Mouse Floating off-screen
 

Anybody know why the mouse just up and evolves a mind of its own, floating around and only every now and again becoming controllable? Not a wireless mouse, but I've seen them do it too..

When using an optical mouse, this often occurs when using it on a surface that is shiny and reflective, an sometimes on white glossy surfaces.

Optical mice basically use a small camera to detect movement, and if they can't "see" enough detail or texture detected motion can be erratic, with the pointer jumping around and tracking in jerky movements. With reflective surfaces, the camera sees itself, and chases itself resulting in the pointer heading off in a line to the edge of the screen.

From the mouse pointer options you can try de-clicking the box hide the pointer while typing...

Rwy in Sight

Has it just started happening? Can you tie it to any new software or a Windows update (assuming it's Windows)? Are you using a standard driver - is there a specific one from the manufacturer? Try updating the driver if you can.

Had something similar at one time - turned out to be a driver conflict with a new printer IIRC.

A bit more technical info might help ;).

Mose Floater
 

No new software or Win XP updates.
Mousepad is a sheet of newspaper.

Suspect that it is just a software interaction. However it is very temporal (i.e. sometimes it happens and sometimes no sign of it for hours). Once it goes nutz it just slides off-screen. I've seen it before and I've never managed to fix it. On my Dell 8000 I've got a green USB adapter plugging the mouse into the old circular mouseport (as a fix that works).

Therein lies your problem.

Optical mice work best with a solid background, the darker the better. A solid blue mousemat for example is better than a sheet of white A4 paper, which is already much better than an old sheet of newspaper !

Basically optical mice take "pictures" of the surface they are being moved over, which then get processed. Newsprint will only serve to confuse !

If you want to continue using your old newspaper, I suggest you try a "laser" mouse instead ...usually a bit more resilient. :cool:

This used to happen at work, on our Dell laptops.

The problem was the little mouse button (alternative to external mouse or touch pad) between the 'G' and 'H' keys.

In fact the exact problem was that the cable going to the little mouse button didn't have sufficient electrical shielding, and sometimes it would pick up electrical interference from the rest of the laptop and go haywire, sending the mouse pointer all over the screen.

Short term fix; disable the little mouse button in "Mouse Options".

Long term fix; call IT and get an engineer to fit a replacement keyboard - later units had an upgraded cable with better shielding.

RC

Not the newspaper...
 

Always used a magazine or newspaper on the arm of an armchair......

It happens with a Dell 8000, an HP laptop and a Toshiba TE2100 (upstairs office, downstairs office and lounge-room laptop). The three machines have different software on them (although all are Win XP OS'd).

Puzzling, but thanks for the feedback.

UNC