Sticky mouse & choppy skype sound

First of all, I do apolgise if this is in the wrong thread (or even site) but I am at my wits end adn don't know where else to turn.

The issue: When my PC starts up, and at erratically intermittent intervals thereafter, my mouse will occasionally freeze for 1/2 to 1 second. This seems to happen when a program is being loaded - e.g. Avant Browser, Outlook, or Firefox. Occasionally I get a green box on the right hand side of the taskbar telling me that my CPU is running at 100% but not always - the culprit is hard to find as when I look in Taskmanager -> Processes, and order by CPU% (highest at the top) I don't get one bad program at the top of the list, i.e. the top program changes.

I also have a problem with Skype - the sound is very choppy and slows down as time progresses. Before anyone sends me to the Skype forum, I've been there and done everything I can find plus posted to their support forums and followed their instructions to the letter. By the way, I have no problem with sound anywhere else and my internet connection is 1Mb ADSL (my girlfriend and a colleague of mine can use Skype no problem at the same time on the same connection perfectly well so I suspect it's a probelm with my computer).

What have I done? Well, I'm not blessed with the sort of technical knowledge that I hope to find here but I've done the whole Skype forum thing (no improvement), I've explicitly followed the instructions on this website at the following URL:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

(Ad-Aware SE (with the Ad-Aware VX2 Cleaner Plug-In installed) found PSEXESVC.EXE, and PowerStrip, both of which I removed. I used safemode with networking as per instructions and did everything in the order stated.

I've attached an AIDA report that will hopefully give insight to the enlightened and allow me to join their ranks, at least in some limited way
I would be most grateful for any help that you guys can give me.

I haven't done a HiJackThis log but will if told it's necessary.

Thanks in advance

Baffled Toby

 

What are your computer specs? Lack of RAM or CPU power could be the problem behind the apparent mouse freezing upon program load.

 

If this is a new problem, and you havent recently installed anything my first guess would be ad/spyware if your computer is locking up or slowing down.
you should go to the spyware section and do everything in the sticky "read me first"

 

Sorry for the delay - I took my lovely wife away for the weekend. As far as the problem is concerned... I did the whole virus / ad / spyware removal as recommended at this site using the URL:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

Nothing! My CPU is 900Mhz with 736 Mhz of RAM - should be biug enough I reckon for a business PC, albeit a tablet. No?

By the way, the mouse sticking also happens if I go to activate the Start menu (while it loads I am unable to do anything, including move the mouse).

 

Can anyone suggest anything? I'm continuing to get this problem. What I have noticed is that the sticky mouse and the skype stuttering seem to go hand-in-hand. Is there some way I can understand what DLLs are being invoked when these things happen?
Also, the mouse / skype sound issue seems to occur if I open a program - doesn't matter what the program is, IE, Outlook, Word2003, etc. Whilst the program opens it seems to take over the entire computer for several seconds. It makes me think that this could be the culprit if background tasks are casuing the mouse / skype-sound to havce to wait whilst they open or do whatever they do.
I'd be extremely grateful to anyone for any advice they can give.
TC

 

Yeah i know what you are talking about with a choppy mouse. I have had a similar problem where every once in a while my mouse would get all choppy and my hardrive would make a very funny sound and there is a very simple solution to this. All you have to do is run a scandisk on your C drive and reboot the computer and you should be fine.
PS: I dunno if this will work for you but it works on my computer. I am running winxp service pack two with all updates installed.

 

oh yeah write back and tell me if it works

 

Not sure if I've done the right thing. I couldn't find SCANDISK so I ran CHKDSK instead. I also defragmented my drive (even though WinXP said it wasn't necessary). Unfortunately the problem persists.
Is there no way I can tell what programs are hogging CPU when the mouse sticks or the Skype sound jitters?

