Has Anyone Seen My Mouse?

My mouse arrow is here and working one minute and gone the next. Everything has worked great until today. I boot up and the mouse arrow on the screen works great for about 2 minutes, then it freezes for a few seconds, works intermitently, then the arrow freezes and then dissappears completly and then it reappears but will not move. I'm using a Logitec wireless mouse and keyboard. Then I tried a regular wire mouse and it does the same freezing thing. Thinking a driver may have been dinged I've tried to run XP Repair ( or reinstall) and it goes through the Collecting Information, Dynamic Update, and Preparing to Install phases, and then it gets into the Installation phase and my self built pride and joy computer quits or freezes up with 37 minutes of the estimated 39 minute XP installation estimation left to go. Is the Mouse issue and the XP issue related. (I'm getting a fatal error message saying Windows could not complete installation due to C/windows/systems32/netshell.dll. Now I can't get out of the installation process. I cancel the installation, the computer reboots, and goes back into the installation process 'till I try to get out of it again and the installation process starts again.)
Would the mouse problem be a hardware issue, incompatible software, or something in BIOS? If I had a gun I'ld be tempted to do a ' case modification' about now. At one time without thinking I had the Mouse and keyboard cables switched with the keyboard going into the mouse connection and the mouse into the keyboard connection. Would this have caused a problem? Did I ruin the MOBO doing this? (I'm the same guy that couldn't figure out why my floppy wouldn't work 'till I flipped the cable over. Then I couldn't figure out why the floppy quit working again 'till I discovered the power plug came undone).

Thinking out loud do I need to remove XP and re-install it? If so do I need to remove my other programs if I remove XP or can they stay? Should I un-install all my software and XP and start over? Would my old scanner software be causing a problem? Funny thing is the other computer I built is the exact same thing except for software and it is working perfectly.

Here's what I have to refresh memories

ABIT IC7-G MOBO
Pentium IV 3.0 CPU
2 200 GB WD SATA HD's in RAID Mirror Configuation
2 Sony DVD/CR RW's etc
Iomega 250 Zip Drive
Sony Floppy
Revolution 7.1 Audio Card
All-IN-Wonder 9600 Pro Vidio Card
ANTEC 480 Power System
Logitec Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
Coolermaster Wavemaster Case

Software consists of

2 different printers
Photo editing
Vidio editing
Canon Camara software
HP 5200 Scanner
and a few other minor programs



Ya know it's kind of funny, I've never built a computer from scratch before and I'm thinking this is computer building stuff is a 'piece of cake' since it pretty much worked right off the bat except for the RAID issue. (The funny thing is my RAID configuration was set up correctly the whole time. I just assumed when the screen said press F4 to enter RAID there was a problem. There wasn't as per ABIT). I'm sitting here pretty smug thinking about the horror stories I've heard and my first attemp at building a computer works......untill now. Maybe I'll start drinking again. Have to admit, my posts are probably pretty amusing to the real Geeks here.

IMSA
Geek Wannabe

 

Before doing anything run a virus scan

 

For what it's worth (and that's not much, believe me), I think both jujet and Nick are right. First, you need to make sure your machine is not misbehaving because you're in the grip of any nasties, so UPDATE and run your anti-virus on-demand scan, your anti-spyware programs, and then your registry cleaner (to get rid of any trash left behind by the things those other runs found), ... and then try updating or re-installing the drivers (and the other software support, if any came with the Logitech kb and mouse). That should do it, and it's not as much work as it sounds like.

Let us know, eh?

 

Now dealing with XP

After 2 days without power and the internet I'm back. Only had 6 inches of snow but it was the extra inch of freezing rain that brought Portland to a standstill for almost a week. Most people who get frequent snow must think Oregonians can't drive in the snow. Some can't. The real problem is the layer of ice and a temp. at freezing or slightly below that keeps a thin layer of water on top of the ice and it's slick! That and the fact there is a 1800' elevation in Portland's city limits makes driving difficult at best. Then there's the bazillion fir tree branches that ice up, get too heavy, and then snap off onto the power lines leaving us without power.
For some stupid reason I thought it may be a good idea to run the XP repair/instulation process. Dumb idea. XP is trying to install and the prompt says it will takes 39 minutes to install. That was an hour ago and it still says it's going to take 39 minutes to install. I tried to reboot and cancel the instalation process gut it keeps going back to 'Instulation' after it reboots on startup. Any ideas? Is the 'XP repair' process really that slow. Should I, and if so, is there a way to cancel the process?
Once I get the XP issue taken care of I can reinstall my mouse drivers.

IMSA

 

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/307/5/45.asp


This should cancel the repair.

If you have any troubles, let us know.

 

Clean way to start over?

Thanks for the tip on repairing XP. I'm wondering is there a clean way to wipe everything clean and start over from square one? I have absolutly nothing on my computer except for XP and software I haven't used yet so I don't have to worry about losing any data? If I can just delete my entire HD,s and start over, is there a step by step process a novice like me can understand? IE, in the Recover from Corrupt registery' information, one is directed to boot from the Recovery Console. I have no idea how to boot from the Recovery Console or how to find it. Since I have nothing I need to save, wouldn't it be easier and in my best interest to just completly erase everything including XP and reload everything starting over from the beginning reloding XP and my software?

Thanks,

IMSA

 

Turn off the computer with the XP CD inserted into the drive. Restart and the computer will boot to the CD. The CD will ask you whether you want to format. Format and re-install. The installation program will walk you though, step-by-step.

 

Thanks Guys Again

Once again you guys have saved the day for me! Went ahead and did the Format and re-install. Have since reloaded my softwear and everything including my mouse works great. Must have nicked a driver or something in Windows or Logitech.

I'm back to computing again

IMSA

 

Grrreat! Glad that all worked out for you. You were lucky that you had so little on the machine already, so that re-installing everything was not a great big thorny issue.
Gotta watch yer spelling of "software," though, IM! Softwear is when you have your baggy old sweats and yer bunny slippers on. SoftWARE is the stuff that makes the OS worthwhile (or not).
Have a good one!

 

I've been planning on doing just that

I have a 60 GB WD HD in the old Dell with only a few Corel Drawfiles on it. I'm planning on moving the HD into my new machine when I retire the Dell in the next week or two

IMSA

 

I suspect it was a driver issue to begin with.....Im going to guess a display or chipset driver, since these can do a lot of harm if they mess up.
Either way, its not really your fault.
If it happens again, try uninstalling and reinstalling your drivers first.