Mouse cursor makes my computer freeze, why?

My computer is almost brand new, and quite the powerhouse, but for some reason, using the mouse will make the computer freeze up. No blue screen of death, no error messages, it just dies and dosen't respond to ANYTHING. I can't ctrl+alt+del at all, and even pinging this machine from another (business intranet) results in lost packets (100% loss everytime.)

Here is my system's configureation (this is our main server, too):

Asus P4P800-E Deluxe MB
Pentium 4 2.6GHz w/ 800 MHz FSB
2.0 GB of RAM
OLD video card (not graphics, just an old-school type vid card)
OLD CD-ROM drive (i think 32x, but nothing special with it)
OLD floppy disk drive
Dell keyboard (standard)

The solutions I have tried are numerous. First I thought if I changed drivers, nothing. New mouse, went from a PS/2 mechanical mouse to a USB optical mouse, complete with new drivers, no change still. IRQ settings, seem ok, but I didn't look too deeply into that. DMA channels, seem ok.

So, if this was some simple issue like a bad PS/2 port, I can understand, but using the keyboard to navigate my whole machine is getting a little annoying. Any suggestions from anyone?

AdamΠ

Hey,

Tried booting with-out a mouse at all? what about a re-install of your OS?

try them out!

rebooting without a mouse at all is what i have going right now....
it dosen't freeze, but if i plug the USB mouse in, it installs, waits about an hour, then freezes on me again. reinstalling the OS isn't too much of an option since this is the main controller for our domain so 1) loss of TONS of vital data, and 2) extreme downtime for the entire company. neither one is a good option at all.

i should mention, because i see now i didn't before, but when it freezes, it is ALWAYS while the mouse (and pointer) is in motion, and when it freezes the pointer disappears (which is my first indication that it's frozen again)

AdamPI

What is an old-school type vid card? I suppose that it is not so much mouse itself as video functions or specs that cannot catch up with recent Direct Draw and its memory can't keep up with the display resolution. Hence freeze.

In addition, too incongruous configurations might cause various unexpected results.

First, an "old-school vid card" is simply a VGA output card, no graphics acceleration or computing, no on-board processor or memory for video computation. Just an output and that's it.

What is funny, though, is my first thought is that the problem was caused by the vid card, but changed my thoughts when i unplugged the mouse and recieved positive results. However Megumi, you make a very good point about the Direct Draw components. I will try a new card and even try to de-resolve the pointer, see if it helps. Thanks and check back, i'll post a solution if i find one.

AdamPI

You said your machine is a for a business network, so then it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I don't know anyone who uses a server machine to do work while its hosting a network, servers are just meant to sit in a very tall case in a very dark room working like crazy all day. LOL. Whats with the little problem like the mouse?

ran into this before.. but im not quite sure how i fixed it.. have you tried any other ps/2 mice?

First of all, we don't have any other machines, nor any desire to purchase a new machine for me, especially since i'm leaving in about 8 weeks for school. So i DO use it regularly. And even if I didn't need to use it on a regular basis, it would be easier to use when minor things needed to be changed.

I have not tried another PS/2 mouse, but I really don't think that's going to change anything. It would be a huge help if you could remember how you fixed it before Archer. Thanks either way though.

AdamPI

Ok, here is the solution as I have been able to fix it. This will hopefully help some people in the future, but will also make me sould 100% stupid, but mistakes are made and I'm no superhero.

Windows 2000 does NOT support hyper-threading. DO NOT TURN IT ON if you are running Win2k. This is what my problem was. If you have similar problems, are running Win2k, 98, 95, ME, dos, win 3.11, etc. turn it off in your bios and praise the Lord for better results

adampi

Several weeks ago my mouse started to freeze up after booting up. Seems the longer I left the computer off..the longer the mouse would go before freezing up. I have windows 98...and have had this computer a long time...so I thought the hard drive was going bad. Replaced hard drive..same problem. Got new mother board...same problem.

Got new video card...no more freeze up. Turns out my video card went bad.

I have been talking to a lot of people lately that tell me how thier mouse is freezing up...I tell them how I fixed my freezing mouse. Im waiting to see how they fix thiers. Im wondering if their is a virus going around that disables video cards.

Avisanna

Viruses of the sort are always an issue. And while a virus that disables actual circuit boards would be pretty close to, if not impossible. The chances of a video card being fried during power fluxuations and general old age are very common, especially for older cards. Even if you have a surge protector, it's not 100% guarenteed to protect against absolutely everything. Although I have no scientific proof, I am sure that I have had cards go bad when there is a DROP in power as well as a surge. Household electricity is also alternating current (AC) thus spikes in the power are EXPECTED to happen every so often, and if they aren't powerful enough to reach a "surge" level, a surge protector won't trip. For some reason vid cards seem to be the most damaged buy such power fluxuations, so it's not a rarity to see them go bad. The only way to really protect your computer 100% (well more like 99%) would be to get a battery backup (or UPS, Uninteruptable Power Supply) because then all power surges will simply feed the battery's power instead of directly to your machine.

With my computer here, the full fix was to turn of Hyper Threading AND replace the vid card. Since then my problem has disappeared completely.

AdamPI

(^^;(I'm happy for you. Nobody would have thought of it.)

Hyper-threading seems to do nasty to other things (midi drivers, serial devices, etc.) beside your case. Some makers is preparing the patch for their PC or devices against Hyper-thread or warning that it must be disabled. But no information about mouse.