Mouse gone crazy!

[Guest]

For the last couple of weeks my mouse has gone crazy. It randomly moves
across the screen, right clicks, left clicks, locks up and even makes erratic
jumps across the screen. Sometimes it even activates the context sensitve
menus or scrolls the screen all by itself.

The mouse is a standard, Dell corded scrolling ball mouse on a solid grey
mousepad. It is clean, as I clean my mouse monthly. Besides, it doesn't
even have to be touched to cause the erratic movements. I have a dual boot
Windows XP machine and the behavior is the same in both Windows.

As of yesterday, I have scanned for viruses and removed all Adware and
spyware. The virus scans are negative.

System is a Dell 4550. It has 1 gig of ram. The mouse has been fine on
this system for over three years. The only recent change (after the erratic
mouse behavior had already started) was the Windows updates performed.

Any ideas on what could be causing the conflict? All ideas are appreciated.

Thanks,
JB

 

[philo]

For the last couple of weeks my mouse has gone crazy. It randomly moves
across the screen, right clicks, left clicks, locks up and even makes erratic
jumps across the screen. Sometimes it even activates the context sensitve
menus or scrolls the screen all by itself.

The mouse is a standard, Dell corded scrolling ball mouse on a solid grey
mousepad. It is clean, as I clean my mouse monthly. Besides, it doesn't
even have to be touched to cause the erratic movements. I have a dual boot
Windows XP machine and the behavior is the same in both Windows.

<snip>

Try a different mouse!!!

You said it did the same thing on *both* of your Windows installation!

 

[Guest]

JB: you could try a different mouse as philo suggested. Also, when was the
last time you actually cleaned the mouse? I have had different styles over
the years but they all need cleaning at some point or another. I'll take a
Q-tip and a tooth pick and gently remove all internal dust bunnies from the
sensors and miniature internal ball rollers. Also, your could try a
different port if it is a USB version. Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the ideas philo and ThomasP. I don't have another scrolling mouse
to replace it with.

After testing, I think it is a bug. Not sure where or why it became a
problem (maybe from a system update??) but I think it is a bug because:

1) I tried a non scrolling mouse in both Windows and had no problems.
2) Tried the original scrolling mouse in both Windows and the problem
returned.
3) Turned off the scrolling function in the mouse driver (set the driver to
disable scrolling for one test and also to detect scrolling instead of assume
scrolling for another test) and the problem almost competely disappeared.
4) The problem only reappeared once after configuring the driver for
detecting a scrolling mouse and that was when the mouse was squeezed hard
from both sides while in use.
5) The scrolling button no longer functions at all even when the driver is
set to detect a scrolling mouse. Obviously it shouldn't work when the driver
setting is disabled but it also does not work when the driver is set to
detect mode.

The "crazy mouse" syndrome goes away with the scrolling ability .

The mouse is clean. I clean it monthly and have checked and it is still
clean from its latest cleaning.

It is standard, PS2 scrolling ball mouse from Dell used on a plain grey
mousepad.

Hope this helps someone else.