Something very strange has happened to my mouse. I can see the pointer in the middle of the screen, but it doesn’t move. Except that it does move - just invisibly. If I move down and left, I can highlight and bring up the start menu.
I’ve swapped out the mouse from a USB optical to a serial mechanical and get the same problem. I’ve checked for viruses and spyware. Right now, I’m in safe mode and both mice work just fine.
Any ideas?
PC/XP
When you first boot up your PC, do a Ctrl-Alt-Del, make sure that the “Processes” tab is selected, and tell us what’s there.
That’s the first thing that I would do, anyway.
I would go the System Device Manager, unistall the mouse, and let Windows detect it again. That will probably work.
What Shagnasty said. Also if you are using the manuf’s drivers (vs Windows built in drivers) go to the Control Panel add/remove programs applet and uninstall that driver set -Turn Off- Turn On- then re-install the latest mouse drivers driver set downloaded form the manufs website.
Also, check out this thread, where people smarter that I are helping somebody else.
This thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=343912
(That’s what I meant by “smarter than I”)
I’ve also had luck fixing things by waving my fist and cursing at the screen. 
The only thing I know I’ve done recently is to update my video drivers. Roll back the drivers and the problem went away. Must be magic 
That would certainly create a curser.