Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista

January 02, 2007 @ 11:59 pm- from Maui, Hawaii

It looks like the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mice (or their receivers specifically) are causing a number of problems related to timing and timeouts that some applications use.

As loyal readers know I’ve been struggling with a few issues in Visual Studio 2005 in relation to Intellisense not working correctly with ASP.NET pages and it looks I’ve now finally found the culprit – it’s my Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse (Mice actually - I have two of them and they both exhibit the same behavior). As soon as I unplug the laser mouse Intellisense starts working correctly – plug it back in and it fails. I use a KVM switch with another desktop machine, and this was the reason BOTH of the machines were apparently having the exact same issue. I dug out an older wired Microsoft USB Optical mouse and now both machines are happy with Intellisense.

This was a bitch to catch because at various times I thought I had discovered the source of the problem (keyboard programs like SlickRun and nVidia were both false alarms)... most likely I just happened to have my laptop disconnected from keyboard and mouse at the time when it worked. As soon as I plugged back into the KVM the problem returned.

What's interesting too is if I have the Laser Mouse plugged into the KVM, it would fail even if the KVM switch is pointed at the other machine! Somehow Vista is still seeing the device even though it's not directly connected (you hear the USB 'disconnect').

With the wired mouse there are also other problems which have now also been solved: The machine did not want to go to sleep on a timeout schedule. Ever! Apparently the mouse is sending some sort of action signal that keeps the machine from going idle. Not only that, even when I did send the machine to sleep explicitly it would invariably wake back up a few minutes later. If I wanted the machine off I had to explicitly Hibernate the box. All of these issues are history now.

I’d be curious to hear if others running the same mouse hardware are seeing similar things.

Chris’ post seems to indicate that this is an issue on XP too, but I can no longer check for that since I don’t have an XP box handy here (other than Virtual PC which doesn’t count <s>). On my machine there’s no ehtray.exe running...

Hopefully this will get fixed by Microsoft at some point...

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# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Praveen January 03, 2007 @ 8:19 am

I have the same problem with sleep mode on vista rc2. It just keeps waking every 2 minutes. This happens only when my microsoft mouse is connected. I guess its a driver issue or some kind or timeout issue with the mouse.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Eric Appel January 03, 2007 @ 9:39 am

Have you tried the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/windowsvista/support/intellipoint.mspx">Vista supporting Intellisense software/drivers</a>?

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Steve from Pleasant Hill January 03, 2007 @ 10:51 am

Ah yes, the trials and tribulations of using a not-yet-ready-for-prime-time OS and a 'typical' user's odds and ends with it...

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Speednet January 03, 2007 @ 5:29 pm

Try Microsoft's latest laser mouse, the 8000, which connects through Bluetooth. I'm kind of angry they moved the "forward" button to the right side of the mouse, where you'd need a sixth finger to press it, but other than that the mouse is awesome. I really like the fact it's rechargeable, and the LED fading effects to warn you of a low battery are sweet.

The other nice thing is getting rid of the big ugly USB anchors and replacing with a tiny Bluetooth dongle. Go Bluetooth with their Elite keyboard too.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Speednet January 03, 2007 @ 5:30 pm

Oh, forgot to mention that I do not have Intellisense issues (running XP).

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by DuncanS January 04, 2007 @ 7:07 am

Offtopic - but have you seen your blog in FireFox 2? It's all appearing in on a one inch column (for me at least).

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Rick Strahl January 05, 2007 @ 12:51 pm

More info from Microsoft: It looks like this problem is isolated to the Laser Mouse receivers and interaction between them and then the HID drivers in Windows.

I've been able to make my Wireless Mouse work by disabling:

HID-compliant Consumer Control Device

in device manager. This driver provides additional information to advanced devices like the Intellimouse so you can see battery status and a few other settings of the device. I see no ill effects by disabling this driver and it has fixed the problems with Intellisense.

Unofficial word from Microsoft is that they are aware of the problem and are working on a fix which should arrive with Windows Update - 'soon'.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Rick Strahl January 05, 2007 @ 1:10 pm

Duncan - thanks. Didn't notice this because it only happens when the menu on top gets clipped. This is strange - the menu bar is its own DIV tag (with a float:right) yet when it clips it affects the area below. Doesn't happen in IE, but it does in Opera.

Fixed by changing the overflow... thanks again.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Jerome January 10, 2007 @ 3:10 pm

Hi Rick, thanks for all of your infomation with these posts. I tried removing the drivers for the Microsoft Wireless Mouse and unfortunately that didn't do the trick. I'm running on XP Pro XP2 with VS2005 SP1. I figured this was a good chance to rebuild my laptop so I backed up all of my data and my Documents and Settings folder for my user account.

