Mouse randomly freezes for no reason

[obidon]

Sometimes for apparently no reason at all my mouse cursor will just freeze for a couple seconds and I won't be able to move it. When this happens (I have Process Explorer minimized to tray) I can see that just about no CPU is being taken up either. So I know that this freeze isn't because my processor is being overworked. Also, it's not because I'm opening a program or anything, hence it is seemingly very random.

Is there any reason why the mouse should randomly freeze from time to time when nothing that major is happening on the system? Thanks for any replies.

 

[dsk04]

could be you hard drive test it for errors with chkdsk

 

[obidon]

I have tested it with chkdsk and sometimes it completes fine and other times it doesn't complete for some reason. I currently have a 298.08 GB Seagate HDD that has about 23 GB of free space left.

I've been thinking that this might be the piece of hardware that's giving me problems with my system.

Is there anything else you can recommend that I could use to check the life and current status of my hard drive?

Thanks.

 

[pscowboy]

Download the latest DOS iso version of Seatools.
Burn it to cd disc (Imgburn is an excellent free burner), then boot up your pc with it in the cd/dvd drive.

Go up into your BIOS at the beginning of the boot and make sure the cd/dvd drive is listed first in boot order.

When you get into the diagnostic, run the extended tests.
It will tell you the status of your hd.

If Seatools passes the hd, your next project is to unload at least 125g from that drive. You can't have that little free space left. System will be unstable.

 

[sreedhav]

I have tested it with chkdsk and sometimes it completes fine and other times it doesn't complete for some reason. I currently have a 298.08 GB Seagate HDD that has about 23 GB of free space left.

I've been thinking that this might be the piece of hardware that's giving me problems with my system.

Is there anything else you can recommend that I could use to check the life and current status of my hard drive?

Thanks.

Hello obidon,
Instead of the manufacturer specific HDD testing tools, there is a fairly reliable,universal HDD monitor from Acronis. It's known as the Acronis Disk Monitor and you can download it from :Download disk imaging utilities, data backup and recovery tools, HDD managers and multibooting software for home PCs
regards,
sreedhav

 

[pscowboy]

ADM is a very good monitor, but it is just that; reiterating the SMART output.

In this gentleman's case, I feel he would be better served with an extended test of his hd by its' manufacturer's diagnostic.

 

[seavixen32]

Generally speaking, the consensus seems to be that you need to have at least 10% of your hard drive as free space or performance can suffer.

Time to invest in a bigger hard drive I feel or unloading anything you don't need or use from your current hard drive may help.

You might want also to consider running disk cleanup and reducing the amount of disk space given to system restore.

 

[obidon]

Thanks for the input. I think I will download both HDD diagnostic tools and try them out.

But while we're on the topic of hard drives, I was actually thinking about investing in a 1 TB drive for my system. Then I would free up some more space from my Seagate drive (maybe 125 GB or 10%) and move some data to my new drive. This way hopefully I'll get some increased system performance.

I have a couple questions before I purchase one though. What do you think the best drive for me at the moment would be?

I know I want at least 1 TB with no less than 7200 RPM. I was thinking of going with Western Digital for the manufacturer but I'm kind of stuck between the Cavier Blue and Black series. I just want something that will be the most reliable because the high failure rates in the reviews on NewEgg kinda scare me.

I appreciate all of your suggestions and words of wisdom. Thanks.

 

[pscowboy]

Caviars have 5 year warrantees. I would stop there at the best price you can find, blue or black.

After you get everything setup, PLEASE DO FULL IMAGE BACKUPS (with verify) after patch Tuesday, every month. Create an Image folder on the 1tb, and throw them in there. ALSO, it would be prudent to do a hard copy image backup every three months on dvd discs.

 

[seavixen32]

Thanks for the input. I think I will download both HDD diagnostic tools and try them out.

But while we're on the topic of hard drives, I was actually thinking about investing in a 1 TB drive for my system. Then I would free up some more space from my Seagate drive (maybe 125 GB or 10%) and move some data to my new drive. This way hopefully I'll get some increased system performance.

I have a couple questions before I purchase one though. What do you think the best drive for me at the moment would be?

I know I want at least 1 TB with no less than 7200 RPM. I was thinking of going with Western Digital for the manufacturer but I'm kind of stuck between the Cavier Blue and Black series. I just want something that will be the most reliable because the high failure rates in the reviews on NewEgg kinda scare me.

I appreciate all of your suggestions and words of wisdom. Thanks.

If you want a real performance boost, you might want to consider an SSD to run Windows and applications, and then a 7200 RPM 1TB spinner for your personal data.

 

[obidon]

If you want a real performance boost, you might want to consider an SSD to run Windows and applications, and then a 7200 RPM 1TB spinner for your personal data.

I was planning an SSD soon but first the 1 TB since I'm running out of space fast.

In the meantime I was gonna also add an extra 8GB of RAM to my order for a total of 12GB and then use the extra 4GB for a RAMdisk to get that extra speed boost.

For the HDD however I think I will stick to the WDC Caviar since the 5 year warranty does seem worth it.

This is the cheapest Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM internal drive I could find. Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

The only thing is that the failure rate seems a lot higher than other drives at the moment, with many people reporting that it died within the first couple days of use. I just really don't want this to happen. I hope the special $10 off promo offer doesn't have anything to do with this :huh:

Also I find it strange that the WDC internal drives are more expensive then their externals at the moment. Shoulda invested in a 1TB before the floods hit in October '11. Oh well.

What do you guys think about the drive above? Should I take my chances and hope it doesn't ship DOA?

 

[WernerBerlin]

I had the same problem with a standard Logitech mouse on a USB port of an ASUS board with Windows 7 running.
This problem with USB mice seems to be very frequent, because I found many reports about that in many forums.
I tried all the software solutions poposed in these forums but to absolutely no avail. On the contrary, the mouse freezing for some seconds with the "USB device connect/disconnect" sounds happened more and more frequently.

Finally I found the very simple solution:
It is a simple hardware problem and had nothing to do with software:

The Logitech mice (and their various similarly constructed clones) have an extremely cheap cable connection. The relative thin and cheap cable has no antikink device at all. The only strain relief is an S-shaped channel through which the cable is lead into mouse case. Obviously the isolations of the wires inside the cable are chafed in the kinks of the S-shaped channel after longer use so thin, that tottering short circuits happen between the wires in the cable, which appear to the system like connecting and disconnecting the USB device.

I screwed the mouse encasement open and took the cable out of the S-shaped channel and bend it straight thus removing all kinks in it. Then I shoved the cable one inch into the case. so that I could lay a "fresh" (= unkinked before) section of the cable into the S-shaped channel.

I did that 2 weeks ago. I had no problems since then anymore.

Werner

P.S.: Be careful opening the mouse case:
Remove the single screw which holds the case closed.
Then lay the mouse on a table while you take off the cover of the case and keep it lying on the table while you do the above described operations with cable and close the case again before you lift it off the table.

By this you prevent that the mouse wheel falls out of its position, cause it is a lot of enervating hustle to put the wheel and the 2 spring wires holding it back into correct position, if you don't know how to do it. So better keep it untouched in its position while you do the cable operations.