Scroll Bar and Drop Down problems with Vista on Acer Extensa

[raleighlaura]

Hi all,
I hope you can help me, as I'm stumped.
I haven't installed anything new in the past few days, yet as of tonight, when I click on my start menu, then go to "all programs", I get the normal scroll bar, and when I grab it to scroll down, it pops right back up as if it were a cork in water. I can't keep the scroll bar selected down to the end of the drop down menu, even if I click and hold the lower drop arrow. Furthermore, the problem persists when I'm navigating around my hard drive, but does not persist online. While I cannot grab the scroll bar to the right as I type this, I can keep it in the middle of the field by clicking on the down arrow- the bar doesn't pop to the top as it does when navigating on my hard drive.
One additional odd effect- when I am online (as I was trying to get Acer support for this problem), I noticed that when I had to select an item from a drop down menu, my selection would remain the first item in the drop down whether I selected it or not. In other words, whether I used the mouse, the touchpad, or the arrow keys, I could not change the selection from the first item in the drop down.

These problem happen when I use the logitech mouse and/or the touchpad. I thought perhaps the drivers were bad, so I reinstalled both of them, and the problem persists. I also tried to do a system reset to a day last week that I know was fine, and found that each time I tried I received an "unspecified error" that kept the reset from changing any settings.
Finally, I run Norton 360, and they show no virus or security problem.
I'd really appreciate someone telling me how to fix these problems, as it is hard to get work done like this. Thanks!
laura

[raleighlaura]

Hi all,
Just an update. I'm learning to live without scroll. I make new folders and keep putting long lists of things into folders so everything is visible in one screen. Time consuming, true, but necessary. I'm listening to itunes that start with the letter A. Life is bearable, but I really need to get this problem solved. Any ideas? I tried to reset the system again and got that same error message. My only plan now is to take it to the geek squad at best buy to try and figure out why it won't scroll. It's odd- when I try and turn up the volume using the grab bar, it will automatically sink back to the bottom.
Thanks for any ideas!
Laura

[Korok]

Hi there,

I'm glad in a way to see I'm not the only one with such a similar problem. I'm only sorry to say that I haven't yet found a complete solution or even finding a way to describe the problem in order to get better search results.

I'm running Vista Home Premium with SP1 on a Toshiba Satellite Pro A200* and here's a list of the problems:

1. All windows of any programs including Windows Explorer and IE flicker roughly once a second (as if changing focus for a split second)

2. If I am dragging the scroll bar it would "reset" back to its original position in time with the flicker (so that any scrolling needs to be done quickly.)

3. Drop down lists behave in the same way, disappearing during a flicker, after being clicked.

Here's an interesting one:

4. When writing either in a word processor or, for example, in this text box once in a while during normal typing a letter goes missing (possibly during one of the flickers.) However, if I am to click on a field that would automatically become highlighted, i.e. the address box, and start typing -> after a flicker it will reset back to the original address.

5. Same things happen with the start menu

Workaround: working in Safe mode alleviates the problem.

Which made me think its a process in the background but disabling non critical ones one by one didn't help.

Updated Spyware and Virus checkers don't pick up anything.

What critical processes run in normal mode that don't in safe mode with networking?

Any help will be greatly appreciated and I hope safe mode allows you full access to songs B-Z

Thanks,
Korok


*
[PC Information]
Model Name SATELLITE PRO A200
Part Number PSAE7E-015011EN
OS Version Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1
BIOS Version V1.70
CPU Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5450 @ 1.66GHz
Physical Memory 2048MB RAM
Hard Disk Capacity 118,478,979,072 [Byte] 110.342 [GB]
Hard Disk Free Space Capacity 48,598,716,416 [Byte] 45.261 [GB]
Video ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 version=8.452.0.0
Screen Resolution 1280 x 800 Pixels
Internet Explorer 7.0.6001.18000
IDE Device Disk drive

[joseph0507]

Hi

I have bought an Acer Aspire M5641 (in the Netherlands) and I have encountered simular problems, als with the Menu Start. Very annoying!!

What did help for a week or two was to remover the ACER ''empowering'' programs that come along with ther computer.Have you tried that already?

Quote:

Originally Posted by raleighlaura

Hi all,
I hope you can help me, as I'm stumped.
I haven't installed anything new in the past few days, yet as of tonight, when I click on my start menu, then go to "all programs", I get the normal scroll bar, and when I grab it to scroll down, it pops right back up as if it were a cork in water. I can't keep the scroll bar selected down to the end of the drop down menu, even if I click and hold the lower drop arrow. Furthermore, the problem persists when I'm navigating around my hard drive, but does not persist online. While I cannot grab the scroll bar to the right as I type this, I can keep it in the middle of the field by clicking on the down arrow- the bar doesn't pop to the top as it does when navigating on my hard drive.
One additional odd effect- when I am online (as I was trying to get Acer support for this problem), I noticed that when I had to select an item from a drop down menu, my selection would remain the first item in the drop down whether I selected it or not. In other words, whether I used the mouse, the touchpad, or the arrow keys, I could not change the selection from the first item in the drop down.

These problem happen when I use the logitech mouse and/or the touchpad. I thought perhaps the drivers were bad, so I reinstalled both of them, and the problem persists. I also tried to do a system reset to a day last week that I know was fine, and found that each time I tried I received an "unspecified error" that kept the reset from changing any settings.
Finally, I run Norton 360, and they show no virus or security problem.
I'd really appreciate someone telling me how to fix these problems, as it is hard to get work done like this. Thanks!
laura

[Merios]

I had the exact same problems, the scroll bar would pop back up and drop-down menus would cease to work (I click the arrow, but the list doesn't appear and stays on the first option).

Here's some information on what my problem was and HOW I FIXED IT:

My batteries ran dry on my Swissgear optical wireless mouse, so I replaced them but messed up one of the springs holding the positive side of the battery in (i'm sure you know what I'm talking about).

So I bent it back in place and put my batteries in. Worked fine, but then I started getting this stuff happening. So I, just now, went browsing around to find other problems like mine and found this page, luckily, I found this and became frustrated that I couldn't use the scroll bar.

I replaced my batteries and went to reply and post my problem here, then realized- I just used the volume control on my computer (with the slider) and it didn't pop back up!

It was the batteries. For further reference, I used Alkaline Energy Super Plus from Dollar General, AAA's.

So I just changed the batteries and it worked again. I'm thinking maybe conductivity in your mouse could cause it. Try replacing the mouse if it's wired, or simply replacing the batteries if it's not.

I hope this helped!

[LindaLouWho]

Merios is exactly right. I, like raleighlaura, thought it wasn't my mouse because my touchpad also didn't work, but then I disconnected my wireless mouse and turned it off, and PRESTO! the whole problem disappeared. It is conductivity in the Mouse. I'll get some new batteries for the mouse tomorrow. For now, I'll just use the touchpad with the mouse turned off.

[potejam]

Thanks to this thread, I solved my problem as well. The touchpad was still giving the same problems as the mouse was, but once I disconnected it, the problem was gone. Strange that dying batteries would cause that problem, but I'm glad it's fixed!

[mcole]

It was my mouse causing the problem. Replacing the battery didn't help,