Unresponsive mouse clicking

Hello,

This is by far the weirdest problem I've encountered on my computer.

(this problem started first thing today)

Every few minutes when I either surf online or use a Microsoft office software, my mouse clicking is completely unresponsive when trying to click anywhere on the taskbar (including start) or anywhere on the software's toolbar. It's driving me nuts.

For example, if I'm surfing the web on Firefox, there comes a moment where I want to change windows in the taskbar, and it's unresponsive. Even if I place the mouse on top of a window it doesn't glow (like it use to when you hover over something). Then when I try navigating on my web window, all the tool bars (including the tabs) doesn't respond when clicked.

The interesting part is that everything that is on the window at that moment still respond with mouse movements (clicking on a link, scrolling a page).

At first I thought explorer.exe froze, but all the keyboard commands still work, so that's how I switched between windows at those moments.

What's more interesting is that sometimes when I go to a click frenzy and hope it works again, the current window also becomes unresponsive to mouse clicks, and I can only scroll the page using the mouse wheel. .

The only way I made my mouse to work again is pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del and open up task manager. By then everything works again for a while until it happens again.

First I thought it was my mouse that didn't work, but it's movements are fine and it's only unresponsive in specified sections. So I tried doing a system restore, but that didn't work. So now I'm stuck.

I'm using Windows Vista Home Premium on HP for about 2 years. I have a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 v2.0 for about a year.

Any help or advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi timtimpei,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

First, replace the batteries in the mouse to rule that out as a possibility - when low (or if somehow not inserted properly), they can cause this type of problem.

Next, try a different USB port on the computer to see if that makes any difference.

Do you have another mouse and/or another computer (or one you can borrow for a few moments)? Try swapping the mice and see if the problem remains on the computer (suggesting a problem with the computer if a different mouse that works fine on another computer has the same problem here) or moves to the other computer (suggesting it is a problem with the mouse - especially if the other mouse works fine on the original computer). This will be immensely useful to know.

Is the problem with both right and left clicking as well as scrolling or only some parts - if so, which parts work and which don't?

I believe the mouse came with software. But let's re-install the latest version to make sure some Vista update didn't require the more recent software. You can download it here: Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Hardware - Download Software. Reboot after installing and see if that helped.

If that doesn't work, try a clean boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135. If the problem goes away then it's just a matter of tracking down the culprit causing the problem. Follow the procedures in the article. Once found, delete, remove, deactivate, or uninstall it. Once done be sure to reset Vista back to normal status as explained in the procedures. If the problem occurs in clean mode then just restore the system to normal status and reboot - this solution is not going to work.

Boot into Safe mode with networking and see if the problem occurs there. Either result helps us narrow down the search for the cause.

That's it for now. There are other options we can try, but rather than guessing wildly, let's see what we learn from the above. Please be as detailed as possible about each process so I can understand what did or didn't happen and hopefully focus in tighter on the cause and, from there, the solution. The ability to swap mice and see what happens is possibly the most important test listed - though still please be sure to do them all before you reply as there's no telling which might contain that key piece of information which will ID the issue.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

In addition to the above
Make sure that the driver is up to date and working properly, per device manager.
Look for yellow warning markers in device manager.

Edit
Lorien has just been kind enough to advise me that this particular mouse does not have a driver. I have nothing else of a worthy nature to contribute. I do however, wish you luck.
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/support/default.mspx