What causes a "sticky" mouse?

[dajoga]

My mouse started sticking especially when moving slow--thought my mouse was no good and bought another one! Still the same problem--did a virus scan and adware but nothing showed up. It really acts up when there's downloading of some sort going on, but even when I'm disconnected I have problems.

Running Netscape 7.0 on a Dell P3--any ideas anyone?

[Rhino]

What kind of mouse, ball or optical? Ball mice get dirt on the rollers and will often stick/jerk as a result. Got another mouse you can swap in as a test? If it's a ball mouse, and the rollers are dirty, you just gotta clean it.

[Foquet]

If it is a ball mouse, you can generally pop open the bottom of it, (most will have a small cylinder that will have arrow marks on it telling which way to turn it so as to remove it) and then apply some rubbing alcohol with a Q-Tip to clean out the dirty area of the ball and the cylinder.

I myself would recommend an optical mouse as they are only a few bucks more expensive and last much longer.

If this is an optical mouse, can you tell us what model and make it is?

Also, did you remove the old mouse's previous driver before installing the new one?

[DoctorDoom]

When the problem is occuring, use Ctrl-Alt-Delete, click Processes, and in the CPU column, look for a high percentage other than Idle, which would mean that something is hogging the CPU time.

[dajoga]

When the problem is occuring, use Ctrl-Alt-Delete, click Processes, and in the CPU column, look for a high percentage other than Idle, which would mean that something is hogging the CPU time.

Ouch, that locked the 'puter up tight! Had to manually shut off, but oddly when I restarted I didn't get the "improperly win shutdown" screen and the scan to see if there's any errors on my HD like usual.

Forgot to mention I'm running Win 98SE--also it's a ball mouse but even the new one didn't work right. Stuck my old one on my old 'puter and it worked fine. So it's in my current machine.

Doc, is the 3-finger salute what you meant? I don't see that "Processes" item anywhere. Just the programs that are running.

[DoctorDoom]

I forgot that you're using prehistoric software. :D Yep, it's the 3-finger salute aka the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. I forget what the tab is called, but if there's a CPU column, that's the one.