Member Avatar for robavery

I just bought a new Compaq laptop (running windows XP home) from where I worked that I knew was having this problem before, and was supposedly fixed. It seems that just a single left click of the mouse on any desktop icon causes windows to think I clicked on it and hit delete, and it asks me if I'm sure I want to send it to the recycling bin...? No matter how fast or slow I set the double click speed, this still happens, so doubling clicking doesn't even get a chance to happen before the single click causes this error. Using the touch pad or a mouse makes no difference. Also, right clicking on an icon and choosing open from the drop menu again, still causes this odd error. If I then click cancel or the "x" to close this pop-up window it just re-appears over and over, leaving my only options to agree to delete the icon and send it to the recycling bin, or log out and come back in (as all the start menu options still work). This is a new one for me, I've never seen anything like this. Aside some taking it back, does anyone have any advice or suggestions they can thing of? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks all.

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This behavior—single left-click immediately bringing up the "send to Recycle Bin" confirmation repeatedly—is most consistent with a repeated Delete keystroke or a background process sending Delete commands, not with ordinary mouse-button wiring. Since 's mouse-button check didn't fix it and still sees it with the touchpad, the next steps should quickly isolate hardware from software.

Try these focused diagnostics in order:

  1. Disconnect any external USB/PS/2 keyboard and mouse so only the laptop keyboard/touchpad remain. If the problem stops, reconnect devices one at a time to find the offender.
  2. Open the On-Screen Keyboard (Start -> Run -> osk.exe) or open Notepad and type some text, then select and watch what happens. If Del appears to be activated without touching keys, a physical/stuck key or keyboard driver is likely.
  3. Boot to Safe Mode (restart, press F8 before Windows loads). If the delete prompt disappears in Safe Mode, a third-party driver/utility is the usual cause.
  4. Use Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) to look for vendor hotkey utilities or remote-control/hotkey programs (Compaq/HP quick-launch, any "hotkey" or "launch" services). End suspicious processes temporarily to test.
  5. As a temporary test, disable the internal keyboard in Device Manager and attach a known-good USB keyboard. (Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Keyboards -> right-click -> Disable/Uninstall. Note: Windows may reinstall on reboot.)

If hardware is confirmed: try cleaning/unsticking the key, or have the laptop keyboard repaired/replaced. If software is confirmed: uninstall the offending hotkey/keyboard utility, update drivers, run full antivirus/anti-spyware scans, or use System Restore to a point before the issue began. Back up important data before major changes. These steps should pinpoint whether the Delete key is being generated by hardware or by software so the correct fix can be applied.

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Member Avatar for Catweazle

Bring up Mouse properties in Control panel and see what functions are assigned to the buttons. You should be able to change them there, and if the functions have been badly misallocated, you should be able to use keyboard shortcuts to make the changes.

Also, have you used a USB or PS/2 mouse with the laptop, and installed software for it? You might be getting some conflicts if you have.

Member Avatar for robavery

Thanks for the post Catweazle. I tried your suggestions this morning, but it looks like the button assignments are fine. Left click is set on primary click (normal select, normal drag) and right click is set on secondary click (context menu, special drag.) Even when reduced to the factory settings and using only the touchpad mouse, this is still happening, so I don't think it's from installation conflicts from the ps/2 mouse I'm using. Any other thoughts?

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