Why does my laptop freak out on occasion?

Factual Questions
1

Sorry, I can’t be more specific in the thread title.

Laptop: 32 bit Lenovo Thinkpad T61, Vista Business, older Logitech USB optical mouse.

Problem: I’ll be typing along (it’s happened in Word 07 and right here on the Dope), when there’s suddenly a flicker on the screen and suddenly I’m unable to edit what I’m typing by pointing and clicking with the mouse. Can’t highlight text, can’t insert, nothing. If I try to click somewhere in the document, the cursor just races through the text and then stops at the end of the docuement. I can, however, continue to type text, and backspace over previous text.

In Word, it’s even worse: The document will suddenly scroll to the bottom of the page and I can’t make it scroll back up. It just…bounces, I guess you could say.

I’ve downloaded the newest mouse software I could find for optical mice, but the problem continues. If I reboot, the problem goes away, but can return at anytime. But not always. It’s sporadic.

Any ideas? Should I invest in a new mouse? Or is it something more insidious?

2

Have you tried disabling the built-in touchpad or other pointing device? That would be my first test.

3

It sounds like something to do with the scroll wheel or some other scroll feature.

I would try disabling the TrackPoint in the BIOS setup to see if the problem is with the TrackPoint or the USB mouse. If the problem goes away, I’d try enabling it again but disabling the scroll function in the Control Panel. You might also try the latest TrackPoint driver.

4

When that sort of thing happened to me, it was me leaving my wrist on the down arrow key. Maybe that key is sticking?

5

I downloaded TrackPoint 4.72 or whatever the latest is when the problem started. No joy. I’ll see if I can disable the touchpad mouse.