Hi

I've got a mysterious problem with my pc. Every now and again I notice that the mouse pointer jumps. If I make a smooth line with the mouse the pointer freezes then jumps to catch up at regular intervals. At the same time the sound cuts in and out. This is with no programs running.

I tried opening task manager and killing processes one by one until all I have left is the bear minimum to keep the system (XP Pro) running. The only way I can get it to stop is to reboot the pc. Then it'll be fine for a while but after some time it happens again.

Has anyone got any idea what might be causing it?

Thanks

Dave

a little more info please ,like what OS you using [xp
home or pro or ,vista ],does you computer have onboard sound device or a add in sound card ,is mouse usb or ps/2.
also if you use msconfig[go to start ,run ] ,you can turn off all services and then reboot and turn them on one by one until you find the problem if a service is the problem

Hi

Thanks for getting back to me.

As I said in my first post I'm using XP Pro but I'm also using an Edirol DA2496 PCI soundcard and a Logitech MX518 USB gaming mouse (not cordless). When the problem happens it effects both the sound and the mouse at the same time.

I think it would be a difficult problem to find using msconfig then rebooting as after reboot the pc is fine and the problem might not resurface for days afterwards. I'll still try it just in case and let you know what happens.

Cheers

Dave

sorry i missed the xp pro in the first post ,the reason i asked about pci sound card is sometime if the car is too close to another card or device it can cause some problems when in use ,
have you done any scans for virus/trojans .
some free scans for trojans .like malwarebytes ,and for cleaning of temp file and other garbage and registry fixes ,CCleaner ,just good maintenance and the programs are proven and free to use, if you install CCleaner ,when installing make sure to un check to install Yahoo toolbar ,

Well I've had the PCI card installed for a couple of years without problem so I don't think it'd be with it being too close to another card.
I ran AVG today and it was clean, I also run CCleaner regularly. Maybe next time it happens I'll run CCleaner and see if it makes a difference.

it is a bit weird ,maybe next time do a alt +ctrl+del and check processes and see if any programs are using excess cpu

Yeh, I did the task manager thing. I actually killed all the processes one by one but it just kept happening. There wasn't anything using up excess CPU either. It's mysterious! When it happens the mouse sticks at exact intervals too, it's not just random jumping it's like a pulse.

Some deep lil memory about sound cards doing this nags at me, but won't come into the light. Check to see if they share interrupts [they will not if it is a PS2 mouse] - you do that in Device Mgr, View, Resources by Type/Connection. Try pulling the soundcard and running with embedded sound for a while; see if the problem returns.

Sound Cards should be placed at the furtherest (fartherest?) slot away from the CPU (at the other end, not next to video card, if any).
The video card, if any, should be placed as close to the CPU as possible.

You say you have a Gaming mouse. Did you just plug and play or did you load drivers for it. Most of the time you can just play with any mouse. Some mousi (plural for mouse - I just made that up) require drivers or a cd setup disc. Specifically logitech. Does the mouse have those extra side buttons?

Hi

Thanks for your replies, I didn't get email notification of them, will look at that.

The gaming mouse didn't come with a disk although it does have extra side buttons, but I only just got that mouse as it was happening with my previous mouse too.

I just got a blue screen. 0x000000F4

I think I might've just stumbled onto the problem. I have a usb external hard drive connected to my pc. I only have it switched on some of the time. I just switched it on and ended up with a blue screen but I'm sure the mouse started jumping just before it went blue. Maybe my other problems were when I had this switched on...