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Mouse pointer/cursor changing to strange pointer

Anonymous
2011-09-22T05:52:30+00:00

I'm using Win 7 HP 64.  Mouse pointer sometimes suddenly changes to a strange looking pointer.   The pointer looks a straight line with some short diagonal lines which looks like a fish born but diagonal lines appears only right side of the straight line, 4 or 5 triangles in line, etc. The shape change when mouse pointer move over different objects on windows.   I have thought the icons come from mouse pad gestures but now I think it is not.   The mouse pointer usually eventually start blinking in small rectangular.   It looks like broken TV screen which shows just horizontal lines.  Once it happens it does not stop until I turn off computer. 

I tried to search for answer in Internet but I could not find answer yet.  I hope it does not caused by a virus....

<Original Post - mouse pointer  suddenly changes to a strange looking pointer.>

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-09-28T14:41:04+00:00

    Hello Samohn,

     Thank you for the response back!  Are you able to duplicate this problem if you sign in using a different user account?  You could try to perform a system restore ty a point in time prior to having this issue.  However, if that doesn't fix this issue, have you run a scan on your computer for virus' or malware?  I hope the links below help out!

    System Restore:

     http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/system-restore

    Malware and Virus:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-security/how-to-get-rid-of-malware/ba80504b-61f1-4d71-960f-b561798b7b42

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-security/virus-protector-virus-has-taken-over-my-computer/9f069595-7217-4f8b-a6cc-0062f100a5d1

    Thanks,

    James

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-05-21T15:53:00+00:00

    I was able to find a solution to this... I do have an external monitor and also an ATI graphics card. The icon changing is definitely irritating because, for example, if you want to watch YouTube, where you would click to play or pause etc. isn't so easy.

    Anyway, what I did was dragged the mouse over to the other monitor, right clicked on the desktop and hit "Refresh". Then when I dragged the mouse back to the monitor I was using, the regular mouse icon appeared.

    :-)

    CHEERS!

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-09-23T03:14:54+00:00

    Hi Samohn,

    1. Since when are you facing this issue?
    2. What changes have you done prior to the issue?
    3. What is the make and model of the mouse?
    4. Do you have updated drivers and software installed for the mouse?
    5. Do you have any third party mouse theme installed?

    If yes, uninstall and check.

    Method 1: ****You may try unplugging and plugging back the mouse and check. Also you may try connecting the mouse to a different computer or connect a different mouse to the computer and check.

    Method 2:

    I would suggest you to change mouse pointer and check if that helps.

    Change mouse settings

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-mouse-settings

    Make the mouse easier to use

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Make-the-mouse-easier-to-use

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-06T15:24:08+00:00

    Anyway, what I did was dragged the mouse over to the other monitor, right clicked on the desktop and hit "Refresh". Then when I dragged the mouse back to the monitor I was using, the regular mouse icon appeared.

    This was immensely helpful for me...I've had this happen several times on my computer at work and sometimes it would fix itself and I couldn't pinpoint what fixed it. Now that I have a fix that works consistently, I'm taping it to the frame of the monitor so I don't have to go looking for it again.

    Thanks for the fix! :)

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2012-04-10T14:30:09+00:00

    I have the same problem with Win 7 HP 64.  I can't reproduce yet, but I use in 3 environments since it is a laptop.  

    1. Office 1 - 2 External monitors - 1920x1080, and 1280x1024
    2. Office 2 - 2 External monitors - both 1920x1080
    3. Laptop mode

    The problem only occurs in scenario 2.  It somewhat seems to be related with using Office Communicator to share desktops, but I am not convinced of that yet.  

    In addition to the cursor turning to a half fishbone (which usually resolves itself pretty quickly), typically sometime after that (sometimes an hour later), both displays go blank, internal fan goes to 100% speed, and computer just hangs.  

    I found some discussion of others with similar problems at the following (had to use cached version of page since the link didn't work for me):

    http:\social.technet.microsoft.com\Forums\en%2Fw7itproui%2Fthread%2F820764ce-97f6-49e6-9735-014531664e0d&ei=CESET6LkKoei8QTF48XCCA&usg=AFQjCNE6SfT7KOlXiao6I9q_Ln1SaIxbvA

    Cached version:

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tWY-orpDMbMJ:social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproui/thread/820764ce-97f6-49e6-9735-014531664e0d+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

    basically, they were saying it was a ATI driver problem.  I do have the "AIT Mobilitiy Radeon HD 3400 series" driver.

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