Disappearing mouse pointer/dual monitors

jboy wrote on 12/11/2003, 5:28 PM
This may seem a bit off topic, but I haven't been able to scare up any references to this problem on the web, and am hoping someone on the forum may have had a similiar experience. I set up a dual monitor configuration in win2k, using two separate video cards-(one AGP, one PCI) and initially, everything seemed to work as expected. Subsequently, for no apparent reason, my mouse pointer disappeared from the primary monitor-(the one showing the desktop), but is visible in the secondary one. Additionally, though I cannot see the pointer on the primary monitor, it's there in a mysdterious invisible form, as it highlights various items on the desktop as I drag it blindly around. Also, if I drag it over text, a capital I shape appears-(dont know what you call it, but I've seen it in text displays before). Anybody have any idea what's going on, or can direct me to an appropriate reference resource? Problem is, all of the references Google brings up re: dual monitors refers to dual head cards, which isn't helpful to me. Will greatly appreciate any helpful hints...

Comments

Rogueone wrote on 12/11/2003, 7:22 PM
Is there a setting under your Display Properties to set one of the cards/monitors to a Primary? Maybe your PC thinks your 2nd one is your 1st one. PC's like to configure themselves in strange ways!
jboy wrote on 12/11/2003, 8:06 PM
The problem is, I don't have a mouse pointer on my primary monitor-(the one that displays the desktop). I can swap monitors, (identical monitors, by the way), but things just then reverse. I don't know of any setting that would prevent the mouse pointer being seen on both monitors. This is a very strange problem..
jboy wrote on 12/13/2003, 1:04 PM
FYI: Problem solved. Swapped out the pci video card with another, and the disappearing pointer returned ! Ain't computers wonderful ?
rmack350 wrote on 12/13/2003, 10:27 PM
I wonder if this has something to do with a hardware mouse cursor. For instance, my matrox card has a setting labeled "Use hardware to draw color mouse pointer".

Having two graphics cards might allow for competing settings.

Rob Mack