Shoutbox

i have a packard bell wireless mouse...... its antenna fing is on my desk, the mouse sits in it and recharges etc....

i have my mouse mat a bit away from it, and in the space between the mouse and the antenna thing is some usb leads, for my phone and psp....

i resorted to using my drawing tablet because the mouse was being such an idiot... i moved the wires and the mouse works... put the wires back it stops moving

WTF!

Well, I know that wires when they have current flowing through them (ie, attached to PSP etc and PC is switched on) cause a magnetic field around them which can cause interference, but I've never seen anything of the magnitude.

You may want to invest in a new mouse (I never ever trusted Packard Hell), it's possible its just sensitive, but if it was expensive, just keep the wires away .

Btw, I just remembered something else - the phone itself will cause interference, but you don't mention it being there or you moving it or such . (if you want an example of this, place it next to a speaker and phone it from a landline).

Wires with current flowing through them have magnetic fields round them and I believe consequently wires with changing currents, such as data cables, and to a lesser extent a/c power cables will emit (small amounts of) electromagnetic radiation in the radio frequency ballpark.

I'm guessing that you're right and that's where the interference is coming from. Your phone's main signal will be microwave frequency and shouldn't have an effect, but experiment.

If it's the USB cable and the mouse was expensive, try a better USB cable. A good one really ought to provide adequate shielding to keep in signals strong enough to confuse a mouse.

Most USB cables should be shielded anyway, so interference won't be the issue. However, believe it or not, the cable's shielding could be for exactly the same reason the current flow in the cable won't be interfering.

Basically, the shielding could be soaking up the RF from the mouse.

Are you sure your mouse is RF (Radio Frequency) and not IR (InfraRed)?

Maybe the cables are blocking the direct sight of the mouse, try putting something else in between them, like a piece of paper or something.

its not much of a problem, jus dont put it in the space.... i dont have a clue what it runs on... i dont think its IR because it works when theres stuff like a pile of books in the gap etc..