What is the problem with my mouse on Windows 10?
I would appreciate any help in resolving this problem

Alexa_9 commented: This is not a window issue. This can be either your mouse issue or the port of your system. +0

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What are the symptoms? Maybe you just have a defective mouse or USB port.

My recurring fixes:

  1. New batteries for the mouse (doesn't always apply.)
  2. Another mouse.
  3. Rare but once in a while I find folk the increased the polling rate or tried other tweaks. Fix? Go back to stock.
commented: #2 is a very general troubleshooting suggestion. Using another mouse quickly gives a good indication of where is the problem. +0

My situation is similar to yours. The first thing you need to fix is a defective mouse or USB port. Using a mouse testing website, I can check the performance of my mouse.

commented: Thanks First I want to Check my mouse +0

This is not a window issue. This can be either your mouse issue or the port of your system.

Member Avatar for CurtisUN

It can be a windows issue, mouse, mouse driver, interference (if wireless), a hardware problem or just plain processor being over worked.
If your computer has been used for a for a few months or years then the register, startup apps or hard drive could be the problem.
If the register gets to large/currupted and/or their is to many background apps this slows the computer by using to much memory/processor time(the larger the virtual memory used on the hard drive the slower your system will work). At this point the processor is doing to many things which the windows app decides which application takes priority. The mouse and keyboard might be lower on the priority list than some other app so it will cause the mouse to act up.
When I have a mouse problem. What I do first is to clean out my system by removing any applications I have not used for a month or two. Then I clean registry. Then I check windows startup to see what apps need starting when the system reboots and disable the ones I do not need. There is many other settings/windows background apps that interfere with the keyboard/mouse so sometimes you have to reinstall windows 10 from scratch to repair the system the system. Sometimes using a backup and returning windows to w previous time will solve the problem.
I have had to backup all my data that I needed to keep then do a complete reinstall of windows 10 and apps I use to fix problems with peripheral devices. There is so many things that can cause these type problems that sometimes you can not find the real culprit and can only start from scratch. The problem can also be a combination of things.

commented: Bad troubleshooting methodology. -3
commented: Do you work for Best Buy? -4

I have never seen a case where a mouse problem was due to windows rot. I have also never had a problem with a wireless mouse having interference, even when working right next to a running microwave oven. Uninstalling applications, cleaning the registry, or re-installing Windows are absolutely last ditch fixes. A corrupted system would be showing symptoms much more problematic than just with your mouse.

commented: Well now I guess you don't use your computer much because I have run upon it several times. I used the Task manager to find out what was happening. +0
commented: Same here and at the office we had over 100 Windows laptops. +16
Member Avatar for CurtisUN

It seems they don't like my way of fixing a mouse Problem.
Here is a step by step method of finding out where the problem is>
Open task manager and watch the processor and memory usage as you are moving the mouse along with what ever apps you were runing when the mouse acts up. If that usage is high and you mouse is acting up then your problem is in to many apps running slowing you system down.
If the processor and memory is below 50% then it is going to be the mouse, bad hardware(USB, Mother board), Corrupted Driver or other software.

My problem was the order in which you decided to look for problems.

Well now I guess you don't use your computer much

Only 6+ hours a day. What do you define as "not much"?

Plus more than 30 years of (aside from my regular job of developing/maintaining software) desktop troubleshooting and support. This goes all the way back to when we had to worry about IRQ conflicts and stone-age parallel and serial ports. And the troubleshooting always consisted of looking for the simplest option first.

  1. Try another mouse
  2. Try the mouse on a different computer
  3. Try a different device in the same port
  4. Run diagnostics
  5. Boot into another OS from CD/USB stick
  6. Find out what has changed since the mouse last worked

Cleaning the registry

Even automatic Registry cleaners have been known to incorrectly identify and delete important Registry values. While the registry may accumulate cruft after years of use, it likely will not impact performance. For all but experienced users (who always back up the registry before making changes), this should be left alone.

Startup apps

Generally speaking, having too many applications start automatically will impact startup time. If the system is short on RAM it could impact performance (excessive swapping), but this would exhibit itself in all areas, likely not mouse.

