Virus affecting mouse pointer, on plcs.net?

My mouse pointer sometimes has a mind of it's own...

I have had a strange occurance show up about once every 7-10 days. I lose control of my mouse pointer, for the most part. It kinda wanders all over the screen, will open windows and icons, will react accelerated when mouse is moved, won't allow left or right clicking. About all I can do is alt-cont-del.

When ever this shows up, I am on plcs.net. Sometimes I have have other windows open, but not always. It only shows up on the main computer that I use. It doesn't happen when I use my wife's fancy Dell.

After rebooting, the problem goes away, until next time. I haven't figured it out. It's been going on for about six months now.

It dawned on me that I am always on plcs.net when it happens, so I thought I would see if it was a conincidence, or if anyone else had the problem.

I AM NOT saying Phil's site infected my computer! But as strange things can show up anywhere, such as on links, and who knows where else.

It could easily be a problem with ths antique computer that I haven't caught on to yet. Whatever the problem is, the firewall and virus checker(s) haven't caught yet.

Anyone had something similar happen or have any thoughts?

regards.....casey

You didnt specify what OS but I will assume its Win9x, do the ctrl-alt-del one time and see how many programs are running...ie if they are programs you started.

If you have a long list of programs, especially ones you didnt start, then goto start>run and type in msconfig, goto Startup and see what is checked to load on start, uncheck all but maybe your Antivirus, systray and scanreg. Also look in Win.ini - windows for any programs being loaded or after run=, uncheck any.....BE SURE TO CLICK APPLY when done, you will have to restart.

If its a virus or trojan something has to be running in the background, disable or remove any programs that you are not familiar with. Some standard bad names you may find are msbb, smss, these should be removed. There are alot more that you can find the names of by going to an AV site, note many trojans arent detected by an AV,,,,especially if the AV is old and not updated.

Goto Control Panel/Add Remove Programs and see if you have programs you didnt install or dont know what they are.

If you are unsure about wether virus or worms are found either on your computer or elsewhere, why not try this link by Trend Micro?
Or download this scanning program from McAfee .

If the fault is found on your PC, you can try to search for the specified virus removal tools from symantec

Hope this helps.
Merry Christmas Everyone! beerchug

regards
Sherine T.

BTW, for peeps using Windows XP, if your PC got affected by some serious virus affecting the system32 files, it's best to disable setting to load last workable configuration, as it could bring the bugs back.

Hello,

I one's had the same problem, but it's quit a while ago. I was running Windows NT and I made use of a switchbox (omething to connect two computers too and only us one monitor, mouse and keyboard).had a bad mouse connector. On that switchbox I had a bad mouse connector.

Perhaps it's to simple but I just had to mention it.

Rudi

The only time's I've had that happen are when some random act of cosmic rays interferes with my optical mouse.

It sounds like you are on a home computer, so it's probably not the boss using a remote desktop...

In addition to doing a good virus scan (and trend-micro's online one is actually very very good), and of course a spybot/adbot scan, you might want to try using the firefox browser: FireFox Browser

It's a nice browser, that prevents a lot of malicious scripts from ever even making it to your PC.

Casey,

As Fritz mentioned above, I have also seen this behavior when using a switchbox for running multiple PC's through one common monitor, keyboard, and mouse. We have an 8 port one here connected to a bunch of W2K machines and if you switch between PC's and don't wait a few seconds before moving the mouse, you get the exact behavior you describe. I have found that switching to another PC and then switching back and waiting a few seconds before touching the mouse usually takes care of the issue.

Of course, if you're not using a switchbox, this is all meaningless and you're back to square one.

HTH,
Jeff

Also if your win9x then goto accessories system information look at your hardware enviroment as well as the software enviroment if you have a fault they will usually be written in red. Also goto selective startup remove all unneccessary programs on startup.

I've had a similar problem on a laptop under NT. The problem most often shows up when I'm running Excel.

When I'm using the laptop at my desk, I always use a standard mouse plugged into the mouse port, but the laptop also has a touchpad mouse, and I always figured the problem had something to do with contaminants on the touchpad. CTRL-ALT-DEL and cleaning the touchpad have always made it go away for awhile.

Sounds like the opening to 'Outer Limits'

"There is nothing wrong with your computer. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission...we control the horizontal...we control the vertical...While visiting PLCS.net, sit quietly and we will control all you see and hear"... utoh

beerchug

-Eric

If you create a "POLL" I'm sure we can solve this problem.

rsdoran said:

Some standard bad names you may find are msbb, smss, these should be removed.

Click to expand...

If it is an NT based system, I would not remove smss.exe.
I have heard of viruses that run as smss, but you certainly do not want to delete the "real" smss.


This is the session manager subsystem, which is responsible for starting the user session. This process is initiated by the system thread and is responsible for various activities, including launching the Winlogon and Win32 (Csrss.exe) processes and setting system variables. After it has launched these processes, it waits for either Winlogon or Csrss to end.

My Dell laptop at work does the same thing except it is the finger pad versus the mouse. It has caused me to send half finished emails and deleted a few files. Pointer just goes crazy and clicking all over the place. Normally it will stop if I tap the pad once or twice. I however think the cause of my problem is due to the cup of coffee spilled into it by my boss....

dale

My Dell desktop does it sometimes but I believe it is because of my optical mouse.

Bob O

OT Kinda
When using my mouse [The kind that has a wheel for scrolling] in RSLogix500, it only scolls up and that is with a new and old mouse. It works fine with all other programs. AuotCAD and Office etc.... If anyone knows how to fix this, I would like to hear it.

Sorry Casey don't mean to Hijack this..

Happy Holidays...

First - This thread was 6 years old. The problem has long since gone away.

Second - AND MOST IMPORTANT!! -- When you need an antivirus, go directly to the source for it. I don't trust trustdownload.com... There are MANY viruses out there that are deployed as antiviruses. Many even mimic the name and filename of respected antivirus programs - especially kaspersky since it's one of the best!

And when getting an AV, you must absolutely get the latest version. Your link is to their version 7 -- which is several years old... It would NOT be effective against current viruses.

The proper link for kaspersky would be www.kaspersky.com

Good call OZEE.
I wonder if mr. "mmlop" links to the same file on several other fora.
I think Phil should remove that link completely.