my mouse skips or freezes constantly

[anchorwood]

Hi;

For a couple of years I have been suffering from mouse pointer skips.  While moving the pointer across the screen it will stop momentarily, then continue.  This is not related to the mouse; happens with any mouse I use.  It's intermittent but consistent.  Seems worse right after startup of the computer and then after I've used it for ten or 15 or 30 minutes, but it basically happens all the time, just not as much after a reboot is complete.  It seems to me that some process is taking precendence over the mouse at what seems to me to be arbitrary times.  Sometimes I can't move the mouse pointer from one side of the screen to the other without it stopping two or three times. 

This drives me crazy after a few weeks and I've gone online several times to see if I can find someone who knows what's going on.  I find lots of people with the same problem but nobody who seems to know what is really happening and/or what to do about it.

I have Windows Vista Home Premium.  I bought the computer, Pavilion a6250z, from HP directly when offered a good deal on a new one when the rep could not figure out the problem with my last computer. 

I have a Canon i960 inkjet photo printer, a Brother 7820N fax/printer/copier/scanner, and am now hooked to the internet with a Qwest DSL modem.  The problem has been consistently present before and after each of these was attached.  I use Norton Security (which came with the computer) and Uniblue's optimizer software (which did not affect the mouse skipping one way or the other).  I don't think the problem is related to software or equipment added after I bought the computer.

Any Ideas?

  Roger

[gaspasser]

I do not have the solution, but wanted to post because I am having the same problem.

I have an HP Pavilion HPE, H8-1017c that I purchased in August, 2011 running Windows 7, 64 bit.

I have the mouse "freeze" multiple times per day, forcing me to reboot.

I have searched the internet for solutions - some say to check for BIOS updates, some say to try a "wired" mouse, etc. 

All solutions that I have found have not worked for me.

I suspect it is a Windows 7 problem, but no one in any website (HP or Microsoft) will admit to anything.

It has gotten to the point that I am thinking about installing Windows Vista on the machine.

This is a very frustrating problem that no one with any big corporation seems to care about.

[anchorwood]

Well, gaspasser, if your problem is the same as mine I would not bother to install Windows Vista.  As I said in my post, that's what I use.

[gaspasser]

I was on the phone & remote with HP support with Ajay 2 days ago.

The computer is under warranty.

Spent 2 hours and finally found that 2 printers that I had installed had not installed correctly at the beginning.

They were showing up in Device Manager where they should not have been.

They were deleted in Device Manager and in Printers, then reinstalled.

This seems to have been the problem.

HP support was very good about finding this problem.

So at this poiint will keep Windows 7 on the computer.

[gaspasser]

Spoke too soon.

Just opened Firefox - nice freeze up.

Maybe something to do with Flash Player?

I have an HP Netbook and have had no problems with freezing up, but it is Windows 7, 32 bit.

[anchorwood]

Gaspasser, I wonder if we have the same problem.  Are you saying that your computer freezes, or that just the mouse stops or freezes briefly at random times?  The latter is what my problem is, along with the occasional jump to another part of the screen.

Your mention of the Device Manager prompted me to look at that.  I don't see any printers there.  But I do notice that under the mouse is shows "Synaptics PS-2 compatible mouse pad" or something close to that.  I don't use a mouse pad; the computer cam with a HP wheel mouse.  Actually the original went bad after a while and I replaced it with what appears to be the same type of mouse from an older HP computer. 

But I wonder if having mouse pad software causes a problem with a regular mouse.

If anyone reads this and has an answer for that, please let me know.

[gaspasser]

Still freezing up.

If you Google "Youtube & Windows 7 Freeze", there are a lot of results.

One I did find that might be worthwhile:

http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/#tab0

This is a Microsoft "Fixit" site.

I have run the one for Playing video files crashes or freezes Internet Explorer or Windows but have not tried it yet since I need to reboot.

[gaspasser]

Rebooted and guess what - still freezing up.

Very frustrating.

I have an iMac that my son encouraged me to get a year ago that I run VMWare & Windows 7, 32 bit on that I have never had a problem with freezing up.

I will go back to using it.

I am a physician anesthesiologist - if I ran my work like some of the computer hardware & software companies, I would have been sued for malpractice so many times it would make your head spin.

[gaspasser]

Anchorwood, with regard to your previous post:

Are you saying that your computer freezes, or that just the mouse stops or freezes briefly at random times? 

The latter is what my problem is, along with the occasional jump to another part of the screen.

I have had both of these problems.

When trying to play a video on Youtube or look at pictures, the computer will freeze up - mouse does not respond, keyboard does not respond. You leave it & come back minutes later - still frozen up.

I have also had what I call a very sluggish mouse - you get into a program and the mouse barely responds - but still moves (barely).

I tried a wired mouse & keyboard instead of the wireless mouse & keyboard that came with the computer, but no solution.

This is a very frustrating problem.

As I said previously, I am on my iMac now with VMWare and Windows 7, 32 bit and no problems.

[gaspasser]

Since my last post I have continued to try to fix the problem.

1. Replaced memory with Crucial memory - still froze up.
2. Replaced motherboard with an Asus P8H61MLE motherboard, added an Asus wireless card - still froze up.
3. Replaced the video card with a PNY8400 GS - has not frozen up yet running video on You Tube.

I think the video card may be the culprit in this deal.

I was relating my problems at work with the computer and someone said that this freeze problem happens with Windows 7 Home Editions and that if you upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate the problem would go away.  If it still continues to freeze up, that will be my next step.