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Old Jan 10th, 2007, 6:39 AM   #3
lectricpharaoh
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Are you on a laptop? If you are, the mouse problem may be one of two likely things. First, you might be inadvertently touching the touchpad or 'nipple' pointing device that's built in. Second, the keyboard 'module' could be damaged. Many laptops have the keyboard and built-in pointing device share at least some of the circuitry, so this could explain why you are experiencing problems with the mouse and keyboard.

Try turning off the built-in pointing device, if you can, and giving your keyboard a thorough cleaning to ensure there's no foreign matter in there that might be causing problems. Occasionally, the component that makes contact under each key (often a little rubber 'cup' with a patch of conductive material inside) will wear out. On a desktop, you can sometimes scavenge replacements from another keyboard, or even replace the keyboard outright, but on a laptop, it's more involved.

Another thing you could try, whether you're on a laptop or desktop machine, is to use an alternate set of input ports. Since you said the mouse is PS/2, and most keyboards these days are either PS/2 or USB, I'd get a USB to PS/2 adapter (I bought one a couple years back so I could connect my PS/2 keyboard to my PDA via USB host) and try plugging your mouse (and keyboard, if applicable) into that. If everything works, you can be confident that it is probably an issue with the port circuitry or (if a laptop) the issue I mentioned in the first paragraph.
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