MS Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 periodically becomes slow, jerky and unreliable

Anonymous
2010-08-30T03:34:12+00:00

Just in the last couple of days, my mouse - a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 that I've owned for about a year and have until now been very happy with - has developed some strange, intermittent problems. Every so often, for no obvious reason, pointer movement becomes slow and jerky and it starts ignoring the majority of my clicks - I typically have to click the button three or four times to get it to register even a single-click. The one thing that works pretty much as expected at such times is the scroll wheel.

The problem is intermittent and unpredictable. One moment it will be as smooth as I could ask, the next it's an exercise in frustration to do the simplest tasks, then eventually the problem vanishes, as suddenly and mysteriously as it appeared. I'd say this happens about once an hour, maybe a little less, for anywhere from about 3 to about 20 minutes at a time.

I changed the batteries, then (several hours later) installed the software from Microsoft's site rather than just using the driver that comes with Win7 (the latter advice was from a similar thread from this site). Neither has helped; the problem still comes and goes as it pleases, not noticeably more or less often than before. At times when this happens, the wireless signal is (according to the aforementioned software) very good, and CPU activity is usually not particularly high, so neither of those things is the problem either.

Any ideas?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-08-13T23:00:53+00:00

    Kurtlane, that's good info. This is an RF mouse afterall, and the ones that give me the most grief with two batteries are the ones that are withing 12 feet of our router. My work mouse rarely acts up and it's not next to our WAP.

    Good info!

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-08-13T22:57:42+00:00

    Hi,

    Interesting solution however I think I would contact the free Support to get a better resolution.

    The mouse/sets comes with 90 tech support from day of 1st incident which would start when

    you contact Microsoft at the below number.

    If the mouse is defective check with the seller or Microsoft.

    MS Hardware Support and Warranty Claims

    Tech Support 1-800-936-5700 for MS Hardware.

    Hope this helps.

    Rob Brown - MS MVP - Windows Desktop Experience : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

    Hi Rob,

    At this point we now own four of these rodents (I so like the shape, that's why I stick with them). I use one at home, one at work, and my wife and son both use them. ALL FOUR do the jerky movement thing with two batteries, and all four run smoothly with one. If you really want to initiate a fix, get this info to the hardware team, it sure seems they have a firmware flaw, lol!

    One other thing I might mention, and this ought to light up the forum pretty good: The Anti-Virus thing is a red herring, the problem is in the hardware. I have never and will never, EVER, use any kind of process-killing anti-virus software, EVER. I don't at home or work, nor do my wife and son. Our machines run like a dream and we've never gotten a virus, no way I'll give that up. I've not used AV software for 20 years and don't plan to at this point. We don't get viruses because we stay very aware of our environment. We certainly don't visit sites or download anything in question, and as a MCPD developer I can spot a fake email a mile away. Actually, I read my mail on my iPhone which laughs at viral attachments. Granted, I do use hardware Firewall (Windows Firewall always turned off) and I do run SuperAntiSpyware or even Security Essentials every now and then, but only manually, these things don't run in the background. I tell you this because I'm convinced that the mouse has a firmware issue and all of the AV discussion is wasting time. Please, if you prefer to run AV, then by all means do it. I DO believe that a software change agitates or settles the mouse issue, and that will make it look like it's the software interfering, but in the end you will get the problem returning after all of your time-wasting efforts. I have gotten the jerky movement a couple times a couple of times in the past year with one battery, but only for a moment. The battery trick cures the symptom... we need Microsoft to check the design and cure the problem.

    OK troops, fire away, I figure that's ruffled a few feathers, lol!

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-08-12T14:50:07+00:00

    Yes,  When i using my Belkin Wireless router, eg, to do something on my Mac or watch a movie thats on ym PC on my playstation thats in the other room,   the mouse gets slow and jerky.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-07-05T22:02:52+00:00

    Hiya,

    I'm hoping you can help me also, I have the wireless (not laser) mouse 5000, and am also getting random/jerky movement with it. Really irritating when playing games.

