OS stops responding to mouse cursor (movement OK, clicking NOK)

courteous

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 31, 2009
Messages
110
Windows XP, Logitech MX1100 (wireless) and Logitech generic (wired).

OS intermittently (in intervals) just stops acknowledging mouse clicks, that is, clicking some window won't bring in front to become an active window.

Ignoring the mouse (mainly just LMB) happens every 15 minutes or so (with wired mouse also).

Along one "free" SW came unwanted Daelio Toolbar which I removed (Add or Remove Programs) which I suspect made "something" awry.

  1. If Daelio Toolbar is indeed the cause, is my meager "arsenal" of avast! and Spybot with Ad-Aware Free enough?
  2. What else could be the cause of such mis-behaviour?

Many thanks for suggestions!
 
Have to ask this - but have you tried a different battery for the mouse?
 
Hi Azhar!
No, but there is no need to: same symptoms with wired mouse.

I'm mainly searching for:
  • educated guesses on what might be going on
  • whether you had any similar experience
  • (XP) OS gurus who would know what/where controls the mouse :)

PS: I also have some suspicion on Acrobat Reader (besides Daelio Toolbar).
 
My mouse problems only occur when I'm using my laptop's Bluetooth to listen to music through my Bluetooth headset. My mouse and keyboard are Microsoft Wireless Comfort 5000 set which uses radio frequency receivers.

Bluetooth music streaming would make mouse movement lag badly and keystrokes to skip.

But you said your USB mouse has problems like your wireless, so I guess we can rule that out. Have you tried looking for an updated chipset driver for your motherboard?
 
Wouldn't it seem like "black magic" if I went for an updated MB drivers if same behavior is present in "old", wired mouse (for which MB drivers are the same)? :)

Observed symptoms:
  • RMB always works
  • LMB varies: sometimes only works for tabs, othertimes only for web page below tab (e.g. selecting text) [Firefox]
  • it is not browser related; OS active window switching (which needs LMB) also doesn't work

Avast! and Ad-Aware scanned "full system" with nothing malicious found ... :(

BTW, Azhar which Bluetooth headsets are you using? Are you satisfied with performance (and price) and would you recommend them?

EDIT: While mistyping URL I got redirect to Mybrowserbar instead of 404 error ... don't know how that got on my hard drive ... anyway, removed it (Add/Remove Programs -> “Search settings"; more at http://www.enghiong.com/remove-mybrowserbar-from-my-browser.html) everything seems OK for now.
 
Last edited:
My Phonak Naida hearing aids have Bluetooth capability, and they're about $6500, so i doubt if that's what you're looking for ;-)
 
This is absurd! Security SW (Ad-Aware, Spybot, avast!) found nothing ... and I can't think of where else to look for possible solution. :(

Also came across thread that's been going from 2003 regarding very alike mouse problems.

To restate the problem: mouse moves around the screen OK (that is, X and Y counters update regularly), but changing active window doesn't work and hovering over URLs and Firefox buttons doesn't change cursor or "bulge" buttons out.

I've noticed though, that bringing up Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) slightly alleviates the problem. :eek:

What to do, what to do? :confused:
 
This is absurd! Security SW (Ad-Aware, Spybot, avast!) found nothing ... and I can't think of where else to look for possible solution. :(

Also came across thread that's been going from 2003 regarding very alike mouse problems.

To restate the problem: mouse moves around the screen OK (that is, X and Y counters update regularly), but changing active window doesn't work and hovering over URLs and Firefox buttons doesn't change cursor or "bulge" buttons out.

I've noticed though, that bringing up Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) slightly alleviates the problem. :eek:

What to do, what to do? :confused:

Does the same behavior occur in safe mode?
 
I will try. If it will occur, what would that imply?

BTW, I noticed also that RMB gets me weirdly long menus: e.g. the standard Windows XP right click menu appended with menus from other opened programs (like Media Player Classic). It's preposterous ... RMB menu was 1200 pixels in height!
 
Definitely sounds like a malware problem. If the problem stops in safe mode, then it's definitely malware...if it persists, it still could be malware related, but it would be a lot harder to diagnose. Let us know what happens in safe mode.
 
The mouse-cursor-not-responsive problem persisted in safe mode (though less pronounced).
Lately I came to suspect that (besides malware) a combination of Firefox + Acrobat Reader could also clog the system ... or Acrobat Reader on itself (for example, with many .pdf open).

I don't know ... I've removed two toolbars (Daelio and Mybrowserbar which named itself as Search settings) ... and there could still be something hidden Avast! won't ever find ... but could also be inefficient software (that is new) ... alas, even bare-bones OS is a complex beast* and how can I hope to find the source of the problem. :(

* E.g., as I'm aware there is no bulletproof demonstration in favor (or against) turning Page File off. :confused:
 
The one thing I can pinpoint: when the problem randomly occurs (about every 10 minutes) it almost immediately gets remedied by CTRL+ALT+DEL.
As if something/somebody was saying "Hey, gotta be careful now ... they're watching me!".:)
 
have you tried a new mouse? I have had mouse buttons die before.......or work intermittently
 
It is unlikely that two mice would "die" at the same time (above I said that I also tried with wired mouse).

I (think I) have pin-pointed the cause: it is Mozilla Firefox or something related to it (e.g. a hidden toolbar)!

What is happening: first tabs and all above it works fine, while the site below doesn't respond (double click doesn't select a word, mouse cursor doesn't change when hovering a hyperlink, etc.) ... and then ... it reverses: site works, but tabs and above don't. :eek:

I'll avoid Firefox for a while and see. Is IE8 a reasonable browser now? :)
 
It is unlikely that two mice would "die" at the same time (above I said that I also tried with wired mouse).

I (think I) have pin-pointed the cause: it is Mozilla Firefox or something related to it (e.g. a hidden toolbar)!

What is happening: first tabs and all above it works fine, while the site below doesn't respond (double click doesn't select a word, mouse cursor doesn't change when hovering a hyperlink, etc.) ... and then ... it reverses: site works, but tabs and above don't. :eek:

I'll avoid Firefox for a while and see. Is IE8 a reasonable browser now? :)

Again, does this behavior occur in safe mode? I never saw an answer.

Avoiding Firefox is not the solution. It sounds like you have some nasty spyware gone haywire or a virus. You shouldn't be avoiding the problem, but trying to track it down.

You should look for: what programs are starting in msconfig (identify anything that doesn't look familiar). Google anything that doesn't look familiar.

Get Malwarebytes to do a scan (it's the best spyware program right now IMO).

Lastly, if that doesn't lead to a solution, a log posting from Hijackthis might help the forum figure it out.
 
Again, does this behavior occur in safe mode? I never saw an answer.
The mouse-cursor-not-responsive problem persisted in safe mode (though less pronounced).
He did.

Courteous, download this program and do a full scan. It's arguably the best Malware remover on the market, and it's free. Make sure you run an update first, then do a full scan.

Also, with the browser issues you are having it sounds like you may be suffering from being hijacked. If the Malwarebytes program doesn't do anything for you, I would suggest running a program called Hijackthis and pasting the log file here for someone to look at. This program basically looks at everything that is running in your browser and allows it to be removed, but can also remove good things. So make sure you only 'fix' stuff you know is bad.
 
Hello,
first of all: thank you.

I've run Malwarebytes and found 2 trojans: infected folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\downld and file F:\System Volume Information\_restore{...}\RP759\A0180407.exe. Reboot needed for latter.

Will see if these two were indeed the culprits. :)

Thanks again.
 
Hello,
first of all: thank you.

I've run Malwarebytes and found 2 trojans: infected folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\downld and file F:\System Volume Information\_restore{...}\RP759\A0180407.exe. Reboot needed for latter.

Will see if these two were indeed the culprits. :)

Thanks again.

I have to hand it to you, you've been tackling this since April 16, lol

I would have long formatted and reinstalled by now.
 
I have to find out what is really happening behind the scenes.
And it's not re-installing OS, it's those apps. ;) And if I'm to fresh install Windows 7 on new SSD, couldn't this issue carry itself there?

Here is a beautiful thread Windows XP: Intermittent pauses, "System" process causing CPU spikes that in two pages successfully pointed to either printer ports (!) or overwhelmed PCI bus.

CPU spikes (that in the end cause mouse stop responding, though still moving) still occur: "trojans" (Malwarebytes found two) are, it seems, inferior to carelessly crafted printer drivers. :D
 
Be sure to look through msconfig and find anything that doesn't look familiar (Sometimes random letters...look for what the .exe is named associated with it). Some viruses / malware needs that plus a google search to know how to remove it.

I've only had one thing that was unshakable - XP Antivirus 2009, back in 08...I've cleaned up PCs from a hundred viruses / malware...manually looking through the msconfig is important to catch every thing. I think Malwarebytes will shake XP AV 2009 now.
 
Got another HDD laying around?? If so, reload Windows on a new drive and see if it persists. Post back! :)
 
I think this is related to the problem, but don't know how ... picture of an extremely long RMB menu:

Almost an Loch Ness monster. :)
 
Back
Top