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I had been my computer most of the morning and went to have coffee break. When I came back I couldn't get anything to work normally. After a lot troubleshooting with the mouse moving the pointer but being to open any of the programs I decide to pull out a wireless mouse to see if some how the mouse lost its mind. Well apparently it did as the wireless is working. Just a weird problem as now when put it back the computer says software not found. Oh well I needed new mouse and keyboard (letters worn off the keys).

It appears to my year for various failures around the home. This is just the latest problem. I lost the water heater earlier due to rust out and last week the well tank sprung a leak and now this. Looks like I will be spending a lot money on home repairs. Drats...Just when everything is getting extra costly.

Being a messy slob I have been using track balls for the past 20 years as you don't need clear desk space for it .
These only come wired & they plug into the wired in keyboard
Remember the KISS principle .
Wireless makes sense for gaming keyboards & controllers
When you are sitting 2' away from the screen they just slow things down & make life more complicated.
During the floods I had a lot of cars in front of the house and about 50 unsecure wi-fi I could have logged into .

Back before optical mice and they had mechanical balls i can't count the number if service calls i took for "mouse not working" because of women who used hand lotion multiple times a day and it contaminated the mouse pad and gunked up the wheels in the mouse.

reboot it. Check mouse and keyboard batteries.

Weird one I had happen. Sitting in living room, garage door just starts opening.. I run in the shop, thinking someone got my code (Which is a rolling one).
Shut door & it did it again.
Happened 3 times, I pulled the battery outta my oldest remote, & ta-da.. no more auto open.. That old remote now sleeps with the fishes.

That was one I never encountered before..

7394 said:

Weird one I had happen. Sitting in living room, garage door just starts opening.. I run in the shop, thinking someone got my code (Which is a rolling one).
Shut door & it did it again.
Happened 3 times, I pulled the battery outta my oldest remote, & ta-da.. no more auto open.. That old remote now sleeps with the fishes.

That was one I never encountered before..

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Oh yeah... sorry that was me... You didn't see me hiding behind that bush in your yard? When I saw you chunk that remote I figured I had made you mad enough.... ???

Scrub- So the truth comes out.. No I didn't see you or you mighta got some buckshot.. You got me good...

Only other time I had a garage door open deal (long ago) was when wife went to work..............But forgot to shut the garage door..

Hammermechanicman said:

Back before optical mice and they had mechanical balls i can't count the number if service calls i took for "mouse not working" because of women who used hand lotion multiple times a day and it contaminated the mouse pad and gunked up the wheels in the mouse.

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Just calculator keyboards didn't like soft drinks. I even had one the cat peed on it. Just had to replace that one as the cat just using the keyboard afterwards.

sgkent said:

reboot it. Check mouse and keyboard batteries.

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When the mouse and keyboard are connect via hard wire to the USB ports there is no batteries to check. The problem was one of the micro switches failed. Cost more to fix then to replace beside it was over 5 yrs old and worn otherwise. I just never a mouse to fail before since I have been using computers and I started back in the early 1980's.

sgkent said:

reboot it. Check mouse and keyboard batteries.

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Second sgkent.

A restart is always better than a shut down. Shutdown preserves some stuff so power on is faster. However a restart does not preserve stuff previously in main memory. It's good hygiene to restart your computer, mobile phone, router etc. Now on the other hand if your computer is 20+ years old-- you may want to avoid and definitely have on a UPS as the disk drive may not spin back up after spinning at 10,000 RPMs for a long time. Most hard disk drives are rated for 500,000 or more MTBF, however that's a mean.

You could also try just pulling out the USB keyboard and mouse and just plug back in to see if that corrected the problem. It could have been the USB driver that lost its marbles.

oldlawnguy said:

Second sgkent.

A restart is always better than a shut down. Shutdown preserves some stuff so power on is faster. However a restart does not preserve stuff previously in main memory. It's good hygiene to restart your computer, mobile phone, router etc. Now on the other hand if your computer is 20+ years old-- you may want to avoid and definitely have on a UPS as the disk drive may not spin back up after spinning at 10,000 RPMs for a long time. Most hard disk drives are rated for 500,000 or more MTBF, however that's a mean.

You could also try just pulling out the USB keyboard and mouse and just plug back in to see if that corrected the problem. It could have been the USB driver that lost its marbles.

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Oh that didn't was it as the left hand hand micro switch failed. Cost more to replace the switch then a new mouse. Plus I only around these for 40 yrs. Newer systems can be a pain to learn the way they are setup but that like anything new just got with your previous knowledge experience.

they get dirt and debris in them, also the plastic hinge gets goofy. Used to fix or replace them by the hundreds at my last job. No one uses corded mice and keyboards much any more except in emergencies.

sgkent said:

they get dirt and debris in them, also the plastic hinge gets goofy. Used to fix or replace them by the hundreds at my last job. No one uses corded mice and keyboards much any more except in emergencies.

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Really ?
No new computers ship with a corded keyboard & mouse but that does not mean no one uses them
I for one have 4 computers all with corded keyboards and corded trackballs
My other half has a tower computer with a corded keyboard
Cordless keyboards were a cost saving idea because they are a lot cheaper to make
They also cause a lot more problems
The original corded keyboard on my 1997 Mac Qudra is still working perfectly
I use it daily as Best Books is on that computer & Symantic Great Works & Word Perfect .
I use these daily because despite being run by an old Motorola 040 processor it can still word process faster than I can type and I really don't need all that fancy graphics when writing a letter .
This last year I have had to get a newer I mac because changes to security protocols means that the old computers can not connect to a lot of servers any more .
most people use less than 10% of the capacity of their phones and even less of their computers unless playing high end games with a lot of complex graphics.

sgkent said:

they get dirt and debris in them, also the plastic hinge gets goofy. Used to fix or replace them by the hundreds at my last job. No one uses corded mice and keyboards much any more except in emergencies.

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Then I am a no one. Batteries here is always die at the most inopportune time.

Always had a mouse at work, so, for a longtime, used a trackball at home. Sorta divide the repetitive motion between two evils. (plus, a hobby program. GemCad, worked better with the t'ball)

Got tired of the wire though since retired. Got a wireless Logitech Trackman. so nice.

StarTech said:

Then I am a no one. Batteries here is always die at the most inopportune time.

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Exactly
Then you need he battery to go on line & order a new battery
There was a song about this wasn't there, some thing about a bucket with a hole in it .
Then there is interfearnce from other bluetooth devices and of course the bluetooth transmitter / reciever in the computer
All my computers have multiple USB ports & I have a couple of USB / ethernet 2-way adapters I use for the printers that are not wired for ethernet .