Really weird random mouse activity
Hello Folks, I wonder if anyone can offer any thoughts on this mouse oddness.
An acquantance of mine started suffering random mouse movements on his PC, triggering both movements of the pointer and acting as if various buttons had been pressed every few seconds. It made the system almost unuseable. Being a logical sort of guy I tried to help him investigate.
It's a fairly new system, VERY powerful running Windows Vista and mainly used as a flight simulator (totally serious kit - 4 screens, full yoke, etc.).
The initial suspicion was Malware, which to be honest is very unlikely as it's almost dedicated to flying and is a very controlled setup. Scans with all sorts of tools revealed nothing, neither did a registry cleanup.
Trying different mice in different ports made no difference, though at one point it "appeared" that using a mouse port mouse vs USB (the usual one) did solve it - this proved incorrect. Looking at the drivers it just seems to be using standard MS mouse drivers.
Note that you don't have to do anything to see this behaviour. Just turn the system on and don't touch it; the mouse pointer starts jumping about immediately and menus appear as if buttons have been clicked.
There is one way we discovered to make it work OK. Start the system without a mouse and plug in a USB mouse (any sort, any spare port) once it's up and running.
So, we have a "get-round" which is a tad inconvenient, but liveable with.
BUT has anyone any ideas what the problem is and how to fix it?
An acquantance of mine started suffering random mouse movements on his PC, triggering both movements of the pointer and acting as if various buttons had been pressed every few seconds. It made the system almost unuseable. Being a logical sort of guy I tried to help him investigate.
It's a fairly new system, VERY powerful running Windows Vista and mainly used as a flight simulator (totally serious kit - 4 screens, full yoke, etc.).
The initial suspicion was Malware, which to be honest is very unlikely as it's almost dedicated to flying and is a very controlled setup. Scans with all sorts of tools revealed nothing, neither did a registry cleanup.
Trying different mice in different ports made no difference, though at one point it "appeared" that using a mouse port mouse vs USB (the usual one) did solve it - this proved incorrect. Looking at the drivers it just seems to be using standard MS mouse drivers.
Note that you don't have to do anything to see this behaviour. Just turn the system on and don't touch it; the mouse pointer starts jumping about immediately and menus appear as if buttons have been clicked.
There is one way we discovered to make it work OK. Start the system without a mouse and plug in a USB mouse (any sort, any spare port) once it's up and running.
So, we have a "get-round" which is a tad inconvenient, but liveable with.
BUT has anyone any ideas what the problem is and how to fix it?
Move your mobile phone away from your mouse!
Not that I'm afraid, no mobile nearby at the time, but a good idea. 
I've just heard back from the user that there is a suspicion that some of the flying controls can interfere with the mouse driver if they develop a fault. So he's getting on to the supplier...
I've just heard back from the user that there is a suspicion that some of the flying controls can interfere with the mouse driver if they develop a fault. So he's getting on to the supplier...
Quote from: HPsauce Not that I'm afraid, no mobile nearby at the time, but a good idea.
I've just heard back from the user that there is a suspicion that some of the flying controls can interfere with the mouse driver if they develop a fault. So he's getting on to the supplier...
Does the mouse play up if the flight controller is unplugged?
I think during today the owner has shown that it doesn't, confirming it's related to that. But I've not had definite confirmation.
As you can probably appreciate, unplugging all the controls, radio gear etc is non-trivial as you risk not putting it back right. I know from helping him before that putting some bits back in different USB ports can mean it doesn't work until you've done a lengthy reconfiguration exercise, so unplugging it isn't the first option.
Several of the leads are taped or cable-tied in place to stop them being accidentally removed.
As you can probably appreciate, unplugging all the controls, radio gear etc is non-trivial as you risk not putting it back right. I know from helping him before that putting some bits back in different USB ports can mean it doesn't work until you've done a lengthy reconfiguration exercise, so unplugging it isn't the first option.
Several of the leads are taped or cable-tied in place to stop them being accidentally removed.
