# Strange computer mouse behavior

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-computer-mouse-behavior/218891>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 14, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-computer-mouse-behavior/218891 "2003-12-14T04:16:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![the\_terminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@the\_terminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_terminator)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-computer-mouse-behavior/218891/1 "2003-12-14T04:16:47Z")

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Lately, my mouse seems to be interpreting a single click as two clicks or holding down the mouse button as a double click. For example, sometimes when I hit the back button in Internet Explorer it will take me back two pages, like from a thread on the SDMB right back to the main list of boards. It does not do this all the time, just randomly. I ran Spybot, AdAware and a virus scan and nothing came up. I am running Windows XP. Any idea what the problem could be?

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**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-computer-mouse-behavior/218891/2 "2003-12-14T04:21:17Z")

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I seems your strange mouse behavior just caused a multi-post in the GQ. 🙂

I reccomend going to the mouse settings in the control panel, and adjusting your double click speeds; else you might have a goofy mouse and might want to consider replacing it.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-computer-mouse-behavior/218891/3 "2003-12-14T06:44:06Z")

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I have a mouse which does the same thing. It’s usually a problem of worn or dirty switch contacts. They bounce too much (electrically) which confuses the microcontroller inside the mouse and makes it think that you really did press the button a whole bunch of times really fast.

You can try disassembling the switches and cleaning them, which on some mice is definately more trouble than it’s worth. A new mouse will run you all of ten bucks, so it’s not worth it (IMHO) to do a lot of fussing with it.