Machine mistakenly thinks mouse button is held down while dragging

I have a bizarre, intermittent problem. Very occasionally, when I'm dragging files between folders, my computer thinks that the mouse button is still being held down even after I release it. As a result, I am constantly "carrying" the files around the screen with the mouse and I'm completely incapable of doing anything else since the machine thinks I'm mid-drag. As far as I can figure out, the only way to fix this is to reboot the machine. Extreme, I know, but I can't figure out any other way to get out of this state. This typically happens to me once or twice a week and I use my computer fairly heavily.
So, has anyone else heard reports of this bizarre behavior before? Any solutions?
I don't know if this matters, but I'm using a wireless mouse. However, plugging in a wired mouse while this is happening doesn't seem to be a solution.

Have you checked your System Preferences? If not...
Open System Preferences from your Application folder. Click: Keyboard&Mouse, and select the Mouse tab. At the bottom of that window change your Tracking, Scrolling and double clicking to see if that makes a difference.
If the wireless is a Mighty Mouse, try cleaning it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1537
Mice need cleaning periodically. Fingerprints, lotions, dust, and lint can cause problems.
Clean the USB mouse as well.
Carolyn

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MAGIC TRACKPAD how to select text? There is no "mouse button" to hold down

The magic trackpad doesn't seem to have a "button" that can be held down while dragging (in order to select text etc).
I want to select text & then paste it into an input box (for example, Search).
Apple needs to add virtual Function Keys to the top of the MT, allowing you to turn on scripted functions related to selecting, dragging, copying, pasting etc.

Press down on the trackpad until it clicks.
Nope, the magic trackpad doesn't do this. That's the problem.
Huh, how odd. Mine does. Did Apple change the Magic Trackpad since I bought mine? Or maybe yours is defective?
The press-down-till-click is also used in either the left or right bottom corner to activate a right-click. Chosen in the trackpad preferences. Though I've gotten used to the two-finger tap for that instead.
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Table not updating while command button is held down

Hi guys,
My application obtains data and then outputs this into a table which updates after each set of data is read. This part works fine, however I also require the user to be able to hold down one of two buttons to control control the function of an actuator (forwards and rearwards). To explain this further, when one of these buttons are pressed a voltage is output, when released the voltage is reset to zero. However, while the button is held down the table does not continue to update, when the button is released the table then updates through all the queued values. I understand that this is most likely a problem with the holding of the button causing the other user interface events to not be processed. I have therefore tried using ProcessSystemEvents(), ProcessDrawEvents(), and experimented with using an async timer to control the updating of the UI through the use of PostDeferredCallback(), all without success.
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Solved!
Go to Solution.

Could you use a toggle button instead of a simple button to be hold down? If yes, then in the button callback you could simple test the value of the toggle (1 if pressed, 0 if released) and operate turn on/off the output voltage to the actuator. You'll have a commit event every time the operator changes button state. (you may need to apply some security limit switch or timeput on the control in case the user forgets to turn the toggle off: the situation is similar to a three-state switch that controls a motorized window blind).
Proud to use LW/CVI from 3.1 on.
My contributions to the Developer Zone Community
If I have helped you, why not giving me a kudos?

Satellite A300 thinks button is held down and won't start up (long)

Hey sorry this is so long but I would really love some help,
Ok so I was just wondering if there is a way to fix this...
I was on my Satellite A300 (just over a year old) last night playing the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo using the Stream network and all of a sudden in Online Co-op the Camera Assistant Window opened minamising Left 4 Dead 2.
I thought this strange because I had closed the side popup bar for Camera Assistant on startup so that it wouldn't popup and do exactly what it did....
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After trying Alt+F4 for a while and Ctrl+Alt+Del with no responce except for the 'u's I decided the poor computer must be strained with Left 4 Dead open and Stream, Illistratror and the Camera open in the background so I pressed the power button (set to shut down on my computer) and waited...
Left 4 Dead 2 closed, as did Camera Assistant I think... and then it kind of froze so I just held down the power button (sorry I know that probably wasn't the best move) and my laptop turned off...
Well when I tried to turn it back on the Black "Toshiba Leading Innovation" screen pops up along with the little footer explaining what F2 and F12 do. After that the screen switches to the little blinking text bar thing (sorry I don't know what it's actually called...) but the bar flashes on and remains there for about 4-5 seconds and then flashes off and on again, although it seems slightly duller in colour) and then a single tone plays (from the computer even if earphones are plugged in) and yeah... I have to turn it back off...
Remembering about the 'u's I assumed the computer was not happy that the 'u' button was being held down on startup so remembering that the fron of the keys are actually removable I (very carefully) removed the 'u' faceplate.It all looked 'normal' underneath... (I compared it to the 'y' button) and so pressed it a few times and re-placed the faceplate. Turned on the compter... Same thing happened...
I then tried taking out the battery and then putting it back in to see if that would help... Again, the tone played... I took unpluged my iPod, Took out the CD, and removed the Memory Card to see if that would help... It didn't unfortunately.
So next I tried turning on the computer whist pressing 3 keys (I thought it might cancel out the 'u' key) abd held down 'b+n+m'. The first time I did this Windows Boot Manager opened instead of the beeping. I only have Windows Vista so when I tried to continue by pressing 'enter' nothing happened... So I turned off the computer and tried again (this time with q+w+e as I thought maybe holding b+m starts Boot Manager). This time Windows Error Recovery displayed with the options; Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt and Start Windows Normally. Again Enter wouldn't work... And thats my sistuation so far...
Please help if you can >: I'm scared if I take it to a Japanese Compute Person they'll wipe everything...
Thankyou,
Rochelle
(again I am sorry this is so long but I thought people might wan't specifics...)

