[sblmnl]

Apologies in advance for a long post but this seems like a bit of a mystery. I have searched and tried a few things but I'm a bit stuck where to go next. I have listed out the problem and what I have tried so far below:

The problem
What happens is the mouse cursor randomly freezes in position, and stays that way until I reboot, even if left overnight. The "real" mouse will still work while the cursor is frozen but it is not visible ie, I can move the mouse, right and left click to select things, tabs, arrows and hotkeys/shortcut combinations all work as normal - I just can't see what it's pointing at. There is no error message.

The only common factors I've been able to identify is that I have at least one windows explorer window open; and that I'm actively using the mouse. It often happens when I am switching between either two windows explorer windows, or explorer and another application (not the same application, and sometimes it happens when no applications are running anything) Other things I have noticed:

- The freeze happens while the cursor is in different states ie "arrow" pointer, hourglass or whatever, it changes while it's frozen in place sometimes too, depending what the "real" mouse is doing. So it seems like its still receiving information in some form, just not the part which is telling it to move around.

- It happens sometimes hours after the last reboot, and sometimes almost straight away. Don't think it is heat related, as apart from this the PC seems to be running normally.

- The problem did seem to become less frequent after a clean reinstall of XP (last time I posted in here! about 2-3 months ago) but it started happening again fairly quickly, so that could be a red herring.

I don't have any custom cursor animations, I just use the xp defaults.

Wireless interference/hardware
I have tried four different wired and unwired mice and the problem occurred in exactly the same way with all of them, so this seems like the least likely cause.

- Microsoft wired PS2 old-skool (ie, the kind with the rubber rollerball underneath) wheel mouse
- A4 wireless optical PS2 wheel mouse
- Dell wired optical USB wheel mouse
- Logitech MX610 wireless laser USB wheel mouse

Application conflict/virus
- CPU % are normal and virus/spyware checks come up clean.

- Nothing much in Event Viewer at the same time as this happens - though this is hard to be 100% certain as I can't open Event Viewer without a mouse until after I have rebooted, which generates a lot more events.

- Nothing unusual in Task Manager *every* time the problem occurs -just the usual system stuff and local services like alg.exe, svchost.exe. couple things related to NAV and something called wdfmgr.exe which is being called by svchost - its something to do with WMP10 (any ideas how I can disable this from running all the time by the way? its not in the Startup list).

- The 2 wireless mice (Logitech and A4) both have software which runs in the background to provide additional features and configuration options. I already tried disabling the a4 mouse's background app amoumain.exe but it made no difference to the problem, and for my new Logitech wireless mouse it's not relevant, as the problem was happening before it was even installed and it is still happening.

Drivers
My xp install should still be pretty clean, this is the mouse driver installation sequence:

1) The normal microsoft xp drivers included in win xp service pack 2 (in January), plus whatever updates it has done since
2) Latest A4 drivers installed over the top (in January),
3) Uninstalled the A4 wireless mouse 2 days ago via Control Panel
4) Installed the new Logitech wireless drivers from the CD.

Currently installed (there may be others):

c:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\mouclass.sys ver 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) - All 4 mice use this - but I used a fresh SP2 download to make the slipstreamed xp CD installed in January, and the problem is still happening
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\mouhid.sys ver 5.1.2600.0 (XPClient.010817-1148) - I guess this is a MS USB driver, the Dell wired USB and Logitech wireless USB both use it
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\LHidKe.sys - Logitech HID driver, used by the Logitech wireless USB mouse
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\i8042prt.sys ver 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) - a microsoft port driver- MS wired PS2 mouse uses it
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers \L8042mou.sys - ver 2.42.230.0. Logitech PS/2 Mouse Filter Driver - MS wired PS2 mouse
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers \LmouKe.sys - ver 2.42.230.0 - Logitech Filter Driver - MS wired PS2 mouse and Logitech wireless USB mouse both use this
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\amusbdev.sys A4 USB RF-Mouse filter driver - A4 wireless PS2 and Microsoft wired PS2 <- this is a left-over A4 driver, supposedly uninstalled.. would this cause the problem for the USB mice though?

In short there doesnt appear to be any single driver that is causing the problem but given there seem to be so many mouse drivers installed, I'd guess conflict is a possibility? I have Registry Mechanic but it hasn't found any problems with mouse drivers.

I want to run the Logitech wireless USB mouse with the Dell wired USB one as a spare - any suggestions? I dont know my way around the registry or what to do now.