# What's wrong with my mouse?  Relieve my embarrassing ignorance.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-mouse-relieve-my-embarrassing-ignorance/157088>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 24, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-mouse-relieve-my-embarrassing-ignorance/157088 "2003-02-24T04:05:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-mouse-relieve-my-embarrassing-ignorance/157088/1 "2003-02-24T04:05:53Z")

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I am using a new (to me) old Mac G3 Power PC and am having all kinds of trouble. Hers’s just one exceedingly stupid question:

How come I can’t get my mouse to highlight things (so I can delete them) all of a sudden? When I hold the mouse button down and drag over the text I want to delete (in this case, the internet address line) nothing happens. WTF? (I am SO embarrassed to have to ask such a stupid question. Please have mercy!)

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**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-mouse-relieve-my-embarrassing-ignorance/157088/2 "2003-02-24T04:17:28Z")

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'snot a stupid question. Sounds like you need a new mouse.

hrh

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-mouse-relieve-my-embarrassing-ignorance/157088/3 "2003-02-24T04:19:58Z")

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Can you double-click to do things? If so, I’d say it’s not a hardware problem. If not, I’d go with **hrh** ’s suggestion.

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**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-mouse-relieve-my-embarrassing-ignorance/157088/4 "2003-02-24T04:35:06Z")

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Maybe there’s dust on the little bars and wheels around the mouse ball. Open that sucker up and pull it out, and it’ll probably work again. If it doesn’t really work, get a new mouse.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-mouse-relieve-my-embarrassing-ignorance/157088/5 "2003-02-24T05:11:47Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> When I hold the mouse button down and drag over the text I want to delete (in this case, the internet address line) nothing happens.

The text highlighting of the address line in some versions of IE for Mac is defective. Sometimes it’ll work fine, sometimes it looks more like deselecting already selected text, and sometimes it’s just Odd. The mouse button seems to work, or you’d be asking about an inability to open menus or close windows. It might need a cleaning, but that shouldn’t entirely prevent you from making a text selection. I’ll bet it’s buggy software. Do you have troubles selecting things in any other programs ?