For the past couple of days my mouse has done something I’ve never heard of before. Occasionally when I touch it after taking a break and walking around my dorm (and building up static electricity, I assume) my mouse will give me a shock. The shock/spark seems to come from below the right edge of the left mouse button. It doesn’t do every time, however.
Then, yesterday I got shocked again, but this time there was a popping sound through my speakers and my whole computer shut down. This frightened me not only because of the whole electricity thing, but I had been working on a 22 page physics paper :shudder:. Luckily, I recovered the paper and the computer booted up as normal. Since then I think I’ve gotten the shock once more. I had got a rubber mouse pad, but that didn’t help. Anyone have any idea what’s going on here? Btw, the mouse itself works fine.
What type of mouse - USB or PS/2?
Check this:
- make sure the plug is in tightly
- make sure the wire isn’t frayed
Sounds like static to me. Touch something metal and grounded before you touch the computer.
The mouse is wired directly to the motherboard. The static discharge causes a huge ground bounce, which as you’ve noticed can royally disrupt the computer if it’s large enough. Worst case is that you can actually damage your motherboard (and maybe the mouse, though it’s less sensitive to damage).
The rubber mouse pad only acts as an insulator. It’s not going to help anything. You need to discharge yourself before you touch the computer.
It’s a PS/2 mouse with an adaptor going into USB. As far as I can tell all the wires are fine/plugged in tight. I’ll probably just end up getting a new mouse if it keeps happening. Thanks for the info.
If it is indeed a static discharge, getting a new mouse won’t help, unless you touch nothing on it that would permit a static charge to be carried to the CPU. Follow engineer comp geek’s advice and put some sort of metal object somewhere near your computer, and make a habit of touching it before you touch any part of your computer (mouse, keyboard, etc.) I have a gooseneck metal lamp on my computer desk that works just fine for discharging any static charge I may have built up. (Even if your immediate problem is not a static charge, it’s a good idea to un-ionize yourself before using the computer, as a life-extension step for it.