Computer mice are known to behave pretty nicely even though they may be subject to wear and general abuse. However, at times, these very  mice may throw in some challenging problems. A PC user simply can't do without a mouse now a days, and if it does not work poperly, it may be a cause of great annoyance.

Before trying to fix mouse problems let's first try to understand the nitty-gritty of how a mouse works. This is how we hope to tame the mouse and help us solve our problems more easily.

Working of the mouse.

We will  not try to get into the the complete details of how the mouse operates, but we'll try to  understand only  so much as it will help us to solve our problems. A mouse is an input device that has two and sometimes three buttons on it. When we move the mouse a cursor or a pointer starts  moving on the screen. We can position the cursor over any item on the screen, click a button, and Lo! the command is carried out. The mouse is just simply a point and click device!
 
Mices come is various varieties. 1) serial mouse, 2) PS/2 bus mouse 3) usb mouse and 4) wireless mouse. Regardless of the type of mouse, at first the mouse must be installed into your computer system. First you will have to connect the mouse to the respective port and then turn on the computer. Insert any software disk provided by the manufacturer of the mouse and install the device drivers for the mouse. Once the device drivers are installed properly the mouse gets connected to the computer.

The most important thing to remember is that the mouse does not operate alone. It operates in conjunction with the application software, the operating system and the device drivers.

When an application loads it gets connected with the device driver of the mouse. As soon as the connection between the application software and the device driver is established, the device driver displays a cursor or pointer on the screen. At this time, if you have not connected your mouse to the computer, this cursor remains fixed. But all that is important for you to know is that, if you see a cursor on your screen, you can be rest assured that your application software has been able to establish connection with the device driver of the mouse.

Down to the other end, the device driver of the mouse must also be able to communicate with the mouse. When the mouse is moved, the X and the Y position signals of the mouse are carried over to the device driver. The device driver interprets the mouse signals and moves the cursor to the right position on the screen. When the mouse buttons are clicked the  information of the position as well as the clicking event is carried over to the application software by the device driver and the desired action is carried out.

This then is the overall way in which the mouse operates. This might have already given you the idea as to how to tame the mouse when it goes erratic.

Troubleshooting mouse problems.

Let's, therefore,divide the mouse problems into three catagories -- 1) hardware problems 2) software problems and 3) software configuration problems.

Hardware problems --

Symptom 1.

The mouse cursor appears but moves erratically.

Since you are seeing the mouse cursor there is no problem with the connectionof the application software and the device drivers. It is, therefore, not a software problem, but an hardware problem. Since the cursor appears to move a little bit, there must be an intermittant problem with the mouse. Check whether the mouse is clean. Just remove the mouse housing and check whether the X and Y rollers are moving properly. Check whether the cable connections are proper or there is some loose soldering. Wiggle the cable to find out any loose connections and solder them again.

Symptom 2.

The mouse cursor appears and the cursor moves but the buttons function erratically.

This is again an hardware problem. This could simply occur due to dust accumulations in the buttons of the mouse. Remove the mouse housing and try cleaning the buttons. If this does not solve the problem than it could have been caused due to bad wiring connections. Resolder any dry connections and check the connectors for continuity with a multimeter.

Symptom 3.

The mouse cursor appears on the screen but it does not move at all.

If you are able to see the cursor it indicates that  the device driver has loaded properly and the application program is communicating with the driver. Your first step should be to suspect the connection of the ports. Check if the serial port is connected properly to the motherboard. If the problem is not solved by reconnecting the serial port properly, there could perhaps be a problem with the internal wiring of the mouse itself.

Symptom 4.

You attempt a single click and a double click occurs

This problem is definitely a mouse button problem. This phenomenon is called as button bounce. Clean the mouse buttons and it could start working well again

Software problems ---

Symptom 5.

Error " General protection fault"

This error message indicates that it is not a hardware problem. It is the problem of conflict of the device driver with one or more of the application softwares. Try working with other application softwares. If they are working fine check with the device manufacturers whether they are having any patches available for resolving this problem. Or else,  try loading an earlier version of the mouse; this might solve the compatibility problems.

Symptom 6.

Error " The pointing device requires a newer version"

This indicates that it is a software problem.  You might have probably installed a wrong driver  to work with your mouse. Check the driver and be certain that the driver that you have installed is of the correct type. For example, you should use the  Logitech device driver with the Logitech mouse and not use the device driver of the genius mouse.

Symptom 7.

The device driver fails to load.

The device driver must load during the initialisation phase of the computer. If the device driver has not loaded it might be that it has not been able to detect that the mouse is connected to your computer. Most device drivers load only after verifying whether the device is present or not. Please check the connection of the mouse to the computer. The mouse may not have been connected at all or the connection may be loose.

Software configuration problems ---

Symptom 8.

Clicking the right mouse button does not start the default context menus.

If you are running a mouse management software the assignment for the right button will override the windows default setting of the "context menus". Open the mouse management software utility and change the assignment of the right button to 'unassigned".

Symptom 9.

A single mouse click works but the double mouse click does not work.

This problem almost always occurs because the "double click speed" may be set to a too high value in the mouse control panel. Try setting it to a lower value. For this you will have to go to the mouse control panel and slide the speed slider to a lower value.


This article has touched upon the basic problems related to the mouse. For troubleshooting some specific type of problems relating to optical mouse or wireless mouse please keep visiting the blog.