5 ms·

Mouse cursor disappears when my refrigerator turns off

39 points by davis 10y ago

throwwit 10y ago
I think my old Optical USB mouse had a ferrite bead just for this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead
xyzzy_plugh 10y ago
ctrl+f "ground": no results. I'd bet it's a grounding issue.
- simcop2387 10y ago
  Probably not grounding, but quite probably some kind of voltage dip.
tedunangst 10y ago
"Try another refrigerator" pretty much sums up internet help.
- M_Grey 10y ago
  Just wait until you find out that it sums up everything from auto repair to diagnostic medicine...
micro_softy 10y ago
I have a similar issue. Sometimes, but not every time, when I turn on a particular halogen lamp using the same outlet as a particular computer, it triggers USB detection and I get kernel messages on /dev/console as if I was plugging in a USB device. This is a BSD kernel.
- svckr 10y ago
  Now, if you had some kind of home automation switching the lights you could implement a really slow communication protocol as a USB device driver.
- boomboomsubban 10y ago
  This was happening to me, there was some problem with the electricity in my apartment. I can't recall what the electrician said, there were some switches that only 1/4 were working, and if 2/4 had been it would have fried everything. They fixed it in about an hour.
clebio 10y ago
I really wanted this to be about a smart refrigerator stealing a wireless mouse's signal from the desktop trackpad, or something of the sort. Though the plausible explanation[1] is just as pathological (albeit not as nefarious). [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/55pbqp/mouse_cursor_disappears_when_my_refrigerator/d8cqc2c https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/55pbqp/mouse_cur...
Animats 10y ago
Known bug #1568604: "Mouse cursor lost when unlocking with Intel graphics"[1]. There are many suspend/resume/power management events which can cause the cursor to disappear. The refrigerator cycling is probably causing a brief power dip or surge which the computer interprets as a power cycling event. There's a fix, and it's gradually going into the various Linux distros. When this happens, try CTRL-ALT-F1 followed by CTRL-ALT-F7. That switches the display to text mode and back. If that restores the cursor, this is the problem. [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1568604 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video...
- ac29 10y ago
  Arch has been distributing git builds of xf86-video-intel for a while, since there haven't been any releases in almost 2 years. The bug was fixed over a month ago and the latest Arch build is only a few days old. Its even noted as being fixed on Arch in the bug comments [0]. So, probably not that. [0] https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94677 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94677
  - Animats 10y ago
    If you can get the cursor to disappear with the display still running, the bug is related to this bug. Maybe the fix isn't complete enough.
- agumonkey 10y ago
  What an amazing answer. Systems are weird.
wbraun 10y ago
I think thinkpads of that generation had RF shielding issues. I had a W520 that would crash whenever it was moved across a table or removed from a backpack. Turns out the shielding on the RAM door was faulty and the static charge generated by friction on the bottom of the case was enough to corrupt the ram contents and crash the laptop. Talk about a bizarre failure.

39 points by davis 10y ago

I think my old Optical USB mouse had a ferrite bead just for this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead

xyzzy_plugh 10y ago

ctrl+f "ground": no results. I'd bet it's a grounding issue.

simcop2387 10y ago
Probably not grounding, but quite probably some kind of voltage dip.

tedunangst 10y ago

"Try another refrigerator" pretty much sums up internet help.

M_Grey 10y ago
Just wait until you find out that it sums up everything from auto repair to diagnostic medicine...

micro_softy 10y ago

I have a similar issue. Sometimes, but not every time, when I turn on a particular halogen lamp using the same outlet as a particular computer, it triggers USB detection and I get kernel messages on /dev/console as if I was plugging in a USB device. This is a BSD kernel.

svckr 10y ago
Now, if you had some kind of home automation switching the lights you could implement a really slow communication protocol as a USB device driver.
boomboomsubban 10y ago
This was happening to me, there was some problem with the electricity in my apartment. I can't recall what the electrician said, there were some switches that only 1/4 were working, and if 2/4 had been it would have fried everything. They fixed it in about an hour.

clebio 10y ago

I really wanted this to be about a smart refrigerator stealing a wireless mouse's signal from the desktop trackpad, or something of the sort. Though the plausible explanation[1] is just as pathological (albeit not as nefarious). [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/55pbqp/mouse_cursor_disappears_when_my_refrigerator/d8cqc2c https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/55pbqp/mouse_cur...

Animats 10y ago

Known bug #1568604: "Mouse cursor lost when unlocking with Intel graphics"[1]. There are many suspend/resume/power management events which can cause the cursor to disappear. The refrigerator cycling is probably causing a brief power dip or surge which the computer interprets as a power cycling event. There's a fix, and it's gradually going into the various Linux distros. When this happens, try CTRL-ALT-F1 followed by CTRL-ALT-F7. That switches the display to text mode and back. If that restores the cursor, this is the problem. [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1568604 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video...

ac29 10y ago
Arch has been distributing git builds of xf86-video-intel for a while, since there haven't been any releases in almost 2 years. The bug was fixed over a month ago and the latest Arch build is only a few days old. Its even noted as being fixed on Arch in the bug comments [0]. So, probably not that. [0] https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94677 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94677
- Animats 10y ago
  If you can get the cursor to disappear with the display still running, the bug is related to this bug. Maybe the fix isn't complete enough.
agumonkey 10y ago
What an amazing answer. Systems are weird.

wbraun 10y ago

I think thinkpads of that generation had RF shielding issues. I had a W520 that would crash whenever it was moved across a table or removed from a backpack. Turns out the shielding on the RAM door was faulty and the static charge generated by friction on the bottom of the case was enough to corrupt the ram contents and crash the laptop. Talk about a bizarre failure.