Desperate and at my witts end.....

[Ledbetter1]

Hi everyone. Before I tell you my problem Ill give you some hardware specs.
I have an Alienware system that I bought in 2005.
Motherboard - ASUS P5GD1-VM 915MB REV 1.06
Processor - Pentium 4 3.4KGHZ 1MB 800 FSB LGA775
RAM - 2 x 512 MB DDR PC3200LL
HDD - Deskstar 160 GB 8MB Cache SATA
Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeFORCE 8500GT 512 MB

Here is my problem,
About 4 months ago I noticed that any time I had a window opened that contained a scrollbar the window would begin randomly scrolling like crazy. This isnt just the case with a scrollbar, but I also noticed any time I wanted to view a picture in windows picture viewer all of a sudden then view would zoom in and out and then start scrolling like crazy. Now, for some reason, if I move the mouse pointer onto the task bar or to the top of the window, out of the scrollable area, the random scrolling stops. Because of this I have not been able to do any schoolwork or image editing for months. Imagine every time you go to click on a file and the screen shoots up or down like a madman........FRUSTRATING. I have tried Alienware's support hotline to no avail. I myself have done all of the following to remedy the problem:

*Tried multiple mice and keyboards
*Disconnected all peripherals, rebooting and then reconnecting one at a time and in different combinations
*Replaced my graphics card
*tried booting the system with only one memory stick at a time
*reinstalled Windows completely
*Purchased a program called Driver Genius and updated all drivers for all system components and peripherals
*booted in safe mode with all peripherals disconnected
*cleaned inside the chassis
*checked to make sure all expansion cards and components were properly seated or connected
*checked all cables and connections

I am at my witts end here. If I cant fix this then this system is going out the window. I BEG anyone who might know what the problem is to help me. I will pay you if need be. I just want this fixed. Does anyone know what might be causing this? Has anyone ever had or heard of a similar problem before? I will be eternally grateful to anyone who may be able to help.

I also must mention, I use AntiVir anit-virus software. It is updated and I run frequent system scans. If I have a virus it has not detected it.

[awaj]

what Operating system (OS) do you have on it? If you are currently not using some flavor of Linux, you could try using a live cd. you can choose several, I personally like Ubuntu (found here). the downside to that is you need to burn an ISO. thankfully, there are free ISO burners, one of which is found here.

You now restart with the CD in, and you can run the OS completely off of the CD. after using the live CD for a while (it may be a bit slower then installing it due to running off the CD instead of the hard drive.) and not re-creating the problem, it is now narrowed down to the OS you have installed on your system.

[Sylvander]

At one time I got the same strange effects until I figured out the cause...
On my own PC at least.

My fancy wireless mouse has a scroll wheel between the left and right buttons.
If I press the wheel [used to press it unknowingly, unaware what the effect would be]...
Then a special circular symbol appears...
And when I move the cursor above the symbol the scroll bar moves up [the screen scrolls up]...
And when I move the cursor below the symbol the screen scrolls down.

Similarly in a photo display window.
If I press/release the scroll wheel...
Then if I spin the wheel forward the image zooms in...
If I spin it back the image zooms out.

And all of that is with nice sensible configurations for the cursor speed of movement in the mouse properties.
If you were to adjust the speed of pointer motion to "Fast" [Maximum], the motion would be CRAZY FAST.

Do all the mice you tried have such a scroll-wheel?
What about mouse configuration settings?

[Whyzman]

Have you tried opening one of the troublesome "viewer" images in paint?