Why is my mouse so sluggish?

May 19, 2004 2:59 PM

Does anyone know why my mouse is so sluggish?

A few days after I replaced my hard drive, my old mouse started to be quite sluggish -- I had to press on it hard to get it the cursor to move and even then the cursor would sometimes stop 3/4 of the way across the screen or unexpectedly move in directions I didn't direct. I just figured "well, its time for a new mouse" as the old one was 5 or 6 years old. However, the new mouse is acting in exactly the same way as my old one ... sometimes fine, but more and more often its sluggish or it gets stuck at one spot on the screen and it takes everything I've got to get it to move. We've also replaced the mouse pad, and have mucked around with the obvious mouse settings in Windows, to no avail. Does anyone have other ideas? I'm not prepared to drop $30 or $40 on a super-high tech mouse....

posted by anastasiav to technology (9 comments total)

Was Windows reinstalled when the drive was replaced? What version of Windows are you using? Have you cleaned your mouse? We want more info!
posted by crunchburger at 3:54 PM on May 19, 2004

Oh, I see...you have tried a new mouse...I'll quit being coy: I think you need to reinstall the mouse drivers, and/or configure the new install to use the right driver. In the Windows Control Panel, there will eventually be a tab with information on installed drivers for hardware, and which are the default.
posted by crunchburger at 3:56 PM on May 19, 2004

Yes, Windows was reinstalled - I run Windows 98 (I have a bit of important software which doesn't work with newer Windows versions).

The Control Panel folder gives me an option for "mouse" which doesn't have anything about drivers on it. Any chance you can be a bit more specific about where I would find info on installed drivers for hardware?
posted by anastasiav at 4:12 PM on May 19, 2004

Do you have the system resource meter installed? If not, install it, it's an optional windows component. Then run it and see what's going on in terms of your system resources when you move your mouse around.

Sidebar: can your important software be run in Windows XP using the Compatibility option set to Windows 98?
posted by linux at 4:25 PM on May 19, 2004

If your mouse is battery-operated, I'll say that those are the exact symptoms that tell me when it's time to replace my cordless optical mouse's batteries.
posted by Hildago at 4:26 PM on May 19, 2004

Did the new mouse come with a CD?
posted by crunchburger at 4:32 PM on May 19, 2004

ball or optical? usb?

spyware?
posted by Hackworth at 5:21 PM on May 19, 2004

white or brown mouse?

I have seen this behaviour many times and it is always fixed by either updating drivers or (in extreme cases) by re-installing windows - a simple install-over-existing-installation works without making you re-install everything else as well. I don't, however, know why it happens.
posted by dg at 6:22 PM on May 19, 2004

I've seen it, too. Sometimes you need to actually *uninstall* the drivers or roll back to a previous version. Microsoft "Intellimouse" seems really bad about this. Usually if you uninstall the drivers and any mouse applications, and just install a generic Windows mouse driver, all will be well.
posted by sixdifferentways at 10:16 PM on May 20, 2004