About Gary Housknecht Expertise common keyboard shortcuts; internet keyboard functionality; use shift key to undo caps lock; reassign key functions; wireless keyboard questions
Experience 10+ years PC software and hardware tech support.
Expert: Gary Housknecht Date: 11/19/2004 Subject: death of a mouse!
Question recently I have hoticed that my optical mouse is freezing while I am in the midst of doing something. The mouse is lighted during this time. I have checked the connections and they seem to be OK. the mouse becomes functional again if I shut down and re-boot. Could this have anything to do with the XP Operating System. I recently loaded XP SP2 onto the computer from a CD obtained directly from Microsoft. Any clue as to the problem? I hate XP by the way, and believe it to be one of the worst, unnessarily cumbersome operating systems Microsoft has ever perpetrated on us!
Thank you.
Answer The optical mouse depends on two things to function properly. First is for it to have fresh batteries. Just before the batteries run out completely and before the system notifies you the batteries are needing replaced, the weakened batteries can cause such malfunction as you describe. Second, the placement of your signal sending device must be several inches away from metallic objects, especially electric/PC devices. The mouse can function ok for times and freeze at other times. Check to be sure these two factors are not the problem.
WinXP has nothing to do with the problem unless you do not have the correct device driver installed for your optical mouse. By the way ... In my experience (dating back to even before Windows 3.0), WinXP is the very best system ever. WinXP 'home' edition, however, is a nightmare. If you have WinXP Home, then I agree with you.
After you are sure about the first two items I mentioned and the driver is correct and you still have this problem, it might be time to look at the mouse itself as the problem.
