Kesington Expert (v5- 64217 USB) keeps "disappearing" from system - why?

[Voixdelion]

Lately my Expert Mouse v5 is acting up -It's a wired USB version and I'm using Mouseworks 6.2.2 on an XP SP3 Pro Machine.  It started when it was connected via Ps/2 adapter, but trying via USB seems to have not improved the situation and it happens on any port its attached to - Might this be a problem that could be resolved with a replacement of the cord?   I get very cranky without my trackball...

 it is sort of "dropping out" or something several times a day without warning and no corresponding events or errors in the system logs to help diagnose it.  Its happened mid-mouse movement or during other things when I come back to move a cursor and its just gone. Pretty much like its been unplugged from the system and occasionally can be rectified by moving to another USB port. It seems to have stopped doing the other weird behavior of seeming stuck in "right click" mode with the cursor pinned to the top left corner of the screen where suddenly an attempt to move the cursor instead started scrolling through open windows - (I think that was a driver problem though - but it was also one of the reasons I switched to the usb ports because when it did that in PS/2 mode it usually meant a reboot to get sorted out againl It hasn't done that since I removed something that was intended for a scroll wheel in the drivers section.)

Anybody experience anything like this before?  Giving up my Expert mouse is NOT an option.

[Input Nirvana]

Any version of Expert Mouse and Mouseworks makes a very nice combination. Hard to beat. I don't have that issue, but can you swap with another machine? It would be a nice and easy way to see if it was the trackball.

[Voixdelion]

Well, I switched to another v5 Expert and the issue hasn't repeated yet... I was wondering if it could be a virus or trojan problem, but I guess it could just be the cord too (especially if something got stretched or yanked by the new puppy in the house, which is entirely possible.  Also checking out the internals it could be that a couple pins on the plug connector to the cord maybe were cracked around the pin or just poorly soldered so I touched those up too.  But it does seem to be a hardware problem since the same model mouse isn't having the issue so far...  Weirdly random though when it did occur - its been driving me batty for a couple weeks now.

[Surly73]

Mouseworks was (finally) replaced by Trackballworks and added Vista/7 compatibility.  I know that everything has been working fine, but have you tried the latest package from Kensington?

http://us.kensington.com/html/1461.html

http://us.kensington.com/html/1466.html

[Input Nirvana]

A cord replacement would be the  easiest and cheapest fix too.

[Voixdelion]

Really?  ... gonna have to check my posts again. I was trying to be good about reporting what worked (provided I found something that did actually work at least - there were at least one or two things that I haven't actually resolved, but got pushed to the back burner like mom's video adapter on the ibook -  but she doesn't seem to mind looking at the little screen, so I'm not in a rush on that atm.  I did get her some cheap RAM that fixed her sluggishness though.  Seems the last system update took up a great deal more resources and she just didn't have enough oomph so everything was constantly hanging.  She was ready to buy a new one just to read her damn email - I fixed it for under 30 bucks instead.)

As far as this goes, the new same model mouse hasn't had the issue, so I suspect that it was indeed the cord because that would also possibly explain the weird freezing/sticking problem when using the ps2 adapter as well.  Considering that it hasn't had an issue since posting the previous update and it was doing it at least once a day to upwards of 3 times a day before the switch.  I'm not sure if the cord I intend to replace it with is entirely sound though so a new test run with the original  might be premature.  

What else did I forget to report back on?

[Voixdelion]

Do the new softwares from Kensington actually work on the older versions of Expert mouse too? I was under the impression that they were strictly for the newer optical experts and slimblade models.  I still can't believe there isn't more demand for trackballs that would inspire some larger selection of larger ball options to choose from in the marketplace, though.  

(Mine is the old white opto-mechanical one with the billiard ball sized roller.  If they had kept the larger size, I might have been more insistent on having the one with the scroll ring even though I don't care as much for the feel of the newer optical only trackballs - I really like the feel of the mechanical bearings even though they do get dirty. The teeny little red balls don't seem to provide as smooth a ride as the opto-mechanical ones, but I only tried a brief spin of the newer experts and didn't really have long enough to break it in really well.  I do have an orbit that I don't use because the ball has yet to be located under the bed somewhere from the last time it fell out and I didn't have my wire hanger retainer mod in place at the time. But I'd only used that one until I could get a proper Expert anyway.  For some reason the balls don't fall out of that one nearly as often and when I do drop it, its easier to find because its red...)

[Voixdelion]

SONOFA....  Well, now I've got an interesting problem where the trackball disappears from the system on reboot!  It works fine once I yank it out and plug it back in again no problem, but its as though it isn't there at all until I do.  I don't know if this happens from a shutdown/power up, or just from a restart but either way its somewhat annoying (probably why I had gone with the ps2 port before though)... Back to the drawing board!