First and foremost, I posted about this quite some time ago in regards to the IntelliPoint 6.01 software causing a repaint of the screen in many different applications. Most notably while using Outlook and Outlook Express. Not only that but Photoshop and many other programs have been reported to be affected by this bug.
Microsoft is trying to pass it off as a video card driver issue when it actually has to deal solely with the IntelliPoint software. Once you kill off ipoint.exe the issue no longer appears. I’ve had this happen to me on computers that were running onboard video by Intel, ATI as well as nVidia. This is not video card specific as Microsoft wants to assert.
Now the reason I’m bringing this back up is due to the lack of discussion going on around the web. I found a thread in the Microsoft.public.mshardware.product newsgroup entitled the same as this blog post. The date of the post started on 12/3/06 and the latest entry is by me, on 2/14/07.
Again, I would like to reiterate that there is a huge bug with the IntelliPoint 6.01 software. What you may experience is basically seeing the screen flash roughly three times. What the flash looks like is as though the screen is refreshing itself over and over again.
You may be wondering why people are complaining about it, well let me tell you why. It’s an extremely annoying bug. Whenever you switch to a certain program, you’ll see the screen refresh for roughly 3-5 seconds. Once you switch away and go back, the same thing happens again. This is the only way I can describe the problem, I’m sure there are others who can define it better than I can. If others can explain it in more detailed text, please do so in the comments and I will update this post to include your information, please include your name and contact info if possible.
I know for a fact that there have been a few people from the mshardware newsgroup in direct talks with MS tech support. They were even supposedly referred to the programmers for the IntelliPoint software. So far the only conclusive thing they can agree on, which again I think is wrong, is that the bug is due to video card drivers. I have not seen any updates as far as this is concerned. This is my main reason to bringing it to the front page again.
I have been having the same problem happening, most noticeably while using Photoshop. Not only does it cause the refreshing when I go between Photoshop and my desktop/other applications, but also after going between any two windows WITHIN Photoshop. Horrendously annoying. Thanks for the post, as it confirmed who I thought the culprit might be.
I cannot tell you how annoyed I am. I mean I’m pulling hairs out and Microsoft doesn’t seem to give two cares about us. The people in the newsgroups are no longer responding. Perhaps they were told to shut up by Microsoft. I’m pissed quite frankly and I want something done. This bug is annoying. I wish more people knew about it.
I spent 3 hours with Tech Support from Dell since my laptop is only 3 months old to resolve this flickering type problem you describe. By the process of elimination thru Task Manager, I too identified ipoint.exe as the culprit. I am debating at this point as to whether I should just uninstall the application all together. Glad to hear others have noted this problem too.
Thanks!!!
Finally after weeks of hair-pulling, this post help me. No flickering any more!
Best regards
Anders
I have 3 PC’s of varying ages up to 3 years old. The latest is a Core 2 Duo about 6 months old. All PC’s have different Video cards and all 3 PC’s exhibit the flashing symptom being discussed.
Solution : Remove “ipoint” from the startup configuration under MsConfig by unticking it. You loose a couple of the button functions but you can always get them back by putting the tick back in the box.
Mick
very annoying problem nearly as annoying as the grenn background of this site
I have the same problem, on a desktop and on a laptop. Two different video cards and problem did not get solved by updating the display drivers. Other forums mention it helped to install a pre 5.5 version of ipoint. All in all why should I use a product which does not work - will send it back to Amazon right away.
I agree the green background on this site is very challenging….
I have had this problem for 9 months and 2 different computers. Actually I bought the new computer because I thought the old one MUST have a motherboard problem. Replacing the video card in the old computer did nothing. I knew ipoint.exe loaded at Startup, but for all that time thought it had to load for the wireless MS Intellimouse. Turns out it’s only necessary for assigning functions to the 2 side keys on the mouse, which I don’t use. Once I disabled it in Startup, voila!, no more flickering, no more parts of spreadsheets disappearing, etc. And I have ver. 6.2 of the software, so this problem has existed thru several versions. What the He** is wrong with Microsoft? Why will they not fix this problem? I suspect it’s because they don’t know how. Anyone using their software (who doesn’t?) can attest to that.
My next wireless mouse will NOT be from MS!!!