Odd mouse behavior - moves on its own

[monton]

Occasionally my mouse pointer drifts across the screen without the mouse moving at all. It is a wired ms scroll wheel mouse. Occasionally the scroll feature kicks in and a web page will scroll rapidly up and down when I move the mouse. Multiple clicks and mouse movements usually get it under control.
The drift movement runs right to left and then stops before the edge of the screen.
Sound familiar to anyone? An annoyance mostly. Not in any particular program.

Is there a fix?

Monton

 

[Nodsu]

See if the thing is plugged in firmly. If you are using a USB-to-PS/2 adapter, try without. Try with another mouse?

 

[mscrx]

this can also happen if the underground is reflecting

 

[torahulagarwal]

hi

clean the mouse rollers near the mouse ball.

 

[mscrx]

is it a ball mouse??? if so then forget the reflecting underground *lol*

 

[Bigfellla]

My bet is you are getting a positive feedback loop from the surface you are using it on. Try using a (different) mousepad.

 

[Tedster]

this can be caused by reflection (if a laser mouse), dirt (on a ball), loose connections, etc...

 

[Stuff_]

Also if it's optical i've had dust accumulate around the camera causing it to read the dust as movement, so give it a clean down there so to speak.

I've had the wheel thing go mad on it's a few times but this does not happen often and as you said a few clicks or rolling the wheel sorts it.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Chuck it if it annoys you - I would not put up with random movement or scrolling.
You could try reinstalling any drivers that came with it - check in the device manager that it is the right mouse listed, perhaps?

 

[Nodsu]

Could someone please explain how dirty rollers or a reflective surface cause spontaneous cursor movement across the screen or click/wheel events?

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Gunge on the rollers can cause wind-up (no, I'm not winding you up, Nodsu!) but hairs and the like round the rollers can make it unwind. Dunno about optical mice unless they are on a gradient.
A thought - I have seen very bright light stop a mouse in it's tracks. Maybe that is the problem here?

 

[monton]

Problem solved

Sorry not to provide all the necessary info to begin with. It is a wired MS PS2 mouse. Another symptom was when wheel scrolling a web page it would cause the page to suddenly scroll all the way up or down or jump all over the place. I've never seen anything like it.
I clean the rollers fairly often (although imagining pulling the mouse back and letting it go scooting across the desk like a toy was entertaining).
This is how I fixed it. I pulled the case out far enough to reach the PS2 plug. I gently but firmly removed the plug, untangled the wire, gently lifted the mouse, turned around and threw it in the spare parts box. I happened to have a brand spankin' new USB mouse laying around. Plugged it in and after a few moments was recognized and works flawlessly - as it should.
So problem solved although I don't know for sure if it was a mouse or port problem. I'll investigate that and post back.
Thank you all for your input
Monton

 

[AlbertLionheart]

monton, I admire the decisive action in disposing of the iffy mouse - but the spares box?

 

[Nodsu]

Hmm.. I do hope that you turned off the PC first. PS/2 devices are not supposed to be hot-pluggable and in my experience the machine crashes hard every five times or so when hot-(un)plugging PS/2 devices.

 

[Kahntraversi]

I have the same problem as monton. My cursor keeps scrolling to the corners of the screen. Unfortunatly, I have a laptop, and i dont use a seperate mouse. Ive taken off all the keys to clean it, but that didnt help. Ive run out of ideas, short of throwing my laptop out the window.

Any suggestions?

 

[AlbertLionheart]

First visit the makers website and download the latest touchpad driver set.
Uninstall the driver for the touchpad and then replace using the new set.
If this fails to fix it you will need to replace it - how hard that is will depend on the make but the worst means replacement of the whole top deck of the machine which is a pain. Sometimes better to use a mouse from here on,
Best of luck.

 

[Kahntraversi]

old computer blues

Apparently, my laptop is so old, that i cant just replace the touchpad, i have to replace the entire system.

I guess ill try cleaning it out, in case that helps.
I also got a mouse, so its not a big problem
thanks for the suggestion