[tlhIn`toq]

Ok, I'm hardly a noobie. And I've run multiple monitors for years.
But in the continuing adventures of Windows just changing things by itself sometimes...
This morning I powered on my computer and am having this weird cursor size changing depending on monitor behavior. Its easier to see than to explain.

On monitor 3 the cursor is normal size.




But on monitor 1 the cursor is huge:



Both landscape monitors are 1920x1200, so it is not a resolution thing where the cursor is the same relative to the monitor resolution. As you can see in the photos the cursor is changing sizes when I roll from monitor to monitor.

"Mouse Properties" is still set to 'normal' cursor.
I changed it to large then back, just to force it to reset. No change.

Yet, when I tick on "Display Pointer Trails", the cursor returns to normal size.
Tick off trails, and it jumps big again on that one monitor, but not the others.
Tick on trials, returns to normal size.

WTF? Has anyone else ever seen this? Is this the latest weird behavior caused by a Windows Update?

[alias120]

What Windows version are you running? You said the screen resolution remains unchanged on that one monitor? Well, one option would be to uninstall the driver for that mouse while the mouse is unplugged. Then, plug the mouse back in and PnP should detect the mouse and install the proper drivers. That might clear up the problem. I will look into other solutions, and if you need any help uninstalling the driver I can give a detailed walk-through.

[tlhIn`toq]

Win7ultimate 64 bit.

Appreciate the offer for help on uninstalling drivers. But I've been a tech for about... 22 years now. Read (old guy).

It just seemed really strange that a system that underwent no changes all of a sudden decided to come up with this new wacky behavior. Then again it is Windows. My boss and I now compare the odd things that Windows decides to do on its own just from restarting. For example, Outlook decided one day to no longer have a shortcut to my DIC folder in the Favorites node, so I had to drag it in there again.

Keep in mind that my Outlook file is closed annually and new one started; to keep the file from becoming massive, corrupt, sluggish, etc. So this Outlook .pst is only 8 months old - on a PC that is only 18 months old - on an OS install that is only 2 months old. My boss mentioned that Outlook decided to revert its panes layout to default just the other day, and he had to move stuff around again to his personal preference.

Of course the first response is "oh, you must have a virus". But these are corporate development machines, running 100% genuine software and a minimum of 2 anti-virus packages, set up by very paranoid techs. In my case all my work happens in VMware, with a host OS that exists solely to run VMware and anti-virus: Giving me a layer of obscurity against the world. Then a set of different anti-virus in the VM OS. Everything gets full scanned nightly. The weekly backups get put to another server which is scanned with yet another different anti-virus package. If a virus got through every major professional/corporate/enterprise anti-virus software, to cause these kinds of behaviors, on not one but 2 different computers in two different offices, it would be just stunning - and stunningly scary to realize there is no hope of filtering them out.

Mostly I just think it is minor corruption that part-and-parcel with development computers. The nature of this work means installing LOTS of drivers for various devices we are controlling: Cameras, scanners, blotch devices, sensors, custom boards we make, and so on. Add to that the occasional crash or lock up when a piece of code goes South, crashing Visual Studio or even the entire PC forcing you to hard reboot it. Or the random power-outage that can't be predicted or avoided. Then pile on a Windows update. Which I tend to avoid until they are at least a month old. How many of these have we all seen come out, only to get a 'patch' a couple weeks later? That's Windows: A framework of patches for updates on top of revisions wrapped in service packs. As much as I bitch about it; its really a credit to the coders that it works at all. If only our company could go Macintosh for what we do... {fade to dream sequence}

[modi123_1]

A quick google search indicated this might be an issue with your video drivers. What video card are you running?

http://www.sevenforu...se-problem.html


*cough*link */cough*

Bwahaha..

[tlhIn`toq]

As I often say, sometimes its just about searching with the right terms. Looks like you got the right terms for this one before me. Thanks.

Card: ATI FirePro 2460

Hate to sound like a broken record, but I'm still curious why it worked fine for months, then decided one day to start exhibiting this behavior.

Basically the fix seems to be "make sure all your drivers are up to date". Well, duh. That's the solution for 90% of odd behavior, so of course all of that has been checked and rechecked.

For now I'm working with the "mouse trails" ticked on and set as short as possible.

No doubt ATI will come out with an updated driver after a while to resolve it for this card, on this version of the OS, post sp1.

But I am highly grateful for the link! Thanks!

[modi123_1]

You have the 2011.08.04 drivers? Only eight days old. There's also the 'hotfix' they mentioned. It might be well to dig for one of those.
http://support.amd.c...2d_win7-64.aspx


Why it stopped working that's a good one. Something decided to not play nice with an update... it was corrupted by a passing neutron... who knows. General entropy got at it.

It might be helpful to ping AMD/ATI with your card information and explain the problem.. see if they have a fix buried under the heap that would tackle the problem.

[tlhIn`toq]

modi123_1, on 12 August 2011 - 08:34 AM, said:

You have the 2011.08.04 drivers? Only eight days old.

Yep. You'll notice this thread is less than 8 days old. The first thing I do when something like this happens is reboot. If that doesn't do it, then I start double checking updates and drivers. As this is obviously a video driver issue the ATI/AMD website was my second or third stop. Then I hit the HP site for fixes they have for PC/motherboard that wouldn't be listed on either ATI or Microsoft. Basically this machine is now as up to date as it can be, because the problem started.

modi123_1, on 12 August 2011 - 08:34 AM, said:

Why it stopped working that's a good one. Something decided to not play nice with an update... it was corrupted by a passing neutron... who knows. General entropy got at it.

It might be helpful to ping AMD/ATI with your card information and explain the problem.. see if they have a fix buried under the heap that would tackle the problem.

Yep. That ticket is already placed. NO response yet. After all the normal courses of action like these are exhausted, that's when I post. Its not often that I start a thread.

I'll wait a week and make the rounds again for updates and so on. Like you say: Passing stray neutron, planetary alignment, solar flare, demonic telepathic racoon, 2v power dip that got passed my UPS, UPS truck drove by... Who knows?