Hard drive

Would likely show up as file I/O errors, or, in cases of system file corruption, system crashes. Running the system file checker and checkdisk could narrow this down. Checking the SMART data would also help indicate if there is a hard drive problem. If the hard drive is still in question then running SPINRITE would also be an option. Booting from USB would be another way to identify this depending on the frequency of the problem.

Driver problems

Uninstalling the driver and letting the OS re-install a generic driver could help to identify a problem.

There is many other settings/windows background apps that interfere with the keyboard/mouse

Can I please see some examples? I don't know of any other than spyware/malware.

Sometimes using a backup and returning windows to w previous time will solve the problem

I agree. That's why I partition all my computers as C/D drives with all user data on D. I take regular images of my C drive using Macrium Reflect. I have had occasions where installing something has <rude word> my system to the point where restoring am image was easier than uninstalling and trying to manually patch what was left behind. But restoring an image is still inconvenient and should be avoided.

Having said all that, in the case where the mouse starts acting flaky, my first step is to open up the mouse and clean all the cat hair out of the scroll wheel. That works in about 90% of the cases.

commented: This is the way. The number of times it's been Windows (as in stock Windows) has been zero in decades. +0
commented: I may have not stated it in the order I use but the basics was there. +2
Member Avatar for CurtisUN

Reverend Jim,
I just trying to give an answer that could lead hin in the right direction. I have only 45 years as a senior electronics tech/computer progammer/AT tech for industry. I worked for a fiber company for 20 years before retiring. I have written device drivers for special devices, a scale application to weigh, count, store data in databases and transfer data to servers. I have written programs for several different companies in my spare time. I repaired everything electronic that went down and Mice was a problem almost every day we had 4 lines running 4 different computers communicating with server . The majority of the time was just operators breaking them but because of the amount of data being stored in each line computer database and the 24 hr 5 day week runs without shutdown The computers ram memory would get to a point it would start slowing the systems down because of the way garbage collection was done in windows. Then it would start using the hard drive for more memory which also made the system slower due to loading the memory to the hard drive then retreiving it when needed. This caused the mice to start acting up. So the only thing most of the time I could do and not shut down production was to use an app to clean the registers, The open window/browser storage etc. Then I found after long hours of troubleshooting that things like services that was running in the background which windows uses a lot but there is also a lot that is enable taking up memory that is not being used. This slows the system. The mouse does not have the highest prority and these other apps that Microsoft put in as service do have higher priority. The mouse lag comes from some app taking priority when the processor is at high usage. This normally does not effect the mouse until the processor is above 70% usage.

An example from my home system

Processor Intel R Core TM i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz 3.50 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB 15.9 GB usable
Device ID C443C444-781A-448C-820A-374A566AF472
Product ID 00330-80000-00000-AA571
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
My system had problems when I used Microsoft works, A cad program, Visual studio and all the normal services. The cpu was running 90% usage, 80% memory used, and internet communications. Usin Visual studio I could be working and record the CPU data. The mouse movement would stop then start and stop again.. This lag was mostly caused by to much processor usage and to much memory used. So the first thing I did was to look using device manager to see what apps was running taking up CPU time. Then I looked at the ram memory and found it was setup to automatically use any amount needed from the hard drive as extra ram memory. What I found was that shutting down unneeded services, lowering the hard drive amount allowed, and removing all unused start up apps. This allowed the mouse to start working also most normally because it lowered the amopunt of ram used, and the number of app runing. It would still lag every so often. So I went to the device driver and reinstalled it to no effect. Then I was told by a freind to check out the services and I found a good many running that was not needed for what I was doing. Disabling them Fixed the issue.
When you restore windows to an earlier time you change all the settings back to where they were. When you add new software it changes the settings. Sometimes the restore will not work for various reason when this happens only choice is to do a complete reinstall.

Member Avatar for CurtisUN

Reverend Jim, BTW I did use checkdsk and did a restore to previous time before getting into all the changing settings, disabling services etc. The problem is mainly my system is not fast enough and does not have enough memory to run what I needed at that time. At the same time if he has a slower system he could get the same issues. At this point I do not need any larger system because I quit writing software after I retired due to my wife was invalid and I took care of her at home. She is gone now so I have some time on my hands and decide to see if I could help others.

We can't all know everything (except for my engineer brother who has assured me that he actually does). We can always use another member who has both the time and the expertise to help.

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