Cursor Freeze

[HomeschoolrsRUs]

My Mom called me frantic yesterday about her computer ... said she was on the net the night before and a pop-up occurred (she doesn't remember what it said), so she x-ed out of it. Afterward her cursor froze and she couldn't do anything. She was afraid to call me when she couldn't figure out what to do herself, so she just cut the computer off at the power and left it overnight (that was Friday night. Yesterday afternoon she booted back up and the cursor is still "frozen". She can't move it at all, nor do the up and down keys on the keypad work either.

Does anyone have any idea what may be wrong? Suggestions? Recommendations? Help, http://www.freeconservatives.com/vb/images/icons/crazy000.gif. What's even more difficult is I'm trying to diagnose and fix this long-distance (we live about an hour and a half away from each other). Our family's going down for Christmas on Wednesday, but I hate to make her wait that long for her internet if there's a way I can walk her through a fix now.

Any assistance will be, as usual, GREATLY appreciated!
Blessings,
Hms

[DoctorDoom]

Maybe it's a virus or spyware. Does the cursor move during bootup?

When the computer is starting, press the F8 key repeatedly. This should bring up a menu that includes Safe Mode (if Windows starts booting, restart the machine when it finishes). Select that and hit Enter. It will take considerably longer to boot, and it will look weird, with Safe Mode in all four corners of the screen and everything on the screen looking huge. This is the bare-bones basic Windows, without any third-party drivers or programs.

If the cursor moves then, a virus scan and a spyware check are in order. They can be run in safe mode. In fact, it's better to do it that way, although it's seldom done.

If it doesn't move in Safe Mode, the mouse itself may have gone west.

[HomeschoolrsRUs]

Maybe it's a virus or spyware.
Does the cursor move during bootup?

She said not. I installed Norton 360 on her computer for antivirus & spyware (her internet provider doesn't offer it like mine does), and she didn't indicate any alarms or anything from the Norton ... course, that doesn't mean anything I guess, since I'm not there to actually see what happened/what's going on.

When the computer is starting, press the F8 key repeatedly. This should bring up a menu that includes Safe Mode (if Windows starts booting, restart the machine when it finishes). Select that and hit Enter. It will take considerably longer to boot, and it will look weird, with Safe Mode in all four corners of the screen. This brings up the bare-bones basic Windows, without any third-party drivers or programs.

If the cursor moves then, a virus scan and a spyware check are in order. They can be run in safe mode. In fact, it's better to do it that way, although it's seldom done.

If it doesn't move in Safe Mode, the mouse itself may have gone west.

Will give it a try (see if I can walk her through that over the phone). Thanks, Doc! :thumb:

[DoctorDoom]

If possible, see if she can remember what the pop-up said. It may be related.

[Gonzo67]

Tell her to shut the computer down completely. Then in the back, unplug both the keyboard and the mouse, make sure the plugs are both clean (get any dust out of them, then plug them back in firmly.

Tell her before plugging them back in that if they are the PS2 plugs (round barrels with pins inside) that they are keyed so that they can only plug in one way. Make sure to plug them in the right way without damaging the pins.

If they are USB (The flat plugs) tell her that she might want to try unplugging them, and plugging them back in to 2 different USB ports, if she has 2 others available.

At any rate, when plugging them back in, no matter which plug type, tell her to make sure they are firmly seated. Plugged in all the way. Then boot the system back up.

It's possible that the plugs were loose, or not plugged in all the way. Hopefully she'll have Keyboard and Mouse back when she boots back up.