Display and mouse problems

[g4graham]

My kids computer: After shutting down 2 nights ago 2 problems have ocurred:

1. The mouse pointer is lost. It is a MS Optical Wheel mouse. It lights up but no pointer on the screen.

2. The display is set at 16 color. Using the keyboard, I have tried to change the color back to 16 bit high color. It will change to 16 bit and can apply the change but when rebooting will revert back to 16 color.

Everything was fine at shutdown I was standing there as it was late and a school night. Could this be a virus? Since it is on the home network I don't want a virus attacking my system. Right now only one is powered on at a time.

I have just downloaded new drivers and will see if that will work. In the mean time any ideas??

It is an older system running on an Asus P5A, AMD K2, WinME, Hercules Ge Force2 MX. Except when the kids screw it up, it has always run without issue. Mostly they use it to IM friends, email, & music. Therefore it doesn't require investing to update. Rather just keep passing it down the line.

Any help would be greatly appreciated....

 

[Bartman39]

Think that is a video driver issue but go to safe mode and see if you have a pointer once again...? If so remove the video driver and install a std VGA driver that should get your pointer back in WinME then install new drivers for the card and it should fix the problem...? One other option is the use the restore feature...

 

[amdskip]

IMHO, windows ME is the devil. I would format and run windows 2k on that box and see what happens. This could be your whole problem.

 

[g4graham]

Downloaded and burned new mouse driver, Video driver, & trial virus software. Was able to boot with CD support. Navigated around with keyboard & installed mouse driver. Now with a pointer, I was able to remove the video adapter. Rebooted, New Hardware found, Video card installed. Installed and ran Sophos Virus software. 3 horses found and removed. Back up and running.