A tricky mouse problem!

Everyday on the field as technical support professional you will always encounter unusual problem such as this one:

At first the user complain that his laptop is running very slow, and suspected that it has a virus, the user opted that the harddrive be reformatted so I did backup everything and reformat the whole thing, I reload all the necessary software and drivers,on my initial test everything is working fine already.

The next day, the customer complained that he still has problem when working with Excel and Movie Maker application, so I checked the unit again and found out that when you drag an item or picture on any of the mentioned applications it wont release to the area you want it to be.Take note that the hardware and everything is working fine except of such conditions.

To avoid reformatting the HDD all over again, I tried to replace the current installed MsOffice2003 to Msoffice2007 hoping that it will solve the problem, and it did solve the problem. But the problem on the Movie Maker application still the same.
I left no choice but to reformat the HDD and load Windows all over again. After loading the OS I immediately checked the Movie Maker application if the problem still exist and to my surprise the problem still exist, so I was thinking that its a hardware problem.

By the way the user is using an external usb mouse and by first look the mouse is working fine, I was puzzled actually what causes the problem.I try to disconnect the external mouse and use the built-in touch pad of the laptop(without restarting), the problem still the same.I almost give up and ready to tell the customer that there maybe a motherboard problem that causes the whole thing, then suddenly it just pop on my mind the idea of turning on the unit without connecting the external usb mouse and
when I tested the Movie Maker application the problem disappear and I was relieved.

I troubleshoot further, I reconnect the external USB mouse (without restarting the system) the problem re-appear and when I remove it(External Mouse) the problem still exist. So after a tedious hours of troubleshooting and everything, it was confirmed that it was just a lousy problematic external mouse that cause it all.

Choosing a cheap and generic hardware parts sometimes bring us more troubles than the
branded ones.If you can shell a few bucks for the branded one, go for it.

Until Next time!