WinXP Pro - Mouse Freeze/Erratic Behavior - Puzzled

[Valour]

I'm having an odd problem with a clean Windows XP Pro installation. I have tried many, many clean installations (all after a clean format to eliminate any "contamination" from any previous installs), the last few with different combinations of limited driver installations to attempt to pinpoint the problem. No luck.

Here is the problem:

I installed WinXP Pro and everything appears to go very well. I have since found a problem that I can duplicate every time I desire. When I open the CD Rom drive tray and insert a CD, upon closing the tray, the drive begins to spin up and a second or two later my mouse pointer freezes momentarily and then begins normal operation and the CD starts it's autoload routine (if it has autorun functionality...I have tried all sorts of different CDs). The problem happens if I am moving the mouse WHEN the mouse pointer freezes upon the CD activity. When the mouse becomes "functional" a second or so later, any movement of the mouse causes extremely erratic behavior (i.e. phantom right-clicks, drop&drags, windows opening & closing - all based on mouse movement only...I'm not even clicking any buttons). At this point, I cannot get the actual pointer to move consistently in any direction. Usually it simply "jitters" in place while all the other erratic behavior happens. At this point, I have to use the keyboard to restart windows normally. Upon reboot, everything works normally again...until I insert a CD and move a mouse during the momentary mouse freeze. This is an incredibly frustrating problem, as I use all of this same hardware with Win98 & Win98SE without a hitch. Needless to say, this is why my copy of WinXP Pro remains dusty on the shelf and I go back to Win98SE.

I would really appreciate any help in this matter. I have searched forums and Google Groups to the point of mental exhaustion, but can't find anything that looks to pertain.

Thanks in advance.

My System:

Windows XP Pro
Intel P4 1.7GHZ socket 423
256MB Samsung RDRAM
Asus P4T Socket 423
Kensington Expert Mouse 5.1 (trackball mouse - PS/2)
LG Electronics 8522b 52X CD ROM
VisionTek Geforce 3 AGP Video Card
WD 60GB HD (forgot part #..will find it)

Anything else needed, just ask.

Thanks

 

[TheWart]

sorry for the frustration! a few ideas...

--is DMA enabled on your CDROM drive?
--why not disable autorun and manually start the cd when you want to use it?
--i see you are using a PS/2 mouse, maybe try to pick up a USB one from a friend to try (i know it will be diff drivers etc, but i would get a new mouse instead of use win98 over winxp!)?
--maybe someone else can confirm this, but maybe your PS/2 port ratings are too low/high (random guess, sorry)?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Valour
I'm having an odd problem with a clean Windows XP Pro installation. I have tried many, many clean installations (all after a clean format to eliminate any "contamination" from any previous installs), the last few with different combinations of limited driver installations to attempt to pinpoint the problem. No luck.

Here is the problem:

I installed WinXP Pro and everything appears to go very well. I have since found a problem that I can duplicate every time I desire. When I open the CD Rom drive tray and insert a CD, upon closing the tray, the drive begins to spin up and a second or two later my mouse pointer freezes momentarily and then begins normal operation and the CD starts it's autoload routine (if it has autorun functionality...I have tried all sorts of different CDs). The problem happens if I am moving the mouse WHEN the mouse pointer freezes upon the CD activity. When the mouse becomes "functional" a second or so later, any movement of the mouse causes extremely erratic behavior (i.e. phantom right-clicks, drop&drags, windows opening & closing - all based on mouse movement only...I'm not even clicking any buttons). At this point, I cannot get the actual pointer to move consistently in any direction. Usually it simply "jitters" in place while all the other erratic behavior happens. At this point, I have to use the keyboard to restart windows normally. Upon reboot, everything works normally again...until I insert a CD and move a mouse during the momentary mouse freeze. This is an incredibly frustrating problem, as I use all of this same hardware with Win98 & Win98SE without a hitch. Needless to say, this is why my copy of WinXP Pro remains dusty on the shelf and I go back to Win98SE.

I would really appreciate any help in this matter. I have searched forums and Google Groups to the point of mental exhaustion, but can't find anything that looks to pertain.

Thanks in advance.

My System:

Windows XP Pro
Intel P4 1.7GHZ socket 423
256MB Samsung RDRAM
Asus P4T Socket 423
Kensington Expert Mouse 5.1 (trackball mouse - PS/2)
LG Electronics 8522b 52X CD ROM
VisionTek Geforce 3 AGP Video Card
WD 60GB HD (forgot part #..will find it)

Anything else needed, just ask.

Thanks

Hmm. A friend of mine had that same sort of problem under Windows95B and Win98se on his mail-order TigerDirect "PC-DVD" system. I'm not sure what we did to actually fix the problem, but we also did a few things like replace the power-supply. In fact, it is possible that power problems may be causing the glitch, as the CD-ROM drive spinning up would suddenly consume a lot more power. I see you have an older 0.18 P4 system, with a good amount of components installed. What kind/rating PSU do you have?

Also, have you tried simply using a different mouse? Does the same thing happen?

 

[johnlog]

Other than the power supply have you tried reinstalling the mouse driver? Uninstall the mouse. Reboot and Windows should find new hardware and reinstall the mouse driver. If that does not work you possibly have a dirty or defective mouse. Try removing the ball and cleaning out the ball and the rollers inside the mouse. Can make a huge difference in mouse performance. Try using a different mouse.

All you need for a mouse test is some low cost $5 mouse you can find in some computer stores. I found PS2 A4tech low cost mice work quite well. They are more responsive than my new optical wheel mouse.

 

[Valour]

Thanks for all the help, guys. I actually found the problem last night. I'm still not exactly sure what was technically causing it, but swapping out the CD Drive with a different one took care of the problem. I no longer get any hesitation when the drive spins up, and my mouse performs flawlessly now.

Another thing I noticed since swapping the CD drive was that it now shows all 4 IDE devices at the POST (2 hard drives on IDE 0 and a Zip Drive and CD Drive on IDE 1), where as before it only showed the devices on IDE 1.

Just to answer a couple questions, I have an Antec 400W p/s. And I do have other mice that I tried. The results varried, but all froze briefly when the CD drive was accessed and *usually* acted erratic from that point on until I rebooted. The reason I wanted to stick with this mouse is because I really prefer it to "regular" mice (it's a Kensington Expert Mouse Trackball) and cost me about $115 several years ago.

Of course, all that doesn't matter now because the issue was been resolved. Thanks again to all who tried to help. It's appreciated.

 

[kursplat]

glad you fixed it
are you sure the master\slave jumper was right on the 1st CD-ROM?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: chuck340
glad you fixed it
are you sure the master\slave jumper was right on the 1st CD-ROM?

Yeah. I have a feeling, based on how he resolved the problem, that you are right, there was some sort of low-level communication problem with the CD-ROM. When inserting the CD-ROM, windows does a volume check, and if an IDE bus is having problems, Windows will freeze up for a bit.

 

[Valour]

Yes, Master & Slave were set correctly. 🙂 Being a Systems Admin myself, I understand that those questions still have to get asked anyway. 🙂 That being said, the real problem turned out to be the system was not plugged into a power outlet. 🙂 j/k

I'm going to put the "bad" CD ROM in my other system (also WinXP) and see if the problem is duplicated. The reason I am still trying to track down the issue is I want to ensure that there isn't something else wrong that appears to be fixed because of slight hardware differences. For instance, during the post, I see all my devices listed with their respective IRQs, with the exception of the mouse, which has a "NA" next to it. However, in Windows, the mouse shows it's proper IRQ (12). I have PnP disabled in the BIOS and the PS/2 port is enabled.

Thanks again for the help.