USB Mouse Problem

[The Todal]

My father has a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and the USB mouse was working fine
until he unwisely re-ran Windows Setup on his machine, which seems to have
stopped the mouse working. The USB ports seem to detect all other types of
USB device, but not any sort of USB mouse. The machine's built-in trackpad
still works, and because it's a Dell there is no way of de-activating the
trackpad. We have of course tried uninstalling and reinstalling the mouse
software driver but it makes no difference. The computer does not notice
when you plug in a USB mouse.

I suppose it might be a registry error of some kind. Anyone have any
suggestions, other than formatting the drive and doing a clean Windows
reinstall?

 

[Chris Hood]

If your father is running Windows XP, then maybe it's a the problem is
caused by the "Power Options".

This may sound a little mysterious to you, but, as the computer is a laptop,
when your father re-ran Setup, he may have reset the power management
options within windows to a default setting.

You (or your father) can go to the start menu - control panel - System,
OR right click My Computer (either on the start menu or on the desktop if it
is there) and choose Properties from the menu that pops up.
This opens the System Properties box. It has lots of tabs at the top.
Click on the Hardware tab. Then click the Device Manager button.

The Device Manager opens (it is a program that shows all the hardware
devices that are part of or connected to your computer). As the problem
seems to be with a USB mouse, first look for the "Mice and Other Pointing
Devices" item in the list. Double click it to expand the list. This should
show you which Mice are plugged into your computer (it will also list the
built-in trackpad that you mentioned).

With your USB Mouse plugged in, click on Action in menu at the top of the
Device Manager window and choose "Scan for hardware changes". After the scan
is complete, does your mouse appear in Device Manager? Does it work?

If your USB mouse is not shown and doesn't work, then look for the Universal
Serial Bus Controllers item on the Device Manager list (usually near the
bottom of the list). Double click this item to "expand" it (to show the
items it controls). There will be some items under the Universal Serial Bus
Controllers item called USB Root Hub. Right click one of them and choose
Properties from the menu that pops up.

There are tabs at the top of the box that appears. Click on the Power tab
(if there is one). This shows the USB ports power information/status (on my
PC it tells me that the hub is self-powered and has 500mA available per
port). If your father's laptop says something similar that's a good sign.
Now click on the Power Management tab (again, if there is one). There you
will hopefully see a check box with the title "Allow the computer to turn
off this device to save power".

The check box probably has a tick in it. What I suspect may be happening is
that your father's computer is saving power at the expense of the USB mouse.
So, if any of this has made any sense, un-tick the check box, click OK (do
the same to all the USB Root Hub items) and close the device manager. Try
your mouse.

Hope this will help.

 

[Pop`]

If your father is running Windows XP, then maybe it's a the problem is
caused by the "Power Options".

This may sound a little mysterious to you, but, as the computer is a
laptop, when your father re-ran Setup, he may have reset the power
management options within windows to a default setting.

You (or your father) can go to the start menu - control panel -
System, OR right click My Computer (either on the start menu or on the
desktop if it is there) and choose Properties from the menu that pops
up. This opens the System Properties box. It has lots of tabs at the top.
Click on the Hardware tab. Then click the Device Manager button.

The Device Manager opens (it is a program that shows all the hardware
devices that are part of or connected to your computer). As the
problem seems to be with a USB mouse, first look for the "Mice and
Other Pointing Devices" item in the list. Double click it to expand
the list. This should show you which Mice are plugged into your
computer (it will also list the built-in trackpad that you mentioned).

With your USB Mouse plugged in, click on Action in menu at the top of
the Device Manager window and choose "Scan for hardware changes".
After the scan is complete, does your mouse appear in Device Manager?
Does it work?
If your USB mouse is not shown and doesn't work, then look for the
Universal Serial Bus Controllers item on the Device Manager list
(usually near the bottom of the list). Double click this item to
"expand" it (to show the items it controls). There will be some items
under the Universal Serial Bus Controllers item called USB Root Hub.
Right click one of them and choose Properties from the menu that pops
up.
There are tabs at the top of the box that appears. Click on the Power
tab (if there is one). This shows the USB ports power
information/status (on my PC it tells me that the hub is self-powered
and has 500mA available per port). If your father's laptop says
something similar that's a good sign. Now click on the Power
Management tab (again, if there is one). There you will hopefully see
a check box with the title "Allow the computer to turn off this
device to save power".
The check box probably has a tick in it. What I suspect may be
happening is that your father's computer is saving power at the
expense of the USB mouse. So, if any of this has made any sense,
un-tick the check box, click OK (do the same to all the USB Root Hub
items) and close the device manager. Try your mouse.

Hope this will help.

Wow, good writeup Chris! That's what I call going the extra mile to assist
a user.

Pop`

 

[The Todal]

If your father is running Windows XP, then maybe it's a the problem is
caused by the "Power Options".

This may sound a little mysterious to you, but, as the computer is a
laptop, when your father re-ran Setup, he may have reset the power
management options within windows to a default setting.

You (or your father) can go to the start menu - control panel - System,
OR right click My Computer (either on the start menu or on the desktop if
it is there) and choose Properties from the menu that pops up.
This opens the System Properties box. It has lots of tabs at the top.
Click on the Hardware tab. Then click the Device Manager button.

The Device Manager opens (it is a program that shows all the hardware
devices that are part of or connected to your computer). As the problem
seems to be with a USB mouse, first look for the "Mice and Other Pointing
Devices" item in the list. Double click it to expand the list. This should
show you which Mice are plugged into your computer (it will also list the
built-in trackpad that you mentioned).

With your USB Mouse plugged in, click on Action in menu at the top of the
Device Manager window and choose "Scan for hardware changes". After the
scan is complete, does your mouse appear in Device Manager? Does it work?

If your USB mouse is not shown and doesn't work, then look for the
Universal Serial Bus Controllers item on the Device Manager list (usually
near the bottom of the list). Double click this item to "expand" it (to
show the items it controls). There will be some items under the Universal
Serial Bus Controllers item called USB Root Hub. Right click one of them
and choose Properties from the menu that pops up.

There are tabs at the top of the box that appears. Click on the Power tab
(if there is one). This shows the USB ports power information/status (on
my PC it tells me that the hub is self-powered and has 500mA available per
port). If your father's laptop says something similar that's a good sign.
Now click on the Power Management tab (again, if there is one). There you
will hopefully see a check box with the title "Allow the computer to turn
off this device to save power".

The check box probably has a tick in it. What I suspect may be happening
is that your father's computer is saving power at the expense of the USB
mouse. So, if any of this has made any sense, un-tick the check box, click
OK (do the same to all the USB Root Hub items) and close the device
manager. Try your mouse.

Hope this will help.

Thanks for the suggestions. The power wasn't the problem - it turned out
that various other USB devices weren't working and the solution was to
delete all USB devices from the list, reboot, and let Windows detect them.
To my great relief this went without a hitch but I did get him to back up
all documents and files first.

 

[Guest]

I found this useful as well so thank you Chris. My mouse was occasionally
freezing at the edges of the screen, by following through your advice I found
that it was installed twice, but only one install had the power option. by
uninstalling the one without my mouse now appears to be functioning properly.
Cheers!