What's wrong with my mouse?
July 19, 2009 4:20 PM Subscribe
What's wrong with my mouse?
All of a sudden my mouse, on highlight and copy functions won't work. It won't highlight a full line, or lines, highlighted text drops out before I can copy, and otherwise is 'slippery.' Do I need a new mouse? Or is this a more systemic problem. The mouse is relatively new, Logitech, low end wired to USB port. I used to have a wireless mouse, it failed and I replaced it with the current cheapo one. I've searched online for the problem but have come up nothing at all helpful. Do I just buy a new mouse, or is there some cache, or file, or option I can fiddle with to fix the problem?
IF I buy a new mouse--what moderately priced one do you recommend?
All of a sudden my mouse, on highlight and copy functions won't work. It won't highlight a full line, or lines, highlighted text drops out before I can copy, and otherwise is 'slippery.' Do I need a new mouse? Or is this a more systemic problem. The mouse is relatively new, Logitech, low end wired to USB port. I used to have a wireless mouse, it failed and I replaced it with the current cheapo one. I've searched online for the problem but have come up nothing at all helpful. Do I just buy a new mouse, or is there some cache, or file, or option I can fiddle with to fix the problem?
IF I buy a new mouse--what moderately priced one do you recommend?
The best thing to do when a peripheral device like a mouse or a keyboard fails is to restart the computer.
That's because the hope of course is that there's something wrong with the software rather than something wrong with the mouse itself. If the problem is with the software, then it's almost certainly something having to do with the software that tells the computer how to connect to the mouse, which is called the driver. And furthermore if the problem is with the driver and if this problem happened all of a sudden - that is, you didn't turn it on and find it that way you were using it and suddenly this happened - then most likely part of the mouse driver suddenly crapped out for some reason.
If you turn off the computer and turn it back on, the computer will reload the drivers, and will at least try to reload the mouse driver. You may have already done this; I'm just making sure.
posted by koeselitz at 4:37 PM on July 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
That's because the hope of course is that there's something wrong with the software rather than something wrong with the mouse itself. If the problem is with the software, then it's almost certainly something having to do with the software that tells the computer how to connect to the mouse, which is called the driver. And furthermore if the problem is with the driver and if this problem happened all of a sudden - that is, you didn't turn it on and find it that way you were using it and suddenly this happened - then most likely part of the mouse driver suddenly crapped out for some reason.
If you turn off the computer and turn it back on, the computer will reload the drivers, and will at least try to reload the mouse driver. You may have already done this; I'm just making sure.
posted by koeselitz at 4:37 PM on July 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
...and, of course, if you've already tried restarting your computer, delmoi's suggestion is probably the next thing you should try. If you plug that mouse into another computer and it works fine, then you know it's not something wrong with the mouse - and you don't have to buy a new one.
posted by koeselitz at 4:40 PM on July 19, 2009
posted by koeselitz at 4:40 PM on July 19, 2009
While I don't have a solution, I can offer a data point. I've been having the same problem for a couple months, with what I suspect is the same mouse that you have - I have a low-end USB Logitech (this one), and it drops highlighted text before I've finished highlighting. If you have this same mouse, perhaps it really is just the mouse?
I'll be curious to see if anyone has a solution.
posted by pemberkins at 4:56 PM on July 19, 2009
I'll be curious to see if anyone has a solution.
posted by pemberkins at 4:56 PM on July 19, 2009
I had the same issue with an older Logitech mouse. Turns out the contact switch for the mouse button had worn a groove in the plastic. Maybe you have some gunk trapped in there that's preventing you from keeping the button down while moving the mouse?
posted by HFSH at 5:24 PM on July 19, 2009
posted by HFSH at 5:24 PM on July 19, 2009
Could be hardware, could be software.
One thing I have found to work, is simply plug the USB cable into a different port - sometimes that forces the driver to reinstall.
You might want to totally try and uninstall any software that came with the mouse before you try a new port (most often you don't need all the extra software anyways - Windows and USB mice are fairly generic and the basic driver installed by Windows is "good enough")
posted by jkaczor at 7:10 PM on July 19, 2009
One thing I have found to work, is simply plug the USB cable into a different port - sometimes that forces the driver to reinstall.
You might want to totally try and uninstall any software that came with the mouse before you try a new port (most often you don't need all the extra software anyways - Windows and USB mice are fairly generic and the basic driver installed by Windows is "good enough")
posted by jkaczor at 7:10 PM on July 19, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
What kind of computer do you have? You could try unplugging it and plugging it back in, or rebooting it. If you have another computer, you could try the mouse with that computer (It should work on a laptop)
posted by delmoi at 4:32 PM on July 19, 2009