 

chkdsk is the winxp version of scandisk. You do have the latest version and definition file of ad aware right? Try updateing that and run another scan. Oh yeah and your process problem you can see whats going on very easily by hitting cntrl+alt+del and clicking the process tab and it gives you a live picture of what's going on inside your system. And maybe the choppy mouse is a dirty mouseball or something check that and clean it out. I have one computer where the mouse doesnt moves right and its because the roll thing inside is always dirty. Try the mouse and write back if that fixed it. Oh yeah why dont you send me a desktop image of your taskbar so i can see whats going on in there. And the noise... maybe its just the way the hardrive runs. Or there is something physically wrong. And maybe try running registry mechanic on your system cause it could be a registry problem. the site is www.pctools.com You start with a free version that can fix some stuff but not everything but if you feel like spending about 30 bucks for the full edition you can fix all of the problems it finds. Lemme know if that helps

 

Oh yeah try another mouse too maybe the mouse you have is faulty....

 

lemme know if it works

 

Hi
AdAware is up-to-date and reports no problems (I just ran a scan).

Mouse is an optical mouse so no ball to get dirty. It only sticks when a program loads, like for instance Outloook or IE. Once loaded the mouse is released.

The sound issue only happen when I try and make a call using Skype. The other person sounds very jittery / choppy. I have followed all of the3 suggestions in the Skype troubleshooting forums but to no avail. No other sound has an issue on my system - I can play MP3 files without any problem and experience no issue with system sounds.

I have noticed that the mouse and the Skype sound issues often seem to occur at the same time and wondered if there could be some conflict there?

 

First of all, did you try another mouse? And maybe the sticky mouse could be because your computer is busy. The sound i would check the modem and sound drivers for updates. And third maybe you are running too many programs when you use skype. Try closeing some stuff down to free up system resource. Oh yeah check your graphics card to for the mouse situation it could simply be an old card. (first try updates if that dont work try a more high end graphics card in your computer to clear it up.
lemme know if that helps.

 

OK - the Skype sound issue is solved I have the answer and it isn't driver related. The problem I had is specific to Tablet PCs, which I guess is why I couldn't find it in the support forums. The resolution is as folloows:

1. Open the registry by going to Start -> Run, and typing "regedit" without the quotes.
2. Make a back-up of the registry by going to File -> Export
3. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WDMAudio\Kmixer
4. There should be 3 values here: MaxNumMixBuffers, MinNumMixBuffers, StartNumMixBuffers. Delete them all.
5. Exit the registry edit session.
6. Restart the computer
7. Problem solved (well, for me anyway).

I have no idea why this should work, I just know it does and nothing else seems to be affected, at least not yet.

There is still the matter of the mouse freezing when programs load or the system is busy for some other reason. To answer Kuku's question about system spec:
CPU Type: Mobile Intel Pentium M, 900 MHz (2.25 x 400)
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Montara-GM i855GM
System Memory : 736 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type: Phoenix (03/19/04)
Video Adapter: Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller (64 MB)
Video Adapter: Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller (64 MB)
3D Accelerator: Intel Extreme Graphics 2
Monitor: Digital Flat Panel (1024x768) (12003)

I've got more from Aida, if necessary.

 

I forgot to say that I did try two other mice and I get the same problem (both are optical mice; can't seem to find a ball mouse anywhere these days).

 

ok so that rules out the mouse... oh and congrats on fixing the skype problem . Umm now with the mouse... it only does it when the programs are loading right? If that is so that is just the way the system runs. Cause my last pc was a 200MhZ cannon. (I know a total peice of s**t) running win98. It used to do the same thing alot and it was just the way the system ran. But if its doing it after the program loads it is something wrong. Or your cpu is just maxed out. Now is it just loading or once the program loads it is fine?

 

Once the program loads it is fine except if, for instance, I'm in Outlook and move from one message to another, while the Preview Pane loads (which also seems to take eons) the mouse sticks (and is free again as soon as the pane is loaded). Sounds like it's just the way the cookie crumbles, I guess. Bummer. If that's so then thanks for all your help anyway