hi Ellehcore,
sure it is always the hardware.... nope!
deinstall the webcam software and/or shutdown the webcam service
this will prevent the software to show up in your game...
but with this extended problems you should ask a servicepartner for assistance....
or simply recover the system...

Clicking Causes mouse to be held down

I've been having an odd glitch, sometimes when I click my mouse (I've tried with different mice) the mouse gets held down, and the only way to release it is to right click. This is especially bad trying to move files in Finder, as it means I can't let go of the file. Any resolutions?

I'm assuming by the fact that you say you have tried different mice that the actual mouse is fine, it's just holding the click on the screen.
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Mac thinks keyboard key being held down

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Hi Colin how are you?
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IPAD AIR

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I'm new to Safari. Formerly I was a Firefox user.
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http://youtu.be/SF7P-gRng00
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Jbutton: Button held down or clicked

Hello. I am implementing an mp3 player in Java. I want to implement a button that behaves differently when it is held down and when it is just clicked. For example, when the button is held down,fast forward is called. When the button is just clicked, it goes to the next song in the playlist.
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The thought that first occurs to me is to use a thread. Start the thread in mousePressed and kill it in mouseReleased. The thread will wait 1 sec, then 'turn on' FF (unless it gets killed first). Also stop FF in mouseReleased.

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Hi there
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Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Adobe Certified Captivate Training
SorcerStone Blog
Captivate eBooks

[SOLVED] Thunar 1.6 doesn't drag-and-drop with the right mouse button

Hallo all.
It might be something I've done (though I did delete my ~/.config/Thunar directory before upgrading), but Thunar doesn't let me drag-and-drop with the right mouse button, thus stopping me from copying something instead of moving it, etc. Has anyone else had that too?
Last edited by GordonGR (2012-12-28 14:34:20)

Joel wrote:
anonymous_user wrote:Is it supposed to be with the right-mouse button? I always thought drag and drop was done with the left button?
Could be right-hand user
Come on! Read what GordonGR wrote!
Microsoft Windows, Nautilus, the Haiku Tracker, and probably many other file managers have a feature where, when you right-click or middle-click and drag an icon to a new location, a pop-up menu appears and asks what you'd like to do (Move, Copy, Link). I thought I used to use this feature in Thunar too but it seems to have stopped working in recent versions. Has anyone else had any experience with it?
EDIT: Here's random blogger talking about the feature in an older version of Thunar: http://jeromeg.blog.free.fr/index.php?p … and-tricks So that's good, I wasn't just imagining the feature.
Last edited by drcouzelis (2012-12-12 03:45:05)

I can't remove Yandex Elements from the Open menu list with right mouse button and Tools menu although I removed Yandex. I think it slows down Firefox.

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Kill the MouseEven.CLICK event when mouse is held down?

I have been studying games on Facebook and am trying to emulate mouse event handling. For example in ChefVille you can click on objects and drag them around. But if you hold the mouse down you pan the entire game environment and when you release the mouse button a click is NOT registered on the object below the mouse. In my tinkering the CLICK event is triggered on the release of the mouse button no matter how long I keep the button depressed. How do I keep the CLICK event from firing if the mouse is held down for some period of time?

I don't know that you can cancel a CLICK event in the middle of it happening (CLICK = MOUSE_DOWN followed by MOUSE_UP), but you can trigger a Timer on the MOUSE_DOWN event and use its event handler to set a boolean variable that your CLICK event handler function can make use of to decide whether or not to process a CLICK event.

Machine mistakenly thinks mouse button is held down while dragging

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