I just finished rebuilding my laptop with XP again and after I installed VS2005 (non SP1) I decided to test out and see if the Intellisense was back. But quess what, it wasn't. This was very frustrating to me and the only thing I could think was there was something in my Documents and Settings folder that was causing this.

To test this out I created a new user and logged in under that user and opened the same web site in VS2005 and the intellisense was there. Time to narrow down where the issue is. I cleaned up the following directories under my Documents and Settings user folder:

Local Settings\Temp
Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

Tested out VS2005 under my original user account and woe and behold, the intellisense was back.

Not sure if this will help you at all but thought I would pass it along.

The killer for me was testing the intellisense using a different account. I wish I would have tried that out yesterday when I first started experiencing the problem.

Jerome

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issue
by Juan Nix January 25, 2007 @ 9:36 am

The right-click on my wireless mouse has ceased to function.
Is this a common problem?

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Adam January 25, 2007 @ 4:13 pm

I just got a Microsoft wireless optical mouse 2000, and my screensaver doesn't work anymore. I have no idea what to do, i've tried what some of you have mentioned up above, but I was jut wondering if anyone had a better solution. Microsoft hasn't come out with any kind of patch, either. Thanx in advance.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Adam February 04, 2007 @ 7:13 pm

Yep,
I have a desktop set with the laser 6000 mouse and it does exactly what you describe both in VS2005 and the power saving. I reverted back to an older wireless infrared kb/mouse and all is good. I am using Ultimate x64. I hope MS can sort this out soon, I lurv that laser mouse.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Mark February 08, 2007 @ 2:32 am

If you use an earlier version of the receiver rather than 3.0A which is what I have, you may find it fixes the sleep/hibernate problem. The only way I have fixed this (as I don't have an earlier version) is by connecting to the PS/2 ports. Getting the latest HID filter update and disabling ehtray fixed the screensaver problem but not this issue.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by kpdude March 06, 2007 @ 2:09 pm

How I solved this issue with XP Media Centre Edition: Open the Task Manager and end the process "ehtray.exe". I don't know about your Intellisense issues, but it solved the "screensaver not working" issue for me. The only drawback to this method (that I've noticed) is that your remote will not work automatically anymore, so you can't use it to open Media Centre. You can open it manually, at which point the remote will start working again, but you'll have to end "ehtray.exe" again after you're done with the Media Centre, otherwise the issue will come back.

Note: You can disable windows opening "ehtray.exe" when windows starts, so you don't need to end the process every time you reboot.

The reason I'm here though is because this solution doesn't work with Vista. I've found my answer with Rick's solution of disabling "HID-compliant Consumer Control Device" - the screensaver works now. I'll post back if I see any disadvantages to having this disabled over the next few days. Thanks.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Rick Strahl March 06, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

If you're using Vista you should just install the updated Hid Driver from Windows Update. There was a recent patch to this HID driver that fixes all the above issues.

http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/10641.aspx

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by JackL March 20, 2007 @ 12:45 pm

Thanks Rick Strahl It does solved the issue with screensaver and wireless device

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Adam H. March 20, 2007 @ 4:10 pm

This fix worked for me.

Microsoft Knowledgebase Article ID : 913405

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913405/en-us

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Rob Gaudet May 08, 2007 @ 8:41 pm

I had the same problem. Laser mouse - Unplug - Intellisense Works!

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Joe Olsen May 12, 2007 @ 9:46 am

Just install the latest vista drivers and everything works fine. Great find! Was struggling with this for weeks on Vista Business - Dell Laptop.

JJO

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Paul Glavich May 15, 2007 @ 2:54 am

Hey Rick,

Its been a while since you wrote this post but this intellisense thing has been frsutrating the absolute crap out of me for a while and I hadn't seen this post before. Same deal as you though, Vista + laser mouse == Intellisense no worky.

Unplugged mouse, intellisense worked, plugged mouse back in, intellisense still working.

I'd have to say this is probably the best bug catch/conflict catch I have seen in some time. Good one Rick.

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Rob Robinson May 21, 2007 @ 8:59 am

I am having this issue...

Wireless Mouse/keyboard connected to 8 port KVM freeze frequently in Vista. Only resolution is to cycle the power on the KVM.

Is the hot fix still out there? I can't find it. Is the Hotfix included in the commercial release already? If so, any idea what could be causing the problem?

Rob

# Visual Studio 2005 IntelliSense in ASP.NET pages issue resolved... - Rick Strahl's Web Log
by Rick Strahl's Web Log May 27, 2007 @ 1:44 am

I've been fighting with Visual Studio 2005 and Intellisense in ASP.NET pages for some time. As it turns out that

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Brandon August 07, 2007 @ 8:12 pm

Hi,I have the same problem as Adam with my Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2000 with Vista, and the screen saver conflict. I don't know what to do and it is realy upseting, microsoft is not helping me at all.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Brandon August 07, 2007 @ 8:39 pm

Okay never mind, I should have read some things on the blog allitle closer, some of methods provided through various sites arn't applicable to an HP however if anyone else as dumb as me read this blog here is the easy fix I know you all want Windows update check the optional up dates your computer did not automatical install and download and install
Microsoft -Other Hardware - HID Non-user Input Data Filter allright sorry about that GO CANUKS

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Dave Phillips August 08, 2007 @ 12:19 am

Contrary to all of the comments above, the problems with MS Wireless mice are still not fixed.

