# mouse pointer keeps disappearing



## buccaneer

hi everyone.i hope this is the right place to put in a mouse related question.i have a ps/2 mouse and after i work with it for some time, especially if i play a game,when i get back to my desktop my mouse pointer either completely disappears or stays stuck in one place on my screen.but i can drag select and bring up the right click menu even though i cant see my pointer icon.once i lose or get the pointer stuck,if i go into a game the game does have a mouse pointer but move out from the game and the pointer disappears/freezes again.if i reboot my puter i again get the mouse working good for a while.anyone have any clue about whats wrong here?is it my mouse or is it my motherboard or is it windows itself that's playing up? :sad:


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## Guest

> is it my mouse or is it my motherboard or is it windows itself that's playing up?


I would not think so as you are experiencing it after playing games. We may try to uninstall/reinstall your mouse drivers. If you are using a hi-end mouse 98 would cause some problems. Or else it is hard to fix Os corruptions in win98. Lets see how you do after uninstall/reinstall. Also get the latest windows updates.

Regards.


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## buccaneer

hi i tried removing and reinstalling the mouse but the problem persists(btw my current os is XP).well it also plays up when merely browsing-look into a few sites and my pointer either vanishes or gets stuck on the screen somewhere


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## Terrister

Check the game manufacturers site for an update. It sounds like the game is messing up the mouse driver.


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## buccaneer

um actually even if i dont play the game, if i use the puter for some time, the mouse problem does occur.so it couldnt be the game right?or do you mean that while installing the game it might've replaced files or something?


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## Terrister

Have you scanned for viruses and spyware? This also could be the cause.

I thought you were saying it disappeared after playing the game. That is why I said to look for a patch. If it does it when the game has not been played, then it is unlikely the game is at fault.


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## oldmn

Would you happen to have access to a usb mouse to try?


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## buccaneer

ello everyone, thankie for the responses.yes i did check for virus and spyware but cant find any.and about the usb mouse- sorry but i dont have one :sayno: guess i'll have to wait and save up money for one*shrugs*


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## Changeling

(Vauge stirrings in the back of my mind). I've seen this before, mouse pinter disappears on exiting a game. 

Out of curiosity is all games or just one if so which game??

I have a feeling it was the graphic card driver at fault. You are aware of course that the screen image is several layers deep. (Wallpaper, desktop, application, tool bar. etc etc ) Well it seems that the mouse layer was getting screwed up.


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## buccaneer

um it doesnt mess up with all games.and it doesnt mess up with a particular game all the time either.but if i play "impossible creatures" there is a good chance of mouse pointer disappearing when i exit the game.umm is there any way i can repair the mouse pointer layer?


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## Changeling

No it is not possible to repair the mouse layer. Just make sure your graphic card drivers are up to date.


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## buccaneer

ack i tried to patch impossible creatures and my mouse kept freezing up.i reinstalled mouse.should i try and run HJT?


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## buccaneer

for some reason when i try running the impossible creature patch the mouse pointer just freezes on the screen.yet the mouse itself is functional- if i right click i do get a menu,and i can drag select(it doesnt show the pointer but does show the drag selection box).what i AM sure of is that my monitor is playing up-i tried running a game called airport tycoon 3 and well the monitor just turns off, no display at all-and i took my cpu to the shop and when they connected it to another monitor it worked fine.so my question is,will a bad monitor affect the mouse pointer?btw my impossible creature patch doesnt work too well-it runs upto 27% and then freezes.and as i said it freezes my mouse pointer.anyone have any idea regarding this please do post


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## Changeling

Ok Ok hold on I get this a lot. People running around like loose cannons blaming everything except the the true cause.

Lets start from the top. 
What is your system spec?
CPU?
RAM?
Graphic card?
Windows version? 
etc etc

Is your system new? (less than 2 years old)
Did you buy it new?
Is it a second hand or older system (more than 4 years old?)


