technical help with laptop request

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I am hoping one of the clever people on here can help me. I have searched online and can’t find a solution.

I have a Vaio, CORE i7 that I bought about 18 months ago. It runs windows 8.1x. It is protected by StopZilla. I surf with Mozilla. I have been known to download MP3s from short lived websites, including a couple in Russia.

The problem is this. My laptop thinks I am clicking my mouse when I’m not, meaning dialogue boxes pop open, and if the cursor is hovering over a link or document it clicks it open. I have found ‘make the mouse easier to use’ which has an ‘activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse’ option, which is not ticked.

I have tried different mice, radiomouse, plug in mouse and it is just the same. The strange thing is the problem is intermittent. Sometimes it is ‘there’ when I boot up, sometimes it takes 5 or 10 minutes before it starts. When it starts there is nothing I can do to stop it.

The problem began about 5 months ago, and has got worse and worse recently. Its driving me nuts and any advice would be most gratefully received. Thanks.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Similar problem with my Vaio, I keep having to go to the mouse settings to turn "cursor pad" tap off. I don't want to select stuff by hitting the pad, I want to use the left/right pad buttons, but it keeps losing this setting.

 

[GOM]

System restore to 6 months ago

 

[Petunia]

Have you tried turning it off and on again?




Thought I'd get in first!

 

[jackanada]

Sounds like the OS has corrupted somewhere.
Rather than restore to 6 months ago I would download and burn the appropriate Windows OS, back up your files, nuke the hard drive and do a fresh install of OS.
This also has added advantage of being the only way to fully remove all the bloatware that got bundled in with your new laptop.

 

[GOM]

Sounds like the OS has corrupted somewhere.
Rather than restore to 6 months ago I would download and burn the appropriate Windows OS, back up your files, nuke the hard drive and do a fresh install of OS.
This also has added advantage of being the only way to fully remove all the bloatware that got bundled in with your new laptop.

I would restore to 6 months ago in the first instance. If this does not work, then try more radical measures.
The nuclear option should not be the first option.

 

[Dick Head]

Maybe you'll have to wait until Sony update their drivers.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/os10upgrade.pl

 

[Fungus]

Is there a little light flashing next to your webcam?

 

[jackanada]

I would restore to 6 months ago in the first instance. If this does not work, then try more radical measures.
The nuclear option should not be the first option.

I sort of agree, but only if you had the good sense to go nuclear when you first bought it. Either way the OP is going to need something good to watch on the goggle box to prevent insanity setting in while going about it.

 

[beorhthelm]

i'd see if its a wonky trackpad/buttons. disable the device if you can find the option, or uninstall the drivers, see if that stops the problem while using a plug in mouse.

 

[binky]

You want to establish whether it's a hardware or software fault.
The quickest way to do this is to replace the software completely.

Download a Linux distribution which boots from cd. Boot from it. And see if the problem persists while using Linux.

If you still have. Ouse problems. Then it's hardware related. If the problems go away, then it's something to do with the POS Microsoft OS or drivers.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

You want to establish whether it's a hardware or software fault.
The quickest way to do this is to replace the software completely.

Download a Linux distribution which boots from cd. Boot from it. And see if the problem persists while using Linux.

If you still have. Ouse problems. Then it's hardware related. If the problems go away, then it's something to do with the POS Microsoft OS or drivers.

Excellent suggestion. You can't beat Linux for this sort of thing. Father in laws XP screwed up, just booted Linux from a DVD, it mounted the Windows drive and I so I was able to get his documents off the PC.