Solution: Mouse disappeared and reanimated

Mouse disappeared - Don't Panic!
Mouse disappeared – Don’t Panic!

What a crazy morning. Last weekend I had cleaned my desk after extensive work on a wedding photography project. When I shut down my workstation the mouse would not react. Um. Okay, maybe it ran out of battery for wireless transimission, I thought. No problem to recharge or to use my fall back solution which is a good ol’ wired mouse.

When I switched on my computer this morning the mouse still would not work. Batteries were charged and even the wired replacement device showed the same behaviour: the mouse pointer was like stuck on a certain spot on the screen. Moving the mouse would cause some pointer movement, but within a split second it would return to back to the very spot.

Google is your friend, but have you ever navigated without a mouse or touchpad in an internet browser? This is real pain. Finally the search engine spit out some reference to maybe solutions like “reinstall your drivers”, “refresh your mouse software”, “feed your mouse” (actually funny, but I could not laugh). Since my system is fresh digging this deep into the gear box was no option for me at this point.

Consternation in my mind I went outside to grab my mail from the letter box, threw letters and adverts badly mooded onto my desk and got a coffee. When I returned the mouse pointer had moved to another spot, but showed the same crazy reaction. Conspiracy, virus attack, message from aliens? But to my enlightenment I looked right between my two computer screens: My graphic tablet was exactly aligned with its pen sitting in the holder and the holder standing on the tablet. That was the solution. The mouse function of the pen caused an override to my other mouse devices and that’s why the mouse pointer would not move. And some of the sliding letters on my desk had moved the pen to another position on the tablet.

Mouse disappeared - graphic tablet was the villain
Mouse disappeared – graphic tablet was the villain

Lesson learned:

  • Don’t clean too much ;-).
  • Leave things where they work fine (Or: Never change a running system).
  • Think more than twice.
  • Don’t despair.

Have a nice day.