Weird Solution to Weird Laptop Issue - disappearing popups
One of the features I like about the RV.net forums is that I can hover over a post and see a pop-up box with a preview of the post. Recently on my Dell 1530 laptop those would only "flash" on the screen for a fraction of a second.
Same issue was also affecting the pop-up preview windows when I would hover over an open program minimized on my toolbar. As a result I could not get back into the program. Even Alt-Tab would not work to cycle through open programs.
Based on discussions in various forums, I started trying things to fix it - turned off the sidebar and gadgets, reinstalled mouse drivers - nothing would work, not even after rebooting.
I then found what ended up being the solution and I am still flabbergasted that it actually worked. How in the world someone figured that out I have no idea. The solution:
When it rebooted, the problem was solved. The other weirdness that was happening, and maybe a symptom of the same problem is that when I would boot it, it would beep rapidly about a dozen times, then display a text screen asking me to select which operating system to boot - there was only one, Windows 7. When I would select that it would beep rapidly another dozen or so times, then proceed to boot.
After following the steps above, it also stopped doing that. It is almost like there was some strange electrical gremlin in there and following these steps removed the electrical charge. Like I said - Weird! Thought I would post in case it might help someone else.
Same issue was also affecting the pop-up preview windows when I would hover over an open program minimized on my toolbar. As a result I could not get back into the program. Even Alt-Tab would not work to cycle through open programs.
Based on discussions in various forums, I started trying things to fix it - turned off the sidebar and gadgets, reinstalled mouse drivers - nothing would work, not even after rebooting.
I then found what ended up being the solution and I am still flabbergasted that it actually worked. How in the world someone figured that out I have no idea. The solution:
- Shut down the laptop
- Disconnect power
- Remove the battery
- Press the power button and hold for a few seconds.
- Replace battery, AC power and boot up.
When it rebooted, the problem was solved. The other weirdness that was happening, and maybe a symptom of the same problem is that when I would boot it, it would beep rapidly about a dozen times, then display a text screen asking me to select which operating system to boot - there was only one, Windows 7. When I would select that it would beep rapidly another dozen or so times, then proceed to boot.
After following the steps above, it also stopped doing that. It is almost like there was some strange electrical gremlin in there and following these steps removed the electrical charge. Like I said - Weird! Thought I would post in case it might help someone else.
