Mouse disabled on computer 1

[electronicsfreak]

I recently got a computer to work on that was given to a friend of mine. It came from his brother in law, from one of his business computers. Well I have been having a hard time figuring out what is disabling the mouse. I can remote connect, use a mouse that way, anything usb works except the mouse, and I have tested the mouse on another computer to make sure it was not bad.

Plus when the mouse connects into a different usb port, it works for about 2-3 seconds, then locks back up. If you view device manager, you will see it appear there for a few seconds, then disappear as if it was never there.

Any clues to what is doing this?

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[linney]

If you show hidden devices in Device Manager (or boot into Safe Mode) does the Mouse show up in there? Does it work from Safe Mode?

If you uninstall any Mouse listed in Device Manager, reboot (perhaps forcibly - no Mouse) and let Windows rediscover the Mouse and freshen up the driver it may fix it.

 

[flyboytim]

Windows XP has somewhat buggy USB handling. Make sure you are running service pack 3. Even then, some USB devices may remain wrongly enumerated.
In Device Manager, choose View, then hidden devices. Under Human Interface Devices, Mice and other pointing devices, and Universal Serial Bus Controllers, you may find several duplicated entries that are greyed out, which can be deleted. They should be recreated with valid entries when the USB device - in this case a mouse, but it could be a printer, scanner, mass storage device or webcam etc., is plugged back in. Microsoft standard device drivers for these usually work without problems, although special features require the Original device manufacturers drivers or control panel/taskbar applet.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Linney - I tried safe mode, same thing. As for uninstalling it, you cant. It does not show a mouse at all in device manager. I am pretty sure there is some type of security program running on there that was intentionally put to disable the mouse.

flyboytim - I could not find anything listed on the mouse.

Now other usb devices do work, whatever it is , just targets the mouse.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[linney]

Have you tested with a different user?

Some general things to try.

See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with the Mouse.


Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Try it first by not checking either box (this will run it in a Read-only mode) to see if it flags any hard drive or file problems. If it does, restart it by ticking both boxes, and rerun it to allow it to attempt to fix any found problems.


Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

Have a look in the Bios to see if there is anything in there that concerns USB or the Mouse. Maybe there is a Bios update that you could consider trying.

If they don't work you could try repairing windows by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/en-us

 

[linney]

One other thought, is the Mouse supposed to plug in to the Keyboard rather than the rear of the computer?

 

[Sympology]

Silly question, there is no drive encryption on this laptop is there?

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[electronicsfreak]

There was an encryption program on there that I removed. I think they have a gpo or something disabling it. I am about to run mmc and see if I can override the gpo. As I am starting to think they either disabled it that way, or via registry. I am pretty sure it was disabled on purpose by the company who owned the machine.

I have not thought about trying other accounts, although I am on the administrator one.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[BadBigBen]

E-freak, you mentioned that the mouse works for a few minutes then cuts out/locks up... right?

does the light go out from the mouse or does it still stay on? perhaps it is a powersave option, e.g. XP cutting the power to the port...

have you tried to use a PS/2 adapter or PS/2 mouse to see if it behaves the same?

have you switched mice, to see if it is just that mouse that is causing problems?

also see if there is a BIOS update, I have system that would loose my gaming mouse on every second boot, until I did an update...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[electronicsfreak]

Its a trackball, so there are no lights. It works fine, as I already tried it on my computer to verify, plus I use it all the time when working on other computers. As far as xp cutting power to the usb, the usb works fine. I have already connected a keyboard and jump drive to the usb. I have also switched them around.

As far as trying a ps2 adapter, that I have not tried. Nor have I tried switching the mouse. I'll give that a try.

I honestly do not think its the bios, but I could be wrong. To me, this just seems/feels like a type of security program that disables the mouse. But that is just my thoughts on it lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[tlcscousin]

Look at this key in the registry and see if one references the mouse.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

 

[edfair]

You could disable all startup stuff using msconfig as a first step in tracking what is causing the issue. Or just look at the startup stuff to see if there is anything strange added near the bottom of the list.

Whatever is monitoring the mouse software would be visisble in the task manager. You could trace what the different things listed there really do or kill them (risking crash).

If you know when the issue started you could look in \windows or \w..\system \w..\system32 for something added about that date.

I would assume that you could monitor the mouse software in task manager. It should show up there for about the same time that it shows in DM. When I've been hit by malware that affects parts of the system I've left TM on the screen while monitoring what happens when processes are halted.
Might also be a good idea to go through the list of tasks running to see if there are any strange ones. May require so web searching to find what some of them do.



Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[electronicsfreak]

When I hooked up a usb to ps2 converter, it started working. I have no clue why it will not work on usb, but it works via ps2 so I am happy.

Thanks everyone

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon