# [SOLVED] Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...



## cweepy (Dec 27, 2007)

Hello, awhile back I had a massive system failure which entailed the death of my psu, mobo and cpu. After having replaced them all and updating my drivers the system worked without a hitch.

Problem: Recently upon boot or switching from one window to another mouse clicks will not register, start menu won't respond to clicks, active windows won't either.

I have a Logitech G5 (first generation) but I've found that other mice present the same issue. I've also found that device manager shows a conflict on "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" which is odd as I have the logitech plugged in via USB.

In order to temporarily rectify the problem a CTRL-ALT-DELETE will snap the system out of it's hiccup and clicks once again register until the next hiccup.

Any suggestions?


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## CarefreeComp (Feb 15, 2008)

*Re: Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...*



cweepy said:


> Hello, awhile back I had a massive system failure which entailed the death of my psu, mobo and cpu. After having replaced them all and updating my drivers the system worked without a hitch.
> 
> Problem: Recently upon boot or switching from one window to another mouse clicks will not register, start menu won't respond to clicks, active windows won't either.
> 
> ...


Usually i would suggest downloading then newest version of the mouse software from the manufacturers site. but in the case of a mouse I suspect there are no specific drivers and instead you simply turn off the machine, swap the USB plug the mouse is in and restart.

If that doesnt work check out whether the mouse is using special software by... trying a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and then click Task Manager (or T key). Task manager shows all the running tasks on the machine at the moment. Look for any tasks showing an unusual amount of activity, in the CPU column, esp when the mouse is being clicked.


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## cweepy (Dec 27, 2007)

*Re: Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...*

Completely removing and reinstalling the newest driver versions was my first attempt at a fix, problem still persists. Opening Task Manager, as I mentioned, is the temporary fix and therefore using it to try to identify any excess CPU acitivity is fundamentally flawed. (As soon as I open task manager the problem temporarily disappears)

I should mention that hotkeys, and keyboard in general, continue to function without delay. The problem seems to be exclusively with the mouse, any mouse, all of which work fine on my other system of the same OS (XP Pro SP2).

Ruled out: Drivers, Swapping to another USB slot, excessive consumption of system resources; also mobo, hdd and cpu are all under 2 months old and fully functional.

What next?


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## cweepy (Dec 27, 2007)

*Re: Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...*

Problem persists, any suggestions welcome...I could really use the help.

I really don't want to have to do a completely fresh install.


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## oldmn (Oct 16, 2005)

*Re: Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...*

I had a smiler situation on my Vista system, that turned out to be Semantic anti virus (Norton).


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## cweepy (Dec 27, 2007)

*Re: Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...*

I ended up doing an XP repair, problem remained. Funny you suggested your antivirus as a possible problem, after the repair attempt (which actually the problem prevented me from even being able to use my mouse to select options and continue through the process) I completely removed McAfee. The problem has yet to reoccur, I'm waiting to see if the it happens again...I'll let you know if it does.

Thanks for the suggestion.


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## cweepy (Dec 27, 2007)

*Re: Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...*

Seems that McAfee Antivirus was the culprit! (didn't like it anyway, it's a resource hog)

I completely uninstalled and am problem free ever since. Oldmn you were right on the money. Thanks for the suggestions.


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## jayman1000 (May 23, 2009)

*Re: Sometimes mouse clicks do not register...*



cweepy said:


> Seems that McAfee Antivirus was the culprit! (didn't like it anyway, it's a resource hog)
> 
> I completely uninstalled and am problem free ever since. Oldmn you were right on the money. Thanks for the suggestions.


I have this exact problem. Mouse clicks sometimes does not work, it's like the computer is not having focus on the particular window I'm clicking on. Unfortunately i don't have McAfee, only Avast, which I've tried uninstalling with no luck. Also installing another mouse, changing USB port does not help.

But the strangest thing is this: 

Completely deleting my windows partition and reinstalling Windows XP anew does not help. 

CTRL-ALT-DELETE, which makes Task Manager come up, makes mouse clicks work again, but only for a short time. Seems like every new window needs the CTRL-ALT-DELETE solution.

Please please help me, can it really be necessary for me to built a completely new computer just because of this?


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## Snazzman (Jun 16, 2009)

I too am having this problem, and i dont have any antivirus at the moment either. Also, the behavior of the mouse is odd, like they say sometimes it works and sometimes not. It will refuse to activate any buttons in windows you have open, but it will select things on the desktop or open the start menu. and its not the same amount of time when it happens. Any tips would be greatly apprecicated!


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## jhboston (Jun 25, 2009)

I am having this same problem. I have XP. McAfee Security Center. I cannot click on most any screen until after I have just moved the cursor to the task bar, or ctl-alt-del, or switch to another app screen. Many pop-up menus can only be accessed by going up or down with the keyboard cursor keys. I use the Microsoft 6000 key board an 6000 v2 wireless mouse. I tried hooking up a wired Kennsington mouse and it worked for a short period of time. The scroll wheel on the mouse does work always. All of the above are the results when using Firefox. On the other hand if I use IE8, then most everything works except for the scroll wheel. This never works now in IE.
If anyone can help I would surely appreciate it.
Thanks


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## JonCCC (Oct 9, 2009)

Jayman1000,

Did you ever figure out the problem?

Thanks


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## jayman1000 (May 23, 2009)

Since the problem persisted after reinstalling windows, swapping the mouse and upgrading the bios, I suspect that it maybe was something with my motherboard.

Suddenly one day the problem went away, but I don't know why unfortunately.


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## lilyqu (Nov 23, 2009)

I am having this problem and have Norton Antivirus. Could that be the problem? It just suddenly started happening to a pretty new (less than 6 month old) computer, about 2 weeks after I purchased and installed a year subscription to Norton 360.

Same m.o....control alt delete restores it for awhile.

I have a warranty, geek squad says its a virus, wants $130 to "fix" it. But my cousin says she doubts that is the problem and I don't really have $130 to waste right now. I'm afraid if I spend the $130 GS will just give me the runaround if it isn't fixed afterwards.

Any suggestions for me?

:4-dontkno


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## aloradanen (Nov 23, 2009)

I am having the same problem as well. It occurs mostly in Firefox, and each time I open a new window or tab, I have to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to "free" the mouse to click. Then I got about 1 click before having to do it again. This is occuring on the synaptics touchpad on my hp laptop as well as my Microsoft Wireless 6000 v3 mouse. The scroll function does not seem to work any more in any programs.

Yesterday I reformatted the hard drive to hopefully repair this problem. It was occuring again soon after even though only a few programs had been installed. I did install Norton Internet Security 09, so perhaps that is the conflict. For now, I'm using mostly IE, but am hoping to find a solution that doesn't involve reformatting the hard drive again (probably with the same lack of success as well).


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