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Intermittent mouse freeze

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by zookeeperz9

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I've been having problems with my trackmouse. It doesnt respond sometimes, for short periods or long. The cursor will move on its own sometimes. I've tried plugging in my serial mouse and it wont move the cursor either. The buttons will work on the mouse, but the movement gets interrupted. I've tried reinstalling the software and using other drivers to no avail. I get the same result whether its in the ps2 or usb port. I have no conflicts showing, the ps2 port uses irq 12. I'm thinking I might have a mother board or BIOS problem. Pentium2 Win98 Phoenix BIOS. This has been going on for a long time, but seems to have worsened. I keep my PC clean and secure...no spyware, use a regcleaner, Norton and Windows up to date. Right now my mouse is mostly working, but freezes for a second or two. Eventually it will freeze altogether. Sometimes defrag will bring it around. I've searched google for similar problems and havent found any.

11 replies

by thechas

Some more details about your system:

How much RAM
How much free hard drive space
What video card
Which version of IE

The reason I am asking, is that I have seen similar behavior on W98 systems with IE 6 and older video cards.

I ended up formatting my hard drive and going back to IE 5.5 to take care of the memory leaks and other problems that started when I installed IE 6.
They got worse with IE 6 SP1.

Also, if you updated to DirectX 9 to fix the security issue, and have an older video card, that can have similar issues.

Start by updating both the chip-set drivers for your motherboard, and the driver for your video card.

Check the notes at the video card manufactures site for your card and driver.
If the driver only supports DirectX 7 or 8, I would NOT install IE6 or DirectX 9 on your PC.

Chas

by thechas

The ATI Rage series drivers ONLY support DirectX 8.1 for W98.

I recommend dropping back to IE 5.5 and DirectX 8.

Yes, you will have security issues. You can take care of this by installing a firewall such as Zone Alarm.

First, try adding at least another 128MB of RAM.
With on-board video, you need more RAM than you do otherwise.
For W98, don't install more than 511MB of RAM, or you may trigger the large RAM bug.

You should be able to use add/remove programs to remove IE6 and go back to IE 5.5
If you do not have IE 5.5 SP2, it looks like the only source to download it is www.evelt.org

As to DirectX, to remove version 9, you will need to use one of the DirectX removal tools from the utilities section at www.tweakfiles.com
You will then need to re-install DirectX 8.1

Chas

by zookeeperz9

I have 96 MBs RAM, My 20 Gig HD is partitioned; my C drive has 1 gig free, but my E drive handles TEMP files,it has 2 gigs free. I don't have a video card...just the motherboard video, which is Rage and is updated. I have IE6SP.I also have DX9. I don't know how to update the chipsets for my motherboard.

by voldar

What you are telling here looks to me a mouse cable problem. Have you checked with an other mouse? I also had problems with a mouse that "gets wild" from time to time - freezing, opening a lot of programs - and I solved the problem by simply replacing it with another one. There is no drivers or memory problem.

by enbee_here

Hi..

Just from what you wrote ... that defrag will make it work for a while .. or how it slowly stops working as you use the computer ...
It's possible that you just need some more RAM.

Good luck
Enbee

by curacao_dejavu

I do agree with the biosupdate.
Look for the book of the motherboard to see which model it is, or you will have to open the case to look for the brand and model of the motherboard.
From there go to their website and look for the info of the motherboard and how to update the bios.

Success

Leopold

by rcom

When the mouse stops responding it usually isn't the mouse at all.

Worse case senario, is a failing hard drive. One thing that points to this as a cause is that it happens less after you defrag. The seek time is lessened for awhile.

Virus software has caused this problem. Try disabling and see if the performance issue stops..

by zar

did you try the obvious one? I mean cleaning the mouse. But seriously you definetly need more ram at least 128mb. 96 Mb will get you by but not without taxing yopu system. you problem can be cause by you systeman having to go to the page file because it?s out of ram.
Hence it will suck up all other resources while it?s doing this. if you can?t get more ram then change the poage file size I?cant recall hoy to do it in win98.

by zulj

Sounds like a problem with the mouse itself. Have you tried using that mouse on another system? Had a mouse here at work doing a similar thing on any pc I tested it on. If it does that then you'll probably have to replace the mouse.

by choppit

Another possibility is that your may be suffering the effects of RFI. I've seen a cheap mouse freeze/ randomly move the pointer when a mobile phone was placed in its vicinity. I've also seen a wireless NIC stutter when a bluetooth headset was nearby. Try the PC in a different location.

by eiloncantsay

I've had the same problem ... I've read all kind of responses including setting the USB to not shut power off for power saving purposes, reinstalling the drivers (both usb and mouse), i even bought a new mouse ... TWICE!!! none of these solutions worked. But i finally found a viable solution ... i installed the windows update for my computer (the thing that pops up as a reminder occasionally) and low and behold my mouse (the original one) worked like a charm. it does not hang anymore and i don't have to move it around every once in a while for it to start responding again. So remember, just install the latest windows update. I believe by doing that you are cleaning up whatever was corrupting the mouse driver to begin with and maybe even refreshes the windows driver library.
CHEERS!

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