Mouse problem

I'm sure you are familiar with the unusual mouse cursor, a circle with
some stuff it it, I see it once in a while but it quickly goes away. I
don't know what causes it.

Well, this morning in Firefox running Gmail all of a sudden the cursor
stopped working. I finally found that unusual cursor near the top center
of the screen motionless. No movement of the mouse or any combination of
button presses would move it. The keyboard still responded, but I didn't
know how to make Firefox or XP do anything without the mouse. ESC key did
nothing. I finally had to reboot the system and lost much of my work.

What could I should I have done? Anyone have any idea? Any shift or
control key combination that would have gotten my mouse cursor back
again? In decades of computering I never had that happen before.

Suggestions?

TIA



--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.

In message , KenK
writes:

I'm sure you are familiar with the unusual mouse cursor, a circle with
some stuff it it, I see it once in a while but it quickly goes away. I
don't know what causes it.

Well, this morning in Firefox running Gmail all of a sudden the cursor
stopped working. I finally found that unusual cursor near the top center

I have turned on - it's in Control Panel, Mouse, Pointer options - "Show
location of pointer when I press the CTRL key". I find it useful when I,
too, am not sure where the cursor is! It just draws a rapidly shrinking
circle (quarter of a second maybe?) around the cursor if you just tap
the control key. (It also serves as an alert that you've accidentally
hit the control key; not that that's usually a problem on its own, but
it can alert you that your fingers are drooping towards it and might
thus modify some other keypress.)

of the screen motionless. No movement of the mouse or any combination of
button presses would move it. The keyboard still responded, but I didn't
know how to make Firefox or XP do anything without the mouse. ESC key did
nothing. I finally had to reboot the system and lost much of my work.

You need to learn some keyboard shortcuts (-:! _Most_ of Firefox can be
used from the keyboard, though clicking on links in pages is a real
pain; if you've got it set to remember things when closed, then closing
it may have helped (though not if you were in the middle of a long
sequence of pages such as a survey). I think Alt-space is one of the
most useful combinations in Windows-without-the-mouse, though how to
actually _do_ the Move and Size takes a little intuition. Most software
can be moved around in by use of Ctrl-plus-letter to get at the menus,
and tab and enter to fill in forms and the like (in fact I've often
found it very frustrating watching a mouse-person fill in a form: they
mouse to a box, type in it, then mouse to the next box, then type in it,
then mouse to the OK button and click it, whereas it'd be _much_ faster
to type in the first box, tab, type, tab, enter).

What could I should I have done? Anyone have any idea? Any shift or
control key combination that would have gotten my mouse cursor back
again? In decades of computering I never had that happen before.

Without knowing what caused it, sorry!

Suggestions?

Is it a wireless mouse? If so, check battery, and also (apparently, and
perhaps not very likely if you're on XP) whether there's a USB3 cable
nearby. Otherwise, sorry, no: I think we need to know what caused it
before we can suggest ways (from the keyboard, anyway) of getting it
back.

TIA



3
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

This was before we knew that a laboratory rat, if experimented upon, will
develop cancer. [Quoted by] Anne ), 1997-1-29

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
:

In message , KenK
writes:

I'm sure you are familiar with the unusual mouse cursor, a circle with
some stuff it it, I see it once in a while but it quickly goes away. I
don't know what causes it.

Well, this morning in Firefox running Gmail all of a sudden the cursor
stopped working. I finally found that unusual cursor near the top
center

I have turned on - it's in Control Panel, Mouse, Pointer options -
"Show
location of pointer when I press the CTRL key". I find it useful when
I,
too, am not sure where the cursor is! It just draws a rapidly shrinking
circle (quarter of a second maybe?) around the cursor if you just tap
the control key. (It also serves as an alert that you've accidentally
hit the control key; not that that's usually a problem on its own, but
it can alert you that your fingers are drooping towards it and might
thus modify some other keypress.)

of the screen motionless. No movement of the mouse or any combination
of
button presses would move it. The keyboard still responded, but I
didn't
know how to make Firefox or XP do anything without the mouse. ESC key
did
nothing. I finally had to reboot the system and lost much of my work.

You need to learn some keyboard shortcuts (-:! _Most_ of Firefox can be
used from the keyboard, though clicking on links in pages is a real
pain; if you've got it set to remember things when closed, then closing
it may have helped (though not if you were in the middle of a long
sequence of pages such as a survey). I think Alt-space is one of the
most useful combinations in Windows-without-the-mouse, though how to
actually _do_ the Move and Size takes a little intuition. Most software
can be moved around in by use of Ctrl-plus-letter to get at the menus,
and tab and enter to fill in forms and the like (in fact I've often
found it very frustrating watching a mouse-person fill in a form: they
mouse to a box, type in it, then mouse to the next box, then type in
it,
then mouse to the OK button and click it, whereas it'd be _much_ faster
to type in the first box, tab, type, tab, enter).

What could I should I have done? Anyone have any idea? Any shift or
control key combination that would have gotten my mouse cursor back
again? In decades of computering I never had that happen before.

Without knowing what caused it, sorry!

Suggestions?

Is it a wireless mouse? If so, check battery, and also (apparently, and
perhaps not very likely if you're on XP) whether there's a USB3 cable
nearby. Otherwise, sorry, no: I think we need to know what caused it
before we can suggest ways (from the keyboard, anyway) of getting it
back.

TIA

The mouse works fine after rebooting. It's not a wireless mouse. I think
something in XP or Firefox caused the problem, not the mouse itself. But
being me, I'm very likely to be wrong.



--
I love a good meal! That's why I don't cook.