    I have a Win XP system that the mouse works perfectly on (sold this to my flatmate once I upgraded to an Alienware tower). My new system is Win 7 64 bit, and the issue only occurs on this machine (and occured the moment it was unpacked and switched on, reasonably vanilla, apart from the alienware bells and whistles, no AV software installed until I put AVG on later).

    A standard USB mouse works without issues, but switching to the wireless one brings back the problem.

    Running on one battery as suggested above doesn't solve the issue, and I've checked that the latest driver version is installed. There's also only one mouse listed in device manager, a USB wireless mouse.

    As the folks above have indicated, the scroll wheel appears unaffected, it's just the clicking and pointing features.

    Just as an aside, and it may seem like a dumb question - is this actually a wireless mouse (ie one that operates over 2.4Ghz frequencies and might be vulnerable to the same types of interference that plague WiFi) or a bluetooth device?

    A second issue, related to the other piece of kit - the keyboard - Is there an on/off switch somewhere? The intellipoint software indicates that there's a button of some kind on the back, but it doesn't appear to exist on my device. I haven't used the keyboard for a while, changed the batteries (brand new ones), and now can't get it to come on - there's a red light that came on next to the battery indicator after around an hour, but the PC doesn't notice if I type anything.

    Any help appreciated.

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  5. Anonymous
    2011-05-29T01:37:12+00:00

    Hi McGoy49,

    No one is suggesting that anyone should run without security software. Just that some

    interfere with the mouse. such as Norton, BitDefender, and others. And those can cause

    mouse issues regardless of brand or type of connection though USB and BlueTooth

    seem to beaffected the most often.

    Here is what I use and recommend : (These are all Free versions and very effective.) 

    Avast and Prevx have proven extremely reliable and compatible with everything I have

    thrown at them. Microsoft Security Essentials and Prevx have also proven to be very

    reliable and compatible. Use MSE and Prevx or Avast and Prevx however not all 3.

    Avast Home Free - stop any shields you do not need except leave Standard, Web, and

    Network running.

    Prevx - Home - Free

    Windows Firewall

    Windows Defender (not needed if using MSE)

    IE - Protected Mode

    IE 8 - SmartScreen Filter ON  (IE 7 Phishing Filter)

    I also have IE to always start with InPrivate Filter active if IE 8.

    (You occasionally have to turn it temporarily off with the little Icon on LEFT of the + bottom

    right of IE)

    Two versions of Avast are available 6.x and 4.8x

    Avast 6.x - Home - Free - Stop the Shields you do not use (except File, Web, Network, &

    Behavior) - double click the Orange Icon in Notification Area - Real Time Shields - click the

    Shield you want to stop - STOP. To stop the Orange Icon from showing an error indicator -

    click the Orange Icon - Upper Right - Settings - click Status Bar - uncheck the Shields you

    disabled - click OK

    http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

    Avast 4.8x - Home - Free - stop any shields you do not need except leave Standard, Web,

    and Network running. (Double Click Blue icon - details next to OK. - upper left Shields -

    Terminate those you do not use.)

    http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download#tab4

    Or use Microsoft Security Essentials - Free

    http://www.microsoft.com/Security\_Essentials/

    Prevx works well along side Avast or MSE

    Prevx - Home - Free small, fast, exceptional CLOUD protection, works with other security

    programs. This is a scanner only, VERY EFFECTIVE, if it finds something come back here

    or use Google to see how to remove. 

    http://www.prevx.com/   <-- information

    http://info.prevx.com/downloadcsi.asp  <-- download

    PCmag - Prevx - Editor'a Choice

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346862,00.asp

    Also get Malwarebytes - free - use as scanner only. If you ever suspect malware, and that

    would be unsual with Avast and Prevx running except for an occasional low level cookie

    (no big deal), UPDATE it and then run it as a scanner. I have many scanners and they

    never find anything of note since I started using this setup.

    http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free

    Hope this helps.

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