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
    2012-02-12T13:47:58+00:00

    My mouse inexplicably developed the same problem - no warning whatsoever.

    I finally realized that the problem developed when I began installing rechargeable batteries in the mouse.

    Switched back to regular alkalines, and problem disappeared.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-09-03T07:05:54+00:00

    Whoever marked the BitDefender thing as an answer shouldn't have. This is not the first time I've seen a complete non-sequitur marked as an answer. Whoever does this, please don't presume to speak for the original poster about what solutions do and don't work. I have never even USED BitDefender, and I explicitly stated earlier in the thread that the most closely related steps that did apply to my situation had been tried and did not work.

    (I have unmarked it now - a course that wasn't available on the previous occasions when this happened.)

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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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