Katie solves her own mouse issues? No way she is a girl! She can't do tech stuff

[KT 💣 KλBoƠM]

I am proud of myself ... I figured it out .. all by myself! I was going to call Dave but it was late (11:24pm). Ya he probably was still awake but ... I thought I will try to figure it out myself first.

So here was the problem:

Mouse cursor moving across the screen on its own. Not by a little bit ... all the way across the screen... little by little but not consistently. Would stop and start .. would go slower or faster .. not smoothly .. but like the old days when the mouse ball would get dirty and you have to clean it out or else a hair in the way of the optical light on the mouse...

Steps I took to try to figure out and fix the problem:

1st I did things off the top of my head: Blew the mouse with my mouth in case a hair was in the laser.... nope. No difference. Cleaned the surface it was on .. no difference.

2nd I tried a different mouse .... no difference. I tried a different USB port. No difference. What the heck? I even tried instead of the case USB the keyboard USB. Still no difference.

3rd: Baffled and realizing it may not be the mouse itself or the USB or the wire even as wiggling that did not cause the mouse light to do anything other than normal ... I realized it has to be .. software instead of hardware...

I did reboot and then I went looking online for advice. I ran a diagnostic through the Windows command prompt in admin mode but it found nothing (no real surprise there .. Windows cannot find a problem even if there was a big hole in the side of a barn it was looking for).

I looked in the Device Manager to see about updating the drivers only to see I had 5 mice listed. All of them just generic mouse names so no way I could tell which was my current one. The only way I could figure to find out which was this one was to disable each one by one... I found which one was this mouse (the one Dave gave me) and uninstalled the others. The drivers said they were up to date. I know Dave would have said go to the website to get the latest ones but .. this is what I noticed:

When I uninstalled the others .. I noticed .. hey my mouse is normal again!

So I don't know if one of the mouse drivers had gotten corrupt or just simply conflicting but problem solved! So happy as I thought I was going to have to go looking at yet another mouse tomorrow. Now I don't have to!

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/627456486728098994?ctp=2#c3124928124057914106

[Sandman[SA]]

Its a possibility that it maybe a driver issue where you have multiple drivers or software installed for a similar device.  And they could be causing a conflict.  Sometime just disabling other devices can help work around the problem.
Another possibly that you have a sticky keyboard key that is jammed in just the right position to cause this issue. 
Or it could be another USB device that is plugged in causing a device conflict.
One other option could be a BIOS software degradation or corruption.  Updating the BIOS version could help fix that issue.

[KT 💣 KλBoƠM]

Its a possibility that it maybe a driver issue where you have multiple drivers or software installed for a similar device.  And they could be causing a conflict.  Sometime just disabling other devices can help work around the problem.
Another possibly that you have a sticky keyboard key that is jammed in just the right position to cause this issue. 
Or it could be another USB device that is plugged in causing a device conflict.
One other option could be a BIOS software degradation or corruption.  Updating the BIOS version could help fix that issue.

Ya I am going to have to have Dave look into updating the BIOS as I thought the problem went away but when I went to plug in my headphones into the USB on my keyboard the problem came back and I see the 5 HID-compliant mouse listed under Device Manager again. Seems it is not a mouse driver issue but a USB issue? Also when Dave cleans my PC at his place or upgrades it, anything including his mouse and keyboard he plugs into my computer is listed. I have 2 disabled now and seems the mouse is working as it should again but 1 of the disabled ones could be his ..

Also, for Dave's info .. to check my mouse I typed this into the CMD: msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic

[Sandman[SA]]

Now that you mentioned it, my computer also shows 5 HID compliant mouse drivers.  I only have one mouse installed.  When I replace a mouse, I uninstall the old one and it's device drivers before I even hook up another one.  Odd.

I also have a ton of USB devices.  2 game controllers. Mic, Keyboard, mouse, UPS, web cam, head phone blue tooth dongle, external drive dock, mouse pad and head phone stand.  Those last 2 are RGB lighted and powered by USB.  But the head phone stand also had a 4 port USB dock.

[One Eyed Wonderweasle]

 Might also want to check the laser area on the bottom of the mouse for a tiny hair or peace of fuzz, that is usually the cause of a mouse moving weirdly. The laser controls movement.
 but if deleting drivers somehow fixed it.  yeah! I've never run across that.

[Rabid Zucchini]

Of course you can fix stuff, KT!
But, yea, I would not have guessed that would work. Glad it did, though.

[KT 💣 KλBoƠM]

Of course you can fix stuff, KT!
But, yea, I would not have guessed that would work. Glad it did, though.

Ya after checking for anything that might block the laser and nothing helping and trying different USB ports I had to look for something else. Glad I found it. The problem has not come back but it might come back if another mouse it used on this computer (such as when it is worked on by someone else) but I know now to look out for that.

[One Eyed Wonderweasle]

 You might also have it showing non active drivers. I don't think it shows them by default but there is away to have them show. usually they are not a problem when not attached because like the name implies not attached/active. with non active drivers, windows saves USB attached drivers for future use if you attach it again. nothing unusual there.

[KT 💣 KλBoƠM]

You might also have it showing non active drivers. I don't think it shows them by default but there is away to have them show. usually they are not a problem when not attached because like the name implies not attached/active. with non active drivers, windows saves USB attached drivers for future use if you attach it again. nothing unusual there.

What I have is default. I don't know how to change that. All I know is what I removed fixed the problem.

[Sandman[SA]]

Actually, you both have a valid point.  When you plug in a USB device (any USB device) the computer will install the drivers it needs, if it can find them.  And they will remain installed after the device is removed.  But remain dormant / inactive until needed again.  These inactive drivers won't show up in the hardware list until they are in active use.  It's extremely rare but sometimes an active installed driver configuration can get corrupt or conflict with something else.  But usually requires a fresh reinstall of the drivers or driver update to fix any issues your device may have.  I think what happened in KT's case is, she went and removed all the HID compliant drivers and windows reinstalled what it needed automatically.  I too am glad it worked out for you KT.