I have no idea what could have caused this, it just started 30 minutes ago, but in Internet Explorer I:
Instantly lose focus on text fields I click on.
Cannot activate radio/check boxes.
Cannot click on links (though the link changes color, it’s never actually followed, and if I mouse over a link it shows me the target)
Use my middle mouse button to open the circle/arrows to scroll (it comes up for a second then disappears).
Scroll using my mouse wheel
Use tab to select things
I can, oddly enough:
Use toolbars, including the default one (I can search for example)
Right-Click, and select/use whatever comes up in the menu.
Use my middle mouse button to open links in a new tab.
Follow popup links, i.e. the advertisement banners if you’re not logged into the SDMB. (wtf?)
It happens in no programs other than IE7, and I even tried reinstalling my mouse drivers so it’s not that. And I tried deleting all cookies/temp files/resetting all setting/restarting as well as shutting down my computer. Any ideas? I’m on Vista Ultimate x64 SP1.
And no, “just use Firefox” (which I am right now) is not a valid answer.
Interestingly enough, one of the guys i work with had similar problems with his Logitech Super Awesome Mouse. Plugged in a cheapo HP mouse, intalled SP3, and the Logitech SAM worked after that. Just my cheap 2 cents, YMMV.
How about installing a different version of IE? There may be a conflict with your mouse and IE, that is triggered by certain events. Since Firefox and other programs work fine, that rules out your mouse.
Even though I love Firefox, I have two issues that crop up now and then. One is the bookmark bar (or whatever its called) fails to load, and I have to restart Firefox. It seems to only happen if my network connection isn’t resolved when I open Firefox. The other is very odd. I sometimes get text-only versions of web pages. Sometimes a reload corrects it, other times I have to restart the browser.
Sometimes, applications are just quirky, and need a good kick in the ass to work correctly.
I’m looking through my registry on IE7 (kicking myself for not knowing what the default reg looks like here) thinking maybe something got altered, but I’m getting a lot of “default (value not set)” things here, not sure if that’s normal or not.
Something that seems odd, but may not be is that HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PageSetup only has a default with no value, which may be it’s not processing links to load correctly?
Moving over to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE the URL Compatibility has a reg with Version 5.1 but two folders with the same “Compatibility Flags” (0x00000004), maybe a malfunction there not sure, the Java Virtual machine (Java_VM under advanced options) is all but blank except a “Reg Policies” value. I don’t know I’m just throwing out info that has a small chance of being relevant.
As to rolling back, since I have Vista, I’ve had IE7 forever and ever on this machine. It just stopped working, the only thing I can think of that could have altered it between when it was and wasn’t is I installed a Java update (with browser extensions and such). Since most of what’s ailing me is javascript (losing focus on boxes, not being able to press buttons) it could be a candidate, but some things, like following links, isn’t Java. And it works on Firefox, I’d think it’d be universal ona ll browsers if it was a browser hiccup.
Also, I can’t uninstall/reinstall IE7 because Microsoft spits at me and tells me on their download page “Vista comes with IE7 noob, why’d you want to dl the installer?”
Finally, it’s not working with another mouse either, it seems to be just the program like I suspected.
I have a similar setup (native Vista machine, IE7, etc.,) and this happened to me once as well. I placed my mouse in a different USB port and re-booted and it hasn’t re-occurred, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
