XP Pro acting crazy on me

Good Afternoon to all.
(XP Pro with all updates downloaded)
For the last couple of weeks my mouse pointer would start zooming across the screen by itself and right clicking everything. It has only happened 4 or 5 times and it was with a different program open each time. The only way i could stop this wierd action was to ctrl-alt-delete and then i would regain control of the mouse pointer. After i closed the open windows all would be fine. First thing i thought of was a virus but i keep updated (AVG 7.0)and did an extra stop at PC Pitstop for an online scan and all was clear. The programs that were open at the time of the mouse pointer going crazy (all games) have since been uninstalled ('till i get to the bottem of this) and i thought i fixed the problem but yesterday it happened again with nothing opened, just the pointer on the desktop. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

 

Bad mouse? Can you try another one?

Bad mouse drivers? Can you delete the mouse from Device Manager and reboot to let it reload?

Some strange problems can be caused by

• Temporary Internet Files. From the browser and tools~internet option, delete yours.
• Spyware/malware can do some odd things to you and an AV program won't even see them. Ad-aware and Spybot are good, free apps to clean those off your system.
• start~run~cmd and then chkdsk /r (and answer Y(es) when told it can't be done now so do you want to do it at next reboot) and then reboot. Again, this will sometimes cure some strange and sudden problems.

If you've done all of that and still have a problem, post back. And the suggestions for cleaning the system aren't a bad idea even if things seem to be working OK.

 

Thanks Newt for the fast response. Right now i have a different mouse and will try the deleting of the mouse in device manager later this p.m.
I always delete files and cookies in ie and spybot has been on my machine for the last 2 years (updated) so i'am hoping that removing the mouse or trying chkdsk /r will take care of this prob.
Thanks again and i'll check back tomorrow with, i hope, good results.

 

Well, i tried the chkdsk /r and the mouse driver uninstall and after a reboot the first thing after windows loaded was the curser went crazy again on the desktop with no programs open. I was still able to ctrl-alt-del and it calmed itself down, then i closed the task manager window and all was well. I now have uninstalled all my programs that i have opened in the past month (ex. spybot, ie, and antivirus). Though it has been over 6 hours since the curser has gone crazy, i'am not very confident that the prob is cured. Any other ideas in mind? I will try them all. (i really do not want to reinstall xp, but if i had to .,.,.,.,.,.,.,) Thanks again.

 

Two things I can think of. Video drivers or maybe a joke program that someone sneaked into your startup folder. I've seen video drivers do some pretty wierd things with cursors but I don't know in this case. I've never seen right clicking action caused by video drivers. Don't know if it's possible or not. I'd have a good look at the processes that are running in the task manager.

 

Thanks for the reply Zander. There was nothing bad in the startup folder and i reinstalled the video driver yesterday. I also uninstalled all programs that i can live without for now and ran a reg utility and cleaned all junk stuff of of hd. (files,folders)Then i ran a registry cleaner and now i have gone about 16 hours since the last time my curser went crazy. (the last time i had to ctrl-alt-del to stop the curser from going haywire, there were no extra or unknown processes running at that time.) Hopefully it will never happen again and i won't have to reinstall xp. (the service pack download is the reason i have not reinstalled xp yet, I'am on dial-up and i hate to wait for hours to download things)

 

Unless I missed it somewhere I have not seen what type of Mouse we are dealing with.

Serial Port, USB, PS2, Optical, Corded or Cordless.

If Crordless it may well be just plain interference from the PC it self or something near it.

I tried a Cordless for one evening and returned for exchange the next day.

I am hearing from the porverbial grape vine that a 2.4GHz cordless phone may cause problems with cordless PC equipment.

BillyBob

 

I just noticed something.

I have a PS2 and a USB Mouse on this machine. Both Corded Optical.

For some ( unknown at this time ) reason the USB is blinking quite often. Even when I am doing nothing.

BillyBob

 

Ya, i failed to mention anything about the mouse itself. Its a basic ps2, corded, non-optical micro$oft brand mouse. The one that i replaced was the exact same kind.

Everything is still aok, nothing has gone haywire since sunday. (knocking on wood)