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## buccaneer

an update to my problem:i just bought and installed brian lara's cricket 2005and for the first couple of times when i tried running it my mouse pointer just vanished.each time , i rebooted and got the pointer back only to lose it again when i opened the game.after a couple of times of such frustrated rebooting the mouse pointer decided to play nice but when i started up my puter the next day and ran the game the mouse pointer froze again!.somebody please heeeeelp!

my system: p4 2.4GHz processor,256 mb memory,nvidia Geforce mx 4000 graphic card(64 mb memory),windows xp home edition,asus motherboard,onboard sound,ps2 mouse and the syetm is less than an year old,and i bought it brand new


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## Changeling

I'm not ignoring you I'm working on it for you.

Re: System spec. The machine looks good and ought to work just fine. Although you may wish to up the system memory to 512mg. Win XP will run on 256mg (according to Microsoft) But 512mg or more will be a lot better.

In the meantime right click with the mouse to restore your pointer. Yea I know its a workabout but on my system it forces the mouse pointer back to life.


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## Changeling

OK! I found something.

Firstly this is a known problem with windows XP but not everyone suffers from it. Guess we're just unlucky.

Its all to do with how windows XP changes the screen resolution. When you or the system alter the screen resolution (like when you exit a game) the graphic card memory has to be completely reconfigured. This will take a while to complete and the mouse pointer layer of the screen suffers.

Solution 1.
Go to the NVidia web site and download the latest drivers for you card. The fact that your system is less than a year old means nothing. Make sure you have the latest driver.

Solution 2.
Check and make sure that your desktop screen resolution is idendical to the screen resolution used in the game. The popular sizes are 640x480, 600x800 or 1024x768. dependant on what size monitor you use and how good your eye sight is.

Will this fix the problem? No it wont. But it should reduce the amout of time it takes for the mouse pointer to reappear.


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## buccaneer

err um sir,i actually cannot get back the pointer by right clicking.what i meant was, if i do right click the right click menu shows up.if i drag i also get a selection box.but the pointer itself goes AWOL.only was to get it back i reboot


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## Anthony27

*I found a Quick Fix (I had same problem)*

I had the same problem: mouse wanted to play hide and seek with me. Would freeze in the middle of the screen but i was able to click stuff still...

Heres what i did

*FIX* 

Go to Controll pannel, then to the mouse settings

Next go to pointer options and enable "display pointer trails"

and then it should pop up.
____________


I noticed that after I installed the newest ver of DirectX 9.0c is started acting up.... Did you recently install a new ver of direct x?

I hope this helps ya. Good Luck. :smile:


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## buccaneer

whee thank you for that tip.umm i have directx 9.0c but i am almost sure i had this problem before 9.0c.however i'll try your advice and get back.tyvm again :grin:


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## Anthony27

no prob dude, hehe i just hope it works for you too. I'm still trying to find out a perm fix for this. If i find one ill let ya know.

Note: I tried older ver of direct X, still no go
I have a nVidia Geforce 6800, with latest drivers........ hmmm maybe the latest drivers are making it messup? I'll try an older driver...


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## buccaneer

whee good thanks, do send me a message if you find how to correct this problem. :grin:


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## Anthony27

no dice.... Its kinda odd too I just reformatted and got windows totaly updated with all the patches.... im starting to think its a problem with one of the patches from micro$oft


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## zeuseason

I too have this problem. Completely random whether I play a game or browse the web or just turn the computer on. I have been trying to isolate the problem with all of the software I run in the background with no luck. I have x64 XP.

I have noticed that the latest and greatest drivers from vVidia are the problem. If I run the factory default (newer system) drivers I don't have this problem. It's when I update to the new drivers, that are compatible, I get this problem. nVidia offers no support for their drivers that I can find. 

Only thing I can suggest is try older outdated drivers if you can find them until nVidia gets it straight. And then you still may want to keep a copy of those old drivers.


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## buccaneer

hmm i just removed the latest nvidia driver and put in an old one(56.xx).seems to be a little better,lemme see if the problem occurs again. :4-thatsba


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## Servous

*Me too*

I have the exactly same problem. The mouse pointer disappears, but I can still move around and click on things. Right-clicking won't bring the pointer back, and I do not play any games on this computer - neither am I switching screen resolution.

