Cursor moves without mouse motion

[DelJo63]

Really bugs me. it's not correlated to what I'm working on (that I can tell),
but at any random time, the cursor will start moving without me touching
the mouse -- moving slightly up and to the left for some distance and then stop.

mouse is attached via usb front slot.

this is a NEW observation on a system that has been very stable
(running a full year now) and without new software being installed (3 months).

I believe there is a correlation to being online (which is almost always with hs broadband).
It appears that using Norton IS, I can disable all traffic and the
mouse will stop roaming about - - note, I have to use the mouse to click
the disable, so engaging the mouse for my self may be interferring.

antivirus (updated 2005-11-22) shows nothing
spybot s&d (upated 2005-11-18) shows nothing new
spywareblaster installed and updated

hijackthis log is attached

thanks for any insights or feedback on similar experiences.

Jeff

 

[IronDuke]

A couple wild guess suggestions:
Try one of the USB ports round the back or a powered hub if you have one to hand.
Try another browser to see if it still happens. Firefox or Opera are much better anyway.

If you haven't already check on the Norton site to see if it is a reported bug.

 

[DelJo63]

By online, I mean I have a connection; not necessarily using the browser
(It's Firefox 1.0.7) or having even launched it. It has happened when using
MS Word, Excel, and even Thunderbird.

 

[DelJo63]

cookie trojans??

the Ewido Security Suite found some contaminated cookies!!!

While scanning, I had Thunderbird, Firefox, Norton Log Viewer and Cygwin SH
running and sure enough... the cursor took off on its own without mouse inputs.

There were 39 infected objects found, and cookies from
http://www.statcounter.com were noted. It happens I was working on a web
page and the page counters from this site were installed ~2 weeks ago.
BEWARE! you often get what you pay for, and as these counter were free,
I guess they're looking for $$$ by other means.

Caveot Emptor! the cookie references were to the url at c7.statcounter.com

At first glance, I don't see how cookies could be actively moving the cursor
as these are reference data and do not contain active code. They could
be used to tell the server a browser is running and inbound crud (ie scripts)
might be triggered, however.

 

[IronDuke]

Has it stopped its wandering?

 

[DelJo63]

only time will tell.

upon finding 'trojan cookies', I went to Tools->options->cookes
and started pruning things I didn't recognize OR which were clearly
sites I didn't which to retain.

I'll post an update next week as to the effectiveness of the pruning.

btw: Only Ewido found the contaminated cookes. Spybot S&D did not!
kind of disappointed there.

 

[IronDuke]

Ewido is my choice. Good enough to splash out on. Runs all the time and keeps itself up-to-date.

 

[DelJo63]

This AM, I ran the Winsock reset cmd (log file attached)
just to purify the tcp stack. Side-effect was Runtime Error in C++ library
during startup, but system still runs.

In addition, before FF was launched, I had Thunderbird running and just guess...
the cursor started dancing!

This is getting fun!

 

[IronDuke]

How about changing the graphics drivers.

 

[DelJo63]

like I said, nothing has changed in a long while and I don't like to pick and poke
at the system without sound reason. I wasn't excited to run the winsock reset
command, but at least that had a worst case effect of going back to where it
all came from.

I have moved the mouse to another USB connector, but still see the motions.

My next effort will be to run only from the touch-pad to see if the mouse is
generating 'noise' from the environment or random junk.

I still see a hi correlation to 'being online' and thus my gut feeling is
some remote access/control is being perform (even though I'm fully firewalled).


more later ...

 

[DelJo63]

fyi: thought to be resolved

would appear to be solved by the application of alcohol+Qtip to the lense of the optical emitter and reflector. Has run several days w/o reoccurance.

guess there's some kind of refraction taking place around dirt/dust particles,
but I would think it to be more frequent occuring if so.

 

[IronDuke]

Ah! an optical mouse. Something worth remembering.

 

[standswithfist]

cursor moves by itself

The cursor on my laptop started to move by itself today. Not too much, but I can see it. The cursor on my old work computer went nuts tonight. I had a hard time working on it. It would stop after a while. That computer has not been on the net for almost a year. I have dl'ed on another computer and used a flash drive to install files on it. Went all the way to either side of the screen. The start menu came up.
It did that when I opened a IE screen. Stoped when I closed it. Reminds me of the old how to keep an ***** occupied program. (chasing the cursor) This had to been put on there a long time ago. My personal computer has c cleaner on it and I delete everything it says too. the old work computer has no virus checks anymore as it used to be on the work system net. I think we have another love virus type thing.

 

[LookinAround]

The case of the cursor with Parkinson's (which tends to move on its own in very jittery patterns)

In my own cases, I noticed 2 distinct outbreaks. The first one really had me worried about spyware but i traced them both to very innocent very-low-tech issues that are fixed easily.

Note: So i'm saying these 2 situations will definitely cause the symptoms you see. HOWEVER, i'm sure there are more then just these 2 situations.

1. Dirt build up is interfering with the mouse sensors. (I see joebeard also found this one). i also suggest Q-tips to dust and loosen up the dirt clogs, and then just blow using your mouth to try and get out any remaing particles. Apply this to laser, optical, and even the old track ball cursors. On track ball cursors,
   • you should find a small plate over the track ball. It both holds holds the track ball in and allows it to roll on table.
   • The plates can usually be turned to get them to unlatch and remove them
   • Take out the ball. Look for dirt build up. Usually one horizontal and one vertical. Clean them off gently. Now look iniside the mouse. You will see two (usually metallic rollers) These can get really filthy with hair even wrapping themselves around the rollers. They need a good cleaning too
2. I bought wireless mouse. Works great.
   • It has a small RF receiver i plug into a USB port and it all (usually) work great until,
   • My CPU should start and remain at 100% utillzation for for awhile, at those times my wireless mouse is sluggish to unresponsive as it competes for CPU cycles
   • But easy work aroiund here... i still keep my old PS2 optical mouse plugged in but let if sit tucked away BEHIND my computer so it's out of view but there and ready if needed.
   • At some point i noticed the parkinson cursor act again. Cause this time: the optical mouse i stash away has to be on an appropriate flat surface. In one case if fell off the space i had for it and fell onto the desk top glass so it was receiving/sending out confusing signals because it was just sitting on aglass surface and getting reflections from everywhich way! Moral: if having the problem double check what surfaces BOTH mice are sitting on at the moment

.

 

[Kahntraversi]

Hi. I have the same problem as jobeard, except i dont use a seperate mouse. I use my laptop's touchpad, and my cursor's moving on its own. I dont know how to safely get under my touchpad, so i havent cleaned it yet, but ive tried everything in the line of cleaning my hard drive.

Any Suggestions?

 

[Vegasvic]

Cursor moves by itself with no mouse attached

My neighbor came and got me to look at his PC. His cursor will move by itself every few minutes. The cursor will move back and forth or in random circles. Sometimes it will stop on a desktop icon and sometimes it will open the file. We disconnected from the internet as my neighbor thought a human was controlling his computer remotely. I disconnect the mouse and rebooted and the cursor still will move in the same random patterns by itself. Norton is up and running and updated. I'm a Mac guy and have only experienced this problem with a faulty mouse or some of the other hardware problems mentioned in this thread, but this problem continues with no mouse attached to the computer.