My computer's going wacky in Windows

[Muse]

Suddenly this morning, my Windows 2000 SP4 system is acting wacky and it's driving me batty. Where should I start?

In various programs (including my IE 6 browser window while I'm reading my post!), things jump in the screen as if I'd clicked the up or down arrow in the scroll bar (but I haven't - I'm hands off! Edit: Happens with Firefox too.). What should I do in an attempt to fix this? The box is Beauty in my sig, I'm running Norton AV 2003 with virus updates in the background, Zonealarm, ran Ad-Aware a few days ago. Reboot is no fix. Suggestions much appreciated!

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Muse
Suddenly this morning, my Windows 2000 SP4 system is acting wacky and it's driving me batty. Where should I start?

In various programs (including my IE 6 browser window while I'm reading my post!), things jump in the screen as if I'd clicked the up or down arrow in the scroll bar (but I haven't - I'm hands off! Edit: Happens with Firefox too.). What should I do in an attempt to fix this? The box is Beauty in my sig, I'm running Norton AV 2003 with virus updates in the background, Zonealarm, ran Ad-Aware a few days ago. Reboot is no fix. Suggestions much appreciated!

Well, I just installed Spybot - Search and Destroy, downloaded updates and scanned and fixed 14 problems and the problem reported above disappeared. Coincidence? I may never know, but the problem's gone (for now).

 

[Muse]

It's started that damn jumping again....

 

[Muse]

Now I think it's because maybe the batteries are low in my cordless mouse. I use a cordless and corded mouse simultaneously. Unplugging the cordless seems to alleviate the problem.

 

[AsusGuy]

any problems or changes to your system before this happned?

what kind of PC setup do you have?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: AsusGuy

any problems or changes to your system before this happned?

what kind of PC setup do you have?

I think it must have been because my cordless mouse's batteries were running low. Removing the batteries stopped the problem. I seldom use that mouse, anyway - use my corded Logitech most of the time, the cordless just for home theater stuff (on occasion).

 

[papadiddydoo]

lol!, well at least you fixed some problems in the process, and cleaned out your computer.

 

[forumJunkie]

Hrm thats odd, I'll have to remember that one.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: forumJunkie
Hrm thats odd, I'll have to remember that one.

It's funny how often when something is going wrong with a computer, the cause seems quite unrelated. For instance, a bad IDE cable for a peripheral can cause the whole system to not function, not just the peripheral.

I decided I'm just not going to keep that cordless mouse attached and functioning with batteries. I've taken the batteries out of the mouse and unplugged the receiver, which plugs into a USB port. I presume, I can hot-plug the receiver into a USB port and pop in a couple of batteries and be good to go anytime I want. I'll try it now...

Yep!