I just installed a new motherboard, cpu and WinXP and all drivers are up to date. I never had this problem before. Maybe it's something with the latest Nvidia drivers?

Actually I don't know what version of DirectX I'm using 

My hardware:
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.5 Ghz
RAM: 512 MB (2 x 256) DDR 400 Mhz
GFX: Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 128 MB
OS: Windows XP SP2
Mouse: Microsoft Optical Mouse Blue (USB)


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## Servous

*Solution*

I found a work-around on microsoft.com:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;309703#XSLTH4139121123120121120120

But the solution that solved all the issues I had, was a BIOS update and the latest motherboard drivers (I have an AsRock). I hope this may help others in the same situation.


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## buccaneer

well my problem seems to have been solved and the mouse pointer seems to behave normal(touch wood).all i did was roll back to an earlier nvidia graphics driver.


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## Alviria

I've been having the same problem as well, except that it seems to only happen after I start playing World of Warcraft in full screen mode. The pointer gets stuck somewhere on the screen for no apparent reason, but I can still move around an invisible pointer and select things. Turning on the mouse tail allows for the graphic of the pointer to show, but the original pointer is still frozen on the screen. The pointer is also frozen in the game as well.. turning on the mouse tail doesn't fix it there. 

I want to say it's a graphic card problem, because everyone (including myself) seems to have an nVidia card.. mine is a GeForce 6800. I'm also having a problem where when I log out of a character the textures screw up and show a repeated pattern of some other texture.. but fixes whenever I minimize and maximize the game. This also leads me to believe that something screwy is going on with my nVidia drivers. I'm updating them now.. but as some have said, the newest ones seem to have the same problem as the older ones..


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## indiekiduk

I have the same problem. The mouse dissapears during BF2 and Warlords IV. Enabling trails does fix allow you to see a pointer again in windows but not in games. A reboot is required. I guess it could be directx 9c or the latest nvidia drivers causing the problem. I'm using a 6600GT.


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## buccaneer

i dunno if i am right but i would guess it's an nvidia driver problem-i rolled back to an old driver and it's fixed my problem.


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## zeuseason

Is anyone else using x64 Windows?

Does anyone know of a way to re-initialize the mouse anytime like maybe from the DOS prompt?

Unfortunately, I had to update to the latest nVidia drivers due to new software I have that wouldn't run under the old drivers. The latest nVidia display drivers seem to be better, 81.95 I think, but the mouse still freezes on screen randomly (usually under CPU load). :4-dontkno


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## zeuseason

I take that back. I rolled back again to 77.xx drivers just so I can get some work done!


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## zeuseason

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=9572

Link to nVidia's Forceware forum....with the same problem.


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## alijani

I have the 71.89 driver and have the same problem. it usually happens when i switch between WOW and Windows...

One time when it happened, i left the system on for few hours and when i came back the mouse was back. i bet there is some command that can be run to reset the mouse pointer when it happens.

any ideas?


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## zeuseason

New nVidia drivers may do the trick. There's 81.98 out now and a beta 82.12. I have 81.98 and seems to work good so far.


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## phife

*annoying disappearing mouse trick*

I hope folks are still reading this thread. Has anyone found any further fixes? This is a vexing issue and it is not going away. I have:

* Installed the new nvidia drivers 81.98... but the problem keeps happening
* Installed new mouse drivers... but the problem keeps happening
* played with the mouse settings per the above... but the problem keeps happening
* Installed Directx again... but the problem keeps happening

For me, I believe this issue dates back to the installation of new video drivers from nvidia. I can't be entirely sure, because - as is usual for most of us - we update stuff like that when we also install new sw, and many things can get updated at once (directx, etc). 

Should I install old video drivers? Where would I get them? Is it wise to do that when the reason I installed the new ones is because software asked me to update the drivers?

I have installed several pieces of sw in the past bit, and I am just not sure which one was concurrent with the problem: 1. Call of Duty 2 2. Pinnacle Studio 10 (total fiasco) 3. Sony Vegas Movie Studio. I have also installed Civilization 4, and although the disappearing pointer happens almost every time I play that game, I believe I installed the game after this whole stuff went down. 

HELP!

Thanks


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