Strange mouse behaviour

[mancroft]

Using XP Pro.

To cut a long story short:

the mouse - an ordinary one with a cable and a little plug with a round bit at the end NOT a USB - started playing up... on the desktop it automatically grabbed an area as if to highlight it when it was moved and although it continued to move across the screen when requested to do so but stopped being able to click on the buttons/links etc.

So I put in another mouse... wireless with USB and that works fine.

It appears that the new mouse is using the same driver as the old one... I didn't add a new driver.

Also the i went through the control panel mouse link and it said that the old mouse was functioning even though it wasn't.

Any idea as to what the problem might be?

Sorry this is a bit rambling.

 

[electronicsfreak]

If you put in a new mouse and its working fine, the old mouse is dead. So id assume it was just dying when it was doing that.

 

[cmeagan656]

Was your old mouse a ball mouse? Before I switched everyone to optical (I upgraded their computers and monitors too - had lots of $$$ in the IT budget last year) I used to have users coming to me with the same issue you had.

The problem was that the mouse needed a good cleaning. A lot of the users were eating at their desks plus the mouse was picking up lint and other crud from the mousepads.

Cheers.