OK, so check this out... At home I have a wireless optical mouse. I've 
had it for several years now, and it has always worked perfectly.

However, a few weeks ago I reinstalled Windoze. And ever since that 
point in time, the mouse hasn't worked properly. Most of the time it 
works normally, but every now and then it suddenly stops working 
completely. The light on the base station still twinkles when I move it 
or press the buttons, but the computer fails to respond. (Keyboard 
commands work, just not mouse commands.)

The *only* thing that fixes this condition is a reboot. No amount of 
reconnecting the USB cable has any effect.

Obviously, this is intensely frustrating, far beyond my powers of 
description. Last night I was playing an official TF2 match, and my 
mouse quit working. That means I now can't shoot, steer, look around, or 
talk to my teammates over Ventrillo.

[In spite of this - and much to my amusement - I managed to actually 
capture a control point. Basically I staggered in there sideways and 
nobody tried to stop me. And my teammates had done almost all the work 
first... Basically the two teams clashed, everybody died, and then I 
stumbled in. What fluke!]

Anyway, does *anybody* have *any* idea why reinstalling Windoze has made 
my mouse malfunction so badly??

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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> Anyway, does *anybody* have *any* idea why reinstalling Windoze has made 
> my mouse malfunction so badly??

I would check the drivers for the mouse, USB ports and any other "mainboard" 
type drivers.  There might be some different version now than before the 
reinstall.

Then I'd try a different mouse, just to see.

When it stops working, is the mouse still "there" (ie in device manager) or 
does Windows think it has gone?

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>> Anyway, does *anybody* have *any* idea why reinstalling Windoze has 
>> made my mouse malfunction so badly??
> 
> I would check the drivers for the mouse, USB ports and any other 
> "mainboard" type drivers.  There might be some different version now 
> than before the reinstall.

When I originally installed Windoze, I used the CDs that came in the 
box. However, I now have a dual-core CPU, and [I forget exactly what 
happened] I couldn't get Windoze to work properly without using the 
latest motherboard drivers. Go figure.

So, new motherboard drivers. (The mouse itself doesn't have any drivers 
- or rather, it does, but I've never used them. The drivers are to 
activate the 15 buttons that I don't use. 3 buttons is enough for me...)

> Then I'd try a different mouse, just to see.

Yeah, if I had one...

> When it stops working, is the mouse still "there" (ie in device manager) 
> or does Windows think it has gone?

It's very hard to check.

10 years ago, I used a sophisticated operating system called AmigaOS. It 
was possible to operate this without a mouse, because there was a set of 
keyboard shortcuts for moving the mouse pointer and clicking mouse 
buttons. However, to my absolute frustration [indeed, near rage], 
Windoze doesn't appear to support such a feature. So you have to guess 
what keyboard shortcuts every individual program uses [assuming it 
provides any at all]. Grrr!!

I do have a very vague recallection that maybe I had the mouse plugged 
into the PS/2 port before, whereas now it's in a USB port. However, I 
*cannot* find the USB-PS/2 adaptor anywhere, so...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> When it stops working, is the mouse still "there" (ie in device manager) 
>> or does Windows think it has gone?
> 
> It's very hard to check.
> 
> 10 years ago, I used a sophisticated operating system called AmigaOS...

Try this:
 
Windows + Break/Pause (or go through My Computer to control panel)
Right arrow key twice
Tab
Space
Tab

Then use the arrow keys (right is expand) to search through.

It's the same in all windows programs that use standard forms.

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:478b4cd5$1@news.povray.org...

> 10 years ago, I used a sophisticated operating system called AmigaOS. It 
> was possible to operate this without a mouse, because there was a set of 
> keyboard shortcuts for moving the mouse pointer and clicking mouse 
> buttons. However, to my absolute frustration [indeed, near rage], Windoze 
> doesn't appear to support such a feature. So you have to guess what 
> keyboard shortcuts every individual program uses [assuming it provides any 
> at all]. Grrr!!

The keybaord shortcuts are the letters that are underlined when you press 
the "Alt" key.

Fyi You can always use "Tab" and the arrow keys to scroll between 
highlighted options and Space-Bar to select.

To get Windows to always underline the shortcuts without using a mouse:
press the Windows button (between L-Ctrl and L-Alt)
Navigate to Control-Panel with the arrow keys.
Navigate to "Appearance and Themes" and then "Display"
Press "Tab" until the top tabs is highlighted.
Now use your < > arrow keys to navigate to "Appearance"
Press "Tab" untill "Effects" is highlighted and press the Space Bar.
Press "Tab" untill "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation untill I 
press the Alt key"

I hope this helps...

-- 
-Nekar Xenos-

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Invisible wrote:

> Anyway, does *anybody* have *any* idea why reinstalling Windoze has made 
> my mouse malfunction so badly??

Because Windows is as buggy as an outhouse in the summer?

Regards,
John

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Tried new batteries?

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The Afro wrote:
> Tried new batteries?

If it was the batteries,

1. The receive light wouldn't be twinkling.

2. Rebooting the PC wouldn't fix the problem.

3. It wouldn't have suddenly started happening at exactly the time I 
changed some software.

FWIW, yes, I have changed the batteries several times. However, usually 
when the batteries fail, the mouse starts to gradually move slower than 
usual before actually stopping. This is quite different...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:478b4cd5$1@news.povray.org...

> I couldn't get Windoze to work properly without using the
> latest motherboard drivers. Go figure

Why does that surprise you?

"Hi, I'd like you to run on this motherboard, but I'm not going to tell you
what it does or how to make it do anything"

> So, new motherboard drivers. (The mouse itself doesn't have any drivers
> - or rather, it does, but I've never used them. The drivers are to
> activate the 15 buttons that I don't use. 3 buttons is enough for me...)

Try installing them anyway. It might be that the default drivers aren't
totally compatible with your mouse.

> > When it stops working, is the mouse still "there" (ie in device manager)
> > or does Windows think it has gone?
>
> It's very hard to check.
>
> 10 years ago, I used a sophisticated operating system called AmigaOS. It
> was possible to operate this without a mouse

Windows isn't that hard to run without a mouse. Some apps have poor
shortcuts, but most do have them. I recall the fun of using my university
machine (win 98) for a week without a mouse, after I poured coffee over the
mouse.

I just tried to get to the device manager without using the mouse, Took
around 20 keystrokes.
There are just a few useful shortcuts that you need to remember
Ctrl-Esc opens the start menu. (as does the win key if you have that)
Alt-spacebar brings up the move/resize menu for any window
Tab moves you from pane to pane in things like device manager or explorer
and from one anchor to another in a web browser

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> 3. It wouldn't have suddenly started happening at exactly the time I 
> changed some software.

Why not?

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