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

LOL! Isn't that the most frustrating thing? It jerks, stops, and the mouse clicks work only half the time. Good news: I figured it out.

First let me mention that I have the Wireless 5000 Keyboard and Mouse set both at work and at home, and BOTH mice did the same exact thing, on XP SP2 32-bit and Win 7 64-bit, OS doesn't matter I did all of the suggested things... latest drivers, reset buttons, blah blah blah. Barely worked, and if it did it lasted 30 minutes. Then, out of frustration, I stumbled upon the answer by mistake:

Open your battery cover and pull out the the battery that's on the left, i.e., farthest from the laser hole. That's it. Just run on one battery, plain and simple. Both mice work and HAVE worked for almost two weeks, so I know it isn't a fluke. FYI, the BlueTooth 6000 mouse only uses one battery, not sure why the 5000 needs two. Try it and see. Make sure you DO have all the latest blah blah blah, but lastly pull that battery and enjoy your mouse.

I also have my transceiver USB stick in the side of my monitor so it's 2 feet away and in direct line with the mouse.

BTW, that also means that cost of operating the mouse just got cut in half. ;-)

A few comments/responses before I dig into this:

First of all, I just downloaded Intellipoint today, so I had better have the latest version already.

Second, I currently use Avira. I found Avast to be a HUGE resource hog, though that was a few years ago on a much less powerful system than I use today so it may not be true anymore. I have not used any other antivirus programs since upgrading to Windows 7. (The same machine has had Trend Micro on it, but before I upgraded the OS. I found it buggy and intrusive and replaced it with Avira on advice from a well-known antimalware site.)

There is no system maker as I built the computer myself.

Having said all that, I'll give your suggestions a try. I may not get to some of them for a couple of days, though.

Hi,

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 5.x and 4.8x

Avast 5.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/

Hop this helps.

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

A very strange answer Paulie D!!

I have a Microsoft cordless mouse (the same model), which a few days ago developed a "varied number of clicks required to do anything and move on" fault. I plugged in a USB mouse...same thing. So it's the computer and possibly a virus?!!!! Oh NO!!

A VERY annoying problem as it has taken hours to surf the net and do things that should have taken at least a quarter of the time. A worrying problem because something is obviously wrong with the computer, and no virus or spyware program has picked it up. 

ANSWER: Do as has been suggested!! Remove one of the batteries (only one appears to be able to be removed, and not the one furthest from the lens). For the past hour I have one clicked my way around the net without a problem. Can anyone explain? I'm using rechargable batteries? Thanks for the answer...I'm HAPPY!!

Other wireless devices (for example a wireless router) could be interfering.

Try rearranging things (move the receiver closer to the mouse, move other wireless devices futher away, etc).

Reference The Troubleshoot response failures in Wireless Keyboards or Mouse KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838398

-Mark