Problem with freezing mouse, Windows Explorer

[Jon Davis]

Every minute or so, the mouse freezes for anywhere between 1/2 to ten
seconds. I don't know if it's a hardware problem or a software problem, but
I really think it's a software problem, and I don't know where to begin
looking. In fact, I think it's Windows Explorer, or something tied into it.

The reason why I think it's a software problem is because even though
Windows Explorer freezes while the mouse freezes, some other programs do
not. For instance, I might be playing a game, such as, say, the Unreal
Tournament 2004 Demo, and the mouse will just hang, while the action
continues. I can use the keys and keep running around, but I can't change
the direction I'm facing or fire my weapon because the mouse is busy
freezing for a few seconds. No change in frame rate. Just frozen mouse. The
mouse cable is fine.

It is the weirdest thing, only just started happening in the last few weeks,
and no, I don't remember any obvious installations I've done. (Obviously
this is caused by an installation or configuration change, I just don't know
what.)

I suppose it could also be a hardware problem, such as an IDE drive problem
perhaps, because Explorer is tied into those devices and it does freeze if
it can't read a drive. But my drives generally seem to be working fine.
Might my mapped drives over the network cause such this kind of problem?

Help? Any ideas?

Jon

 

[Phil \(a.k.a. purplehaz\)]

Open task manager, processes tab. When it "freezes" look in task manager and
see what using all the cpu cycles. Then kill the process and uninstall the
program if you can or post back what it is. Also do a virus scan and spyware
check.

 

[Jon Davis]

I've done that already. It never shows up because Task Manager freezes, too,
and when it unfreezes the process that did the freezing is no longer
showing. Explorer does come up to the top, though. Can't uninstall that.

Jon

 

[Phil \(a.k.a. purplehaz\)]

You'll probably have to start stutting things down in task manager one by
one to try and figure out what program is causing the freeze ups.

 

[Dave in Hove]

I'm having the same problem, the mouse will hang for up
to ten minutes, though I can sometimes still use the
wheel on the mouse to scroll pages the cursor will not
budge. It's usually preceded by the mouse becoming more
and more sluggish. Other times the cursor will jump
around the page, or shoot off in one direction. Task
manager shows no other program using cpu aside from
system idle. Processes shows no other programs
operating. Have run virus scans and come up negative.
Have run scandisk and no change in mouse behaviour. This
is also recent behaviour, perhaps since the last windows
update....I'm wondering if it has to do with
that.....This makes using Windows, and trying to work
very frustrating...... Please help.....Thanks...

 

[Graham]

My wife has a similar problem on her machine (XP system).
All keyboard commands still work and programs appear
unaffected. Happens after about 6-7 hours constant use.
Only way to remove it is to do a keyboard fired restart
through task manager. I've had a similar problem on my own
system (W2000), but more a 'juddering', doesn't really
freeze. Again, only seen after some hours of use.

No obvious cause. Reinstalling frivers had no obvious
affect. Upgrading Intellimouse software did, now freezes
totally instead of 'juddering'. Could it be due to an MS
patch?- no new software or hardware had been installed at
the time it was first seen, about late March.

Advice appreciated.

 

[lllusion]

My wife has a similar problem on her machine (XP system).
All keyboard commands still work and programs appear
unaffected. Happens after about 6-7 hours constant use.
Only way to remove it is to do a keyboard fired restart
through task manager. I've had a similar problem on my own
system (W2000), but more a 'juddering', doesn't really
freeze. Again, only seen after some hours of use.

No obvious cause. Reinstalling frivers had no obvious
affect. Upgrading Intellimouse software did, now freezes
totally instead of 'juddering'. Could it be due to an MS
patch?- no new software or hardware had been installed at
the time it was first seen, about late March.

I think you're on to something here, that there's a relationship to a
recent patch. My IntellimousExplorer using 4.12 has always worked like a
charm. After recently installing a couple of critical updates the mouse
would occasionally jump. It then started freezing for a second or two,
then it would freeze for 10 seconds or so, and finally it just stopped
working at all. All computer functions still worked and all keyboard
functions worked just fine, even though the mouse was frozen.

Uninstalling and reinstalling drivers didn't help. Switching the mouse
to different ports (USB and PS/2) didn't help. Switching to a standard
ps/2 mouse gave me my mouse back. I've tested the Intellimouse on
another machine and it works just fine (on that machine) so it's not a
hardware issue.

The machine is free from spyware. (Just scanned it.)

--
Howie
"The very belief that violence is unavoidable
is a root cause of violence."
Samdhong Rinpoche
1st Democratically Elected Chairman of the
Tibetan Cabinet-in-Exile

 

[Guest]

I've been having the same problem... started a couple of weeks ago, every minute or two the cursor seems to freeze for about one second. I've updated drivers etc. to no effect, haven't been able to find any weird processes eating resources, ran Spybot S&D with no results...

 

[Guest]

I am having a similar problem but my whole system freezes and requires turning the power off. I do a lot of audio editing and I can't work for more than about 10 minutes without freezing. I wonder too if it might have to do with an MS patch.

 

[Peter Hutchison]

I am having a similar problem but my whole system freezes and requires turning the power off. I do a lot of audio editing and I can't work for more than about 10 minutes without freezing. I wonder too if it might have to do with an MS patch.

Freezes can be due to hardware problems such as over heating or a
program in memory using up CPU power a lot (check EventVwr and Task
Manager or Perfmon.msc).

Peter Hutchison