computer help: My mouse doesn’t work sometimes but is it really broken?

gammafighter

My mouse doesn’t work sometimes but is it really broken?

I have an HP notebook computer running windows XP and a microsoft trackball optical usb mouse. Sometimes the mouse click buttons will randomly stop working, or if i click on a window i have opened, it will DEselect the window instead of selecting it. Finally, (this isn’t mouse-related, but it only happens when the mouse stops working) if i use the back button in Firefox, the computer will randomly act as though i pressed the forward button after only a second or two on the original page. This is especially annoying when i am performing a search and i just want to hit back instead of pulling up the search screen again. I’ve been using the mouse for years and this happened once before for about a week before it apparently started working again.
I don’t think it’s the problem with my hardware or the drivers because even if i unplug the usb mouse, the touchpad mouse doesn’t work either.
Has anyone heard of this problem before? Is there anything I can do?
Thanks

This open post was written 1 year, 10 months ago | V/U/S: 4,335, 23, 9 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post

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Since writing this post gammafighter may have helped people, but has not within the last 4 days. gammafighter is a verified member, has been around for 1 year, 10 months and has 4 posts and 40 replies to their name.

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computer, Window, mouse, Button, Stop, work, Click, working (How Tags Affect Reciprocity)

Replies (23)

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candp 52 #
Las Vegas, NV, US | 1 year, 10 months ago (9 minutes after post)

Is the touch pad activated? You can buy a relatively inexpensive mouse if you think there is a chance your current mouse could have a short or some other problem.

Help me with: CANDP invites all users to help prevent some unnecessary deaths.

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gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 10 months ago (6 hours, 19 minutes after post)

Hmmm… dxdiag tests were all clear, WHQL was on and virus scan showed nothing. that sucks.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

Anonymous #
1 year, 10 months ago (17 hours, 16 minutes after post)

I don’t quite understand. You said thet your track ball is intermittant and sometimes doesn’t respond to buttons. Then you remove the track ball and the internal pad dose the same thing? Is that correct?

gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 10 months ago (20 hours, 3 minutes after post)

That is correct Anon. Except the trackball part of the mouse works. The cursor moves perfectly fine at all times for both the trackball and the touchpad. The buttons, however, stop working every once in a while. When the mouse’s button’s stop working, so do the touchpad’s buttons.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 10 months ago (20 hours, 43 minutes after post)

It’s almost as though a key on my key board is stuck, but i can’t figure out what kind of key would do that.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

Anonymous #
1 year, 10 months ago (20 hours, 57 minutes after post)

I’m stumped! The touch pad and track ball have different device drivers and obviously the hardware is different. The only thing in common is the computer itself. I suppose the parts of the software that relate to the buttons might be common. Have you tried re-loading the track ball software you got with the device?

gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 10 months ago (21 hours, 19 minutes after post)

no anon, i haven’t. it randomly started working again… hopefully for good. or at least another few months. i was planning on updating the drivers, but it was taking a while to find it and i got distracted. lol.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

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gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 10 months ago (23 hours, 59 minutes after post)

ok, i found the error log and… there are a lot of errors under “system” with the source “disk” and “event” 7. lol. i dont know what i’m seeing or what i’m looking for though. you might be on to something, Ireland.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

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gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 9 months ago (3 days, 19 hours after post)

Well, the problem has fixed itself. Nothing that I did had any immediate effect so i decided to get some work done. By the time i had finished working on the computer my mouse had started working 100% again.

Thanks for the link Ireland, but that was for Windows NT, so it didn’t work on my XP. :( Oh well, the important thing is that it is fixed now.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

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gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 9 months ago (4 days, 4 hours after post)

Yeah, it seems I spoke too soon. It has stopped working again. I tried the settings that you suggested, Ireland, but that didn’t help with the problem. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to start the problem again.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 9 months ago (4 days, 8 hours after post)

Update: I think it has to do with the function key. On HP Pavilion Notebook PCs, there is a “fn” key between the ctrl key and windows key. I’m currently checking the owner’s manual on what the function key does and if that would explain it.

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

lindsaymic #
An Unknown Location | 1 year, 9 months ago (2 weeks after post)

my hp mouse pad stopped working too, I hope it decides it wants to work again.

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gammafighter 3 #
Emeryville, CA, US | 1 year, 9 months ago (2 weeks after post)

It’s official: it was the function (fn) key. I removed the key and a few surrounding keys, dusted it out, and put the other keys back (i didn’t feel like putting the fn key back). Apparently, the key was sticking and messing up mouse functions. All that work to find out that it was a crumb. lol

Help me with: My XOVision mp3 recently stopped working.

I_added_this_one_to_ #
An Unknown Location | 1 year, 6 months ago (3 months, 3 weeks after post)

Whats the function key? (fn) I have a key called “F Mode” On my logitech keyboard.. could it be this one? I have the same problem. :)

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cheeseybo #
An Unknown Location | 10 months, 2 weeks ago (11 months, 2 weeks after post)

i like cheese

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belc #
An Unknown Location | 8 months, 1 week ago (1 year, 1 month after post)

*belch*

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yeehao_12 #
An Unknown Location | 6 months, 3 weeks ago (1 year, 3 months after post)

pass by…

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schize #
An Unknown Location | 4 months ago (1 year, 5 months after post)

About your mouse problem, I have a similar problem but with a dell computer with vista and a mini optical mouse. Whenever it stop i have to press ctrl + alt + delete which brings up a list of options, i then click cancel twice and it starts working again, i remember on exp it brought up system manager so try just closing that window and see if it works again, its only a temp fix, but i just wanted to let you know i have a similar problem

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