Lately, it seems that my mouse cursor has been getting erratic and unusable. At first, it just seemed draggy and annoying, but then evolved do the mouse completely ignoring any upward motions. Now the cursor has disappeared and the invisible mouse cursor refuses to move much. I'm running Windows 98, and I have tried two different mouses. Any suggestions?

Whoa! That sounds very wierd indeed!

Well at first I would think that it's just the inside roller things in your housew were dirty. That happens to me a lot. On the little rollers dirt builds up and the mouseball can't move the roller, there are 2 of them, one for moving left and right and one for up and down, so I would think that the up/down one was dirty. I usually just go in and scrape it off with my finger, which probably isn't the correct way to clean it. Oh well.

But then again, you said the same thing happened with your 2nd mouse so I don't know. Maybe both are dirty.

It isn't the mouse. I've gave it several feedings of compressed air. I brought home a mouse from my school (with permission, of course) and the same thing happened.

Try re-installing your video card driver (get the latest driver from the manufacturer's website). If that doesn't help, go into system properties (control panel-->system), click the performance tab, click graphics, and move the acceleration setting down to 'most.' This adds the line "SWcursor=1" to the [Display] section of your system.ini, disabling the hardware cursor.

Hope that helps.

"In googlis non est, ergo non est."

I remember my mouse taking over when I had two of them installed. I used a standard PS/2 mouse, and had a cordless USB logitech one.

Whenever I put my speakers on, somehow some kind of beam went to the USB receiver and took over. I just pulled the cable out .

Originally posted by Newspaz
I remember my mouse taking over when I had two of them installed. I used a standard PS/2 mouse, and had a cordless USB logitech one.

Whenever I put my speakers on, somehow some kind of beam went to the USB receiver and took over. I just pulled the cable out .

Heheh.

I'll try an optical mouse and some more corded ones to see which result I can get.

Did you try the solution in my previous post? Problems with erratic mouse cursors are generally video related when the mouse isn't to blame, however incredible it may sound. You stated you didn't believe it was the mouse in your post, to which I agree--the cursor wouldn't be invisible if it was merely a problem with the mouse. Again, try lowering the acceleration setting down a notch in system properties-->performance-->graphics.

The cursor is no longer invisible. That only happened once. I'll try it, but for now the mouse is working reasonably.

I thought the invisible cursor was a recurring problem--maybe it was just the mouse/mice if it was just a one time thing (maybe the mouse went off the screen and then stopped responding). Oh, well, keep us updated.

If you can, right click on My Computer and go to properties.

When you have that up, go to the device manager. If there is a yellow circle with an ! in it, there's your problem...probably.

Your cursor just may be posessed. Have it burned at the steak.

Originally posted by Radium
Your cursor just may be posessed. Have it burned at the steak.

Mmmm...Mouse Steak... (I know what you meant but that was just funny.)

well, I have a trackball mouse. try buying one of those! I am a tech nerd, but who cares!
Logitech is the best brand. They also provide the newest driver in the box.