Windows XP and the mousepointer with AI

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cyclonebri

Regular
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
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93
Location
Ames, IA, USA
Ok I have this strange 'phenomenon' going on and I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this. It seems at random intervals throughout the day all of the sudden my mouse pointer develops AI and feels trapped in the OS desktop, thereby finding a sudden urge to flee to the top left or right or bottom left or right corner of the screen. What is really weird is that it will actually 'Fight' me to get there, but once there it is like it dies and it goes back to normal. I wondered if this might be some sort of trojan horse, and or someone is gaining access to my desktop through remote desktop access. This is happening on multiple XP machines, here at work and at home. At first I thought it was a side effect of a wireless mouse and interference, however lately I've been using a wired mouse and it's been almost worse. Has anyone else noticed this, if so, how do you fix it? I guess as long as I'm not being trojaned, I can live with it, although it is rather annoying at times.

Anyway, if anyone has seen this and/or knows how to end this, I'd surely appreciate the help.
Thanks,
Brian
 
I've seen this occur on systems which were sandboxed from outside networks and therefore virtually immune to infection. I've always shrugged it off, but you bringing it up does have me wondering. I'll keep an eye out for any references to it.
 
I had this happen to me back when I was using Windows 98. It actually got to the point where I was unable to use the mouse. I reformatted the comp and haven't seen the problem occur since.

Whether or not this is related to your problem, I have no idea. Just thought I'd share. :)
 
Yeah I 'feel' like I have a pretty good security scheme going on here, but I am by no means an expert. I am planning on reformating my primary machine, and then at the end of the week I'll redo my home machine. Fun times ahead :). I figured that I'd try that anyway and see what happens. Thanks guys for your thoughts. I am really interested in the win 98 machine that did that. My question for you would be were you using an optical mouse when that happened? I haven't ruled out the possibility that it could be something with the optical mouse drivers or some sort of interaction malfunction (although it's happening with multiple mice).
 
No, I didn't have an optical mouse at the time. It was a typical cordless with a ball for movement. I honestly don't think the problem is mouse related.
 
Random sporadic mouse movements can happen with both optical and traditional ball mice. Sometimes when mine is just sitting on the mouse mat the cursor can decide it wants to move all the way to the left of the screen, slowly, and it does. A quick tap of the mouse and it stops as the light-sensors inside are re-aligned.
 
solution to controlling free moving cursor under WinXP - anyone?

cyclonebri,

I just located your posting re the cursor moving on it own. Just to relate my own experience. The problem first occurred very recently on my laptop running WinXP pro when the cursor started to move on its own free will against attempts by me to use my wired optical mouse to control it.

Using the task manager I detected a Trojan running. Promptly deleted the program and ran several trial trojan remover programs to clean up. Finally resorted to reformating my HHD + re-installing WinXP. Problem persisted so repeated the process ie. re-formatting and re-installing the OS a second time!.

Subsequently, I located and installed 2 (not one) Trojan detection/removal s/w. Problem seems to disapper for a while before returning to haunt me these past few days (after I've used my PC for a while). My PC automatically runs Trojan Remover (Trial) on startup to look for trojans. I also run a2 scanner as a backup in case trojans escape the first utility.

FYI - my PC runs Sygate Firewall Pro + eTrust anti-virus automaticaly on startup for protection against intrusions for a long time now and I'm extremely prudent when visiting sites.

So my short question to a long story is - is there anyone on this forum who has past experience with the same issue found a solution to fix the problem or know why there's such a problem in the first place?
 
Well I had this problem, but as Divil says, when the pointer starts moving I just kick several times my optical mouse and everything returns to normal.
 
Hi

Problem is I've both verbally and physically 'abused' my optical mouse without making any difference! I think the problem is purely software (ie. trojans/virus/sypware, etc). In fact the cursor even 'fought' against my attempts to move it via my mouse as if it has acquired advanced AI!!!

There should be more meaning to life than time spent figuring out such 'technological irritation' but ...
 
Have you run a virus scanner? How about something like Spybot (checks for annoying software)? Have you tried a second mouse, non-optical?

-nerseus
 
I have been having a smiliar problem- where the mouse (which is optical AND wireless) will decide on its own when it wants to go to a corner of the screen. Although it does it too quickly.

This realy really agrivates me while playing a video game.

Although I'm only having this problem with the wireless mouse I have... I have no problems with my regular optical mouse (USB) like this at all.

I would just use my USB mouse for when I play video games, but that is annoying because I'd have to change the speed settings everytime I used it. I guess that's a quick fix though.

anyhoo- I did happen to find some settings for the wireless mouse in the active mouse properties. I changed the sample rate (lowered it) and the input buffer length (raised it) and that seemed to make it a little better, but still not good enough for playing video games.

if anybody knew how to help, that would be so sweet.
 
Hi all

My laptop automatically loads and run eTrust (anti-virus), Sygate Firewall Pro, Trojan Remover, SpywareGuard immediately after boot-up.

Additionally, I frequently run Spybot and a2 (another trojan scanner with a signature file of >21k!) to ensure anything that escapes the first round of scanning gets trapped! On each occasion nothing was reported present on my PC.

I've also used a track ball mouse without any luck when the problem last occurred (note the past tense!).

The problem seems to have gone away since filing my most recent response to this discussion thread. Not sure what I did that made the problem disappear.

While I'm relieved, I'm not comfortable with not knowing exactly what caused the problem in the first place and the remedy if indeed there was something I did that 'fix it'.

Perhaps it's the multiple levels of security I've installed that's working ...

Or is it Windows XP that operates in mysterious ways ......
 
The more that I encounter this, the more I think it might have something to do with the directx 9.0a and/or b drivers. I was rebuilding a machine this weekend and as soon as I put the directx drivers on it started to happen. I am not sure if it's a security hole in the drivers (I know there is a patch) that allows people in, or if the drivers themselve just cause the mouse to go haywire. Hopefully someone will figure this out soon. It's rather disconcerting.
 
I spoke too soon as my cursor has just gone absolutely berserk!

Again running all the scanners but they all reported clean bills of health ie. nothing to report.

I was trying out IncrediMail Xe shortly before the phenomenon returned. I've uninstalled that s/w plus removed whatever residue entries are in the registry using Ashampoo + RegClean yet still the problem persists - infact the cursor is simply out of control!

Anyone who can offer insights would be much appreciated. I hope not to have to rebuild my PC to fix the problem.

...... totally exasperated
 
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