After trying two PCs and six USB ports and three mice in various
combinations without success, I can't help thinking the system software has
somehow gotten confused.

Would it help to un-install the mouse driver and re-install it? (It seems
kind of extreme; I haven't done that sort of thing before.)

 

[ANONYMOUS]

Mice are wired - not wireless - please re-read the OP!

==

Cheers,    Tim Meddick,    Peckham, London.    

Dell boy from Peckham can read! Hooray! Pigs can fly now!

How is Trotters Independent Traders doing these days? Is that three-
wheeler still goping strong?

 

[Tim Meddick]

I doubt very much that it's a software issue, unless we're talking about
a malware infection.

Re-installing the M$ default mouse driver isn't going to help one bit.

But, you're right about it not being the mouse OR ports, after testing
as extensively as you obviously have done.

I would like to ask you, however, have you installed any [other] new
hardware recently?

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Tim Meddick]

What's your problem now - do people like you ALWAYS have to detract from
the subject to making it personal?

Why would you even want to do that?


==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Mice are wired - not wireless - please re-read the OP!

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Dell boy from Peckham can read! Hooray! Pigs can fly now!

How is Trotters Independent Traders doing these days? Is that three-
wheeler still goping strong?

 

[MyVeryOwnSelf]

I would like to ask you, however, have you installed any [other] new

hardware recently?

Thanks for the response.

The second PC has been unchanged, except for switching the mouse around
when it freezes.

The first PC's Dell monitor of was replaced with over a year ago by the
Samsung 22UW.

The first PC is used for a variety of USB devices that keep getting
attached and removed; e.g., thumb drive, MP3 player, photo frame,
navigation system.

Otherwise, the configurations haven't changed since the PCs were new in
2006.

I doubt very much that it's a software issue, unless we're
talking about a malware infection.

I use Avast and SUPERAntiSpyware, and do a full scan periodically. There
have been no alerts from them recently. (I realize some would choose
different tools for a variety of reasons.)

 

[Tim Meddick]

It will do your system no harm to download and run 'MalwareBytes' on
your system.

This is, by far, the best [free] software available for detecting and
removing malware.

The main function of AV software is to *prevent* malware/virus from
installing itself on your system.

If, however, malware/virus does happen to get past your AV software on
to your PC, then a lot of antivirus programs are seriously lacking in
detection success rates.

MalwareBytes seems to have filled a gap in the market for free virus
scanning software.

The free version does not have resident protection anyway, but the
software seems to pick up on malware that other protection misses.

Although the cause of your particular problem may well be something
other than malware - as I said - it will do your PC no harm to run
MalwareBytes on it.

Download MalwareBytes AV scan :

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe

MalwareBytes Website :

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

I would like to ask you, however, have you installed any [other] new
hardware recently?

Thanks for the response.

The second PC has been unchanged, except for switching the mouse
around
when it freezes.

The first PC's Dell monitor of was replaced with over a year ago by
the
Samsung 22UW.

The first PC is used for a variety of USB devices that keep getting
attached and removed; e.g., thumb drive, MP3 player, photo frame,
navigation system.

Otherwise, the configurations haven't changed since the PCs were new
in
2006.

I doubt very much that it's a software issue, unless we're
talking about a malware infection.

I use Avast and SUPERAntiSpyware, and do a full scan periodically.
There
have been no alerts from them recently. (I realize some would choose
different tools for a variety of reasons.)

 

[MyVeryOwnSelf]

Next time your mouse freezes, you can “un-freeze” it or thaw it by

unplugging it from its USB port and re-plugging it.

I tried this once and it worked. Thanks! To be honest, I was astonished it
did.

Does this give a hint how to prevent the problem from happening at all?

This was only one incident, however; I'll persist to see if the fix is
repeatable.


Now for the bizarre part....

Next to the first PC, there's a paper shredder. At one point, I thought I
noticed a correlation between running the shredder and the mouse freeze. I
wondered if the shredder might emit some EM interference that could affect
the PC. It seemed too far-fetched to pursue, however. Besides, it wouldn't
explain why the second PC has the same mouse problem -- it's in another
room, where the only electrical gadgets are lamps.

The freeze hadn't happened for a few days, so I thought I'd try an
experiment. I shredded some paper and the mouse froze on the first PC right
away. The second wasn't affected.

It's hard to believe that both PCs would be so marginal that they are
sensitive to EM interference from common domestic appliances, and that a
wired USB mouse is more sensitive than anything else. Lots of times, the
freeze happened without the shredder running.

Unless somebody has insights into this episode, I'll chalk it up to
coincidence.

 

[Paul]

I tried this once and it worked. Thanks! To be honest, I was astonished it
did.

Does this give a hint how to prevent the problem from happening at all?

This was only one incident, however; I'll persist to see if the fix is
repeatable.

It shouldn't make any difference, but what kind of power connection
does the PC have ? Does it have a cord with three prongs on the end,
or a cord with two prongs ? Desktop computers are set up to use the safety
ground, for the purposes of dumping a little bit of leakage current
into the third (safety ground) prong. If a three prong to two prong
adapter is used, the end result is occasionally the user gets a
mild shock when touching the metal chassis of the computer. (Practices
vary around the world, and this description applies at least to
North America. Older houses lack the safety ground and have two prong
outlets. The homeowner must stock three prong to two prong adapters,
to be able to power modern devices. Either that, or bust off the
third prong, so the plug fits in the wall outlet. I used to live
in a house like that.)

One thing the shredder will put out, is a transient into the power
line, when the inductive motor is switched on or switched off.
The ATX power supply should smother most of that, with the filtering
on the AC to DC first stage of the supply. If the amplitude was high
enough, a MOV in the supply, the power strip the supply is plugged into,
or in the UPS connected to the computer, may also become involved, and
snip the top off the transient. The MOV would likely be tied to the
safety ground.

The transient could also be induced into adjacent wires, but
a conducted path seems more reasonable.

I haven't run into too many people in newsgroups, who run
their computer without the safety ground. And in some cases,
the posters aren't really sure what kind of wiring they've
got - but since they're getting a shock, I have my suspicions

Paul

 

[MyVeryOwnSelf]

... what kind of power connection

does the PC have ? Does it have a cord with three prongs on the end,
or a cord with two prongs ?

The PC has a 3-prong connector. It is plugged into a Radio Shack surge
protector power strip. That's plugged into a 3-prong wall socket.

The shredder has a polarized 2-prong connector. It is plugged into a second
Radio Shack surge protector power strip. That's plugged into the adjacent
3-prong wall socket.

I'll try plugging the shredder into a non-adjacent socket using an
extension cord. Maybe that'll help.