# What is wrong with my mouse/browser? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 3, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-mouse-browser/680394 "2014-02-03T03:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-mouse-browser/680394/1 "2014-02-03T03:17:36Z")
I’m having weird problems with my mouse while using Firefox. For instance, if I were on the Dope I can click on a thread and that works. If I click on the ‘forum jump’ pull down box, that list appears but I can’t click to make a selection there. I can use the arrow keys to make a selection and go to a different forum. So I can use the mouse to open a pull down menu but not use the mouse in the menu. Any ideas? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-mouse-browser/680394/2 "2014-02-03T04:05:58Z")
When obscure and weird errors like that happen to me, I empty the cache and restart the browser. It seems to fix things, for some reason. Cache is accessed at Tools / Options / Advanced / Network / Cached Web Content, Click “Clear Now” ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-mouse-browser/680394/3 "2014-02-03T05:09:01Z")
Thanks, I tried that, it didn’t work. Then I did the old standby of turning my computer off and turning it back on. Why does that work? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-mouse-browser/680394/4 "2014-02-03T15:45:47Z")
My guess: Rebooting cleans up any little errors and glitches that have accumulated since you last turned the beast on and that could be working together, or against each other, to make things not work right. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-mouse-browser/680394/5 "2014-02-03T17:15:16Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > My guess: Rebooting cleans up any little errors and glitches that have accumulated since you last turned the beast on and that could be working together, or against each other, to make things not work right. Yip, that’s pretty much it. Rebooting is like starting over with a project from the beginning after you’ve made too many mistakes and can’t straighten things out. BTW, do you happen to have an offbrand mouse that came with it’s own driver disk? My parents have a mouse like that, and it occasionally has similar problems. Although, for it, you couldn’t click on title bars, as they would lose focus. I eventually figured out that I could fix this by without restarting by locking the account (Windows-L) and then logging back in. It seems that this would reset the mouse driver. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-mouse-browser/680394/6 "2014-02-03T19:12:13Z")
Exactly the same thing happened to me and I use Chrome. I made a post about it in ATMB. It continued for a couple of weeks while I tried all kinds of things to remedy it. Then, late last week, it went back to normal. I have no idea. You might change your mouse batteries, weird things happen when they start to run out. I did pull mine out and switched them around a while back, but it wasn’t until quite a while later that the problem fixed itself.