I am running Vista Ultimate with a MS Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 on a Dell E520 right now, and have loaded the latest drivers and the HID Non-user Input Data Filter, and still the sleep/hibernate functions simply do not work.

This has been going on now for almost a year, across several versions of MS devices, and still they can't fix it. I beleive it shows their dedication to selling parts and not quality. We are currently evaluating Vista to replace Xp on 250 engineering desktops in our organization, and this problem is considered a show stopper until Microsoft gets on the ball and gets it fixed.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Mark August 14, 2007 @ 8:38 pm

G'day, I solved this problem in Vista by going to device manager and right clicking on HID devices and then choose 'scan for hardware changes'

No more problems.

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Igor August 29, 2007 @ 7:52 pm

I may be a bit offtopic but please hear me out. I just bought Microsoft Laser 6000 USB OEM and plugged it in. XPSP2 pops a nice baloon and detects it but it doesn't work. Even IntelliPoint 6.1 fails to install (setup crashes after it is finished). I would suspect dead or damaged mouse but it works under Vista with generic drivers and IntelliPoint 6.1 installs fine there and lets me configure buttons, etc. Any ideas what might be going on?

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Glenn November 01, 2007 @ 9:34 pm

Thanks a million Rick!
I've been suffering from this for a while and it was the wireless mouse interfering with my intellisense (and intelligence). Good find! In my case disabling the HID compliant device seems to be doing the trick. (Win XP) How did you ever find that?

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Ludovic December 09, 2007 @ 7:07 pm

Hi,
It's incredible but I purchased a brand new computer of a well known manufacturer and then a microsoft wireless 6000v2 kit with keyboard and mouse. When I try to install the driver from install cd under vista, it leads me to a newer one from Microsoft but then I've got this inaccuracy of the mouse. It seems it clicks on a different position than the one it is actually!
So Microsoft has not yet corrected the stuff for its own equipment???

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Kyle Roche February 07, 2008 @ 7:53 am

Hi All, I have the Microsoft Wireless 6000 desktop set as well. I have a Vista 64bit machine with VS2008 and have been experiencing the same issues. Just yesterday, I downloaded the Intellipoint 6.2 driver and the HID component was updated along with it. Everything is cool now.

Hope this helps someone... what a strange defect.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Andy February 11, 2008 @ 2:23 am

Thanks so much for that! I always just assumed that intellisense was a bit rubbish and that was that, until I bought a laptop recently and it was fine.

I have XP Pro sp2 and VS2005 sp1. I disabled the HID-compliant Consumer Control Device as advised and it all works nicely now!

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Herb March 28, 2008 @ 6:08 pm

When I do a "switch user" in Vista, my MS wireless keyboard and mouse stop working. This does not occur when I do a "log off". Is anyone aware of a fix for this?

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Duane Roelands April 10, 2008 @ 9:38 am

I'm running XP SP2 with VS2005 and this suddenly started happening this week. Thank goodness I found this post. Disabling the abovementioned devices worked like a charm. Just be sure to restart Visual Studio.

This thread is a lifesaver.

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Santosh Karla October 15, 2008 @ 11:24 pm

Hey Rick,

Your article helped me solve the same problem. I was banging my head to get the intellisense work. I've also tried to rest the settings of the IDE. I am currently working on a project, which has MySQL as the backend and I've downloaded the MySQL.VisualStudio.dll. I have also removed that but could not get to solve the problem.

~santosh

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Don June 05, 2009 @ 8:15 am

I recently purchased a computer with Vista Home Premium, and downloaded an updated driver for my Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000. Worked okay for a few days, then computer froze and we (Dell and I) determined it was due to the mouse. Should I dump the MS 6000? What other mice are suggested, not only to work with Vista, but with Windows 7. Thanks.

# re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Sarah July 16, 2009 @ 7:56 am

I have Vista home version on my laptop since 2007. My wireless mouse has been working great since I bought it, woke up one day and mouse stopped working. I changed batteries and that didn't do anything either. For some reason when I got to other devices and look up the mouse it is only showing the touchpad mouse not my USB wireless mouse. How do I fix this?

re: Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
by Chuck Fox January 13, 2010 @ 11:39 am

Thanks for the tip on the HID Consumer Compliant device. I disabled this and my Logitech MX600 stopped acting weirdly (double-clicking when I single-clicked). This has been driving me nuts for a couple of months. Thanks again.