Computer guys, help me fix my mouse.

**line6man** · #1 08-04-2010, 05:08 PM

Well, my laptop is driving me f***ing nuts right now!

It's behaving very strangely. Many times, when I click on something, it will either not click at all, and essentially freeze up so that I can't click anything else, or it will act as if I am holding the mouse key down.
If I click an icon, then move my mouse, the mouse will drag the icon as if I were holding the mouse button down.
If I click the scroll bar on a webpage, moving the mouse will scroll up and down like I'm holding the mouse button, and it takes a considerable amount of angry mouse clicking elsewhere on the screen to get it to "unclick."

When I click things, a lot of times the click does nothing, and rolling the mouse over to something that would normally highlight when moused over does not change it.

This does not happen for every mouse click I make though.
If I open Windows explorer for example, I can usually navigate around and open folders ok, until I start clicking the scroll bar.
When I'm on the internet, about half of my clicks are troublesome, and half work just fine.

I originally thought that perhaps the physical mouse button was crapping out, so tried reversing the mouse keys so that a right click would act as a left click and vice versa, but this doesn't seem to help too much.

I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium. I'm not sure of the service packs and such off hand, I'll have to check.

Anyone know *** is going on, and how to fix it?

MIJ-VI · #2 08-04-2010, 05:15 PM

What's the make & model # of the mouse (PS/2? USB?) and your PC?

**line6man** · #3 08-04-2010, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MIJ-VI

What's the make & model # of the mouse (PS/2? USB?) and your PC?

It's the mouse built into my laptop.

HP Pavilion DV7

CultofJay · #4 08-04-2010, 05:25 PM

It almost sounds like your system is being taxed and that's slowing down the mouse response. How old is your laptop? If you open up your task manager and look at the meters on the Performance tab when it's acting up you'll see if your system is struggling to keep up. Internet browsers take up a decent amount of sys resources just to run nowadays so that could explain why you don't have trouble navigating Windows but can't get around online.

**line6man** · #5 08-04-2010, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CultofJay

It almost sounds like your system is being taxed and that's slowing down the mouse response. How old is your laptop? If you open up your task manager and look at the meters on the Performance tab when it's acting up you'll see if your system is struggling to keep up. Internet browsers take up a decent amount of sys resources just to run nowadays so that could explain why you don't have trouble navigating Windows but can't get around online.

CPU usage is pretty low, and memory is at 1.69GB, which as about halfway on the graph.

I'm not pushing it at all, the exhaust from the air vent is not even that hot right now.

I had a hell of a time just opening and closing Task Manager.
I can Ctrl-Alt-Delete to the blue screen that asks if I want to lock the computer, switch users, etc. just fine without any trouble, and close it by hitting Esc, but any mouse clicks won't work, and it takes me forever to do anything.

SquiggFSM · #6 08-04-2010, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CultofJay

It almost sounds like your system is being taxed and that's slowing down the mouse response. How old is your laptop? If you open up your task manager and look at the meters on the Performance tab when it's acting up you'll see if your system is struggling to keep up. Internet browsers take up a decent amount of sys resources just to run nowadays so that could explain why you don't have trouble navigating Windows but can't get around online.

+1

Run your virus checker, to cover all files

then run all of these utilities (links to websites, not downloads)

adblocker - legal free version www.lavasoft.com
SpyBot - legal free version www.spybot.com
glary's utilities - legal free version www.glaryutilities.com

Last one is a little out of leftfield I know, but I've used this a few times now, on mine and my family's comps - really speeds them up if they have gotten bogged down

If you are still running slow after that lot, something more serious is going on

MIJ-VI · #7 08-04-2010, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by line6man

CPU usage is pretty low, and memory is at 1.69GB, which as about halfway on the graph.

I'm not pushing it at all, the exhaust from the air vent is not even that hot right now.

I had a hell of a time just opening and closing Task Manager.
I can Ctrl-Alt-Delete to the blue screen that asks if I want to lock the computer, switch users, etc. just fine without any trouble, and close it by hitting Esc, but any mouse clicks won't work, and it takes me forever to do anything.

It might be a corrupted non-volatile RAM issue.

If you reboot into your notebook's BIOS there should be an option akin to 'Default Settings'. Select it and restart your machine.

If doing so doesn't right things then the track pad driver in Vista may be corrupted.

Do you have access to a USB mouse which you could use as a temporary work-a-round?

**line6man** · #8 08-04-2010, 05:54 PM

Alright, I just tried rebooting for the third time, and now the mouse buttons absolutely do not work.

I had to find a wireless mouse to hook up, and with the external mouse, things seem to be working perfectly so far. No issues at all.

So this problem definitely has something to do with the built in mouse, not the computer, correct?

What should I do?

And regarding virus scans, I ran two scans today with AVG, both of which came up clean.

ThatGermanDude · #9 08-04-2010, 06:13 PM

I would try reinstalling the touchpad driver.

tk421 · #10 08-04-2010, 06:49 PM

reinstalling the driver should have been step #2, after a simple reboot.
if reinstalling the driver doesn't sort it out, get a can of air and blast around the edges of the buttons real good. most likely it's a crumb or hair or some bit of unidentifiable finger funk making the button stick.

being a desktop engineer, i hate it when people automatically complicate issues like this. our level 2 helpdesk seems to think if level 1 can't resolve an issue in 10 minutes on the first call, they need to have us reimage the pc. no troubleshooting skills at all.

the first rule of troubleshooting - keep it simple. work from the obvious, simplest fixes, to the more complex.

and remember, always check the system and application error logs (under computer management) ... lots of things can be found in there ... and google can usually tell you what they mean pretty quickly.

</rant>

Thunderscreech · #11 08-04-2010, 06:50 PM

1. turn off "Tap to Click". It is the stupiest feature of all stupid features on computers.
2. make sure the "mouse off" switch, which should be on top of your touchpad, is on
3. go under mouse options and see if anyone of your friends has been screwing with the settings. We used to set the default mouse control from right to left hand on the school comps all the time when I was in high school.
4. have you spilled any liquid on your computer lately?

**line6man** · #12 08-04-2010, 07:17 PM

I reinstalled the driver, and now the right click works but the left click doesn't.

I had to run out the door shortly after doing this, (I'm on my iPhone right now.) so I'll have to check into this later.

L-A · #13 08-04-2010, 07:25 PM

Simple issue: it's hardware related, and you have to clean the trackpad.

More complicated: Drivers screwed up (HP's entry-lines will do this often) and you have to find how to repair them

Complicated: There is a voltage control problem in the BIOS, which is either started or exacerbated by a physical problem (damaged internal cable, humidity, short, faulty connexion)