mouse jerky erratic moving itself

[PcTek9]

Sometimes you encounter a mouse with erratic movement, it's like the mouse pointer has a mind of it's own and drifts around the screen haphazardly or getting stuck and not going past a certain part of the screen, sometimes disappearing and freezing, but why?
We've all heard the usual...
1) check for viruses
2) check for malware and trojans
3) plug the mouse into a different usb port
4) uninstall and reinstall the mouse
5) get a new mouse
and there are other such suggestions... all good to try but if they fail then what?
I had this issue and bought a new mouse b/c none of the suggestions worked, the new mouse worked great for a while then the same problem returned, over a period of time I wound up buying more and more mouses, and they'd work for maybe 3 months then the problem returned... I was baffled.
I found a program called usbdeview. There is a 64 bit and a 32 bit version. Usbdeview lets you view the usb drivers installed on your computer. You MUST use the correct one for your hardware or it will not work correctly, you will think it worked, but it won't. You should definitely restart the system in safe mode, and then use usbdeview. What I found is that there were many many old drivers for mouses and usb sticks and cameras and printers all hidden away from previous uses on the system. I looked at the devices no longer plugged in and safe to remove and i used usbdeview to remove them one by one. The last thing I did was to remove the current mouse and keyboard drivers, then I hit the power button the computer which i had previously set under power options to turn off the power, I waited until the system shut down
I turned the power back on, and the computer found all the drivers it needed for all the usb hardware currently attached and installed them. Since then I've had no more erratic mouse issues, not only that... But every mouse in the box i had saved were perfectly fine, and work fine.
My guess is that having so many drivers installed on the usb ports caused delays in processing, and even strange conflicts which caused the odd behavior but this fixed it once and for all. Good luck with your haunted mouses.

 

[backwoodsman]

I like beef jerky, but I don't think I'd try mouse jerky that's moving itself.

 

[MichaelBits]

What I found is that there were many many old drivers for mouses and usb sticks and cameras and printers all hidden away from previous uses on the system.

You don't need a 3rd party program to view old hidden drivers.

In device manager, just tick the box under the view tab that says "show hidden devices" and remove them.

 

[PcTek9]

well in this case occam's razor would be completely wrong. The reason is exactly as described.

 

[PCS]

I've had this with a laptop and turnd out to be the nipple pointer in the middle of the keyboard. No other driver would correct the issue. the internet solution was to cut the cable for the pounter but i managed to find the pins and put electical tape on the contacts. pointer nolonger works but neither does it constantly drift around the screen. Also cheaper than a new keyboard that the school couldnt afford.