This is driving us mad.

We run Win 95, relatively old PC, 166 Processor. Up til the last few weeks, our peripherals have been fine. Until recently, when our mouse has decided to play up. Running in general has always been slow, but it's a trusty lil machine.

Upon booting up, I got the message that the PC was not detecting a mouse. So I detatched it, REattached it firmly, closed down, and booted up again. Same message.

The mouse seemed to work fine though... for five minutes. Then it acted up again. When the pointer moves across the screen via the mouse, with my finger nowhere NEAR the buttons, it highlights everything, clicks on every drop down or pop up menu in it's path, or suddenly bounces to some odd location on the screen where you have to do a hide and seek to find the thing.. usually frozen for a few moments. It's given us headaches in PC games, when our characters jump for no reason, get stuck going in circles, or clicking on commands we were NOT intending on clicking.

I changed the mouse to another one. It decided to make every command go in multiples and go berserk. Chuck THAT idea.

I've defragged the entire C drive, which I've been taught to do every 6 mos or so... but no dice. I'm not a PC guru... It's working fine right NOW. *knock on wood* But I'm not liking having to resort to keyboard shortcuts to do my computing...

Need HELP...

K http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif

Have you installed any new hardware?
Is anything sharing the IRQ with the mouse?
Does the Mouse cable come near or in contact with an electrical transformer?
( Power supply for printer or the like)

It's sounds like a conflict to me.( IRQ sharing )
However I have seen the same behavior when an HP power supply for a printer was set next to a network cable and mouse cord. ( Killed the network connection and drove the mouse nuts)

PS/2 or serial mouse?

More often then not though a problem like you describe with then mouse can due to an accumulation of dust and dirt blocking the sensors in the mouse (a thorough clening by disassembly) or a wiring problem in the mouse (usually where the cord comes out) a replacement mouse (two button) can be had for under $10 if you look around and a somewhat upgraded mouse for under $20. If you can borrow another mouse give it a try, and report back.

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mjc
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468th Rule of Aquistion: Debugging of software is foolish, there is much profit in updates and upgrades.