Excel probelm - selection of cells will not release 1

[beccabob]

While editing Excel worksheet, I point to and click on a cell using the mouse pointer or laptop touch-pad, but after releasing the button (to stop selecting), moving the mouse continues to select whatever cells the pointer passes over. This has happened both after I've clicked and released on a single cell or tried to select multiple cells. I cannot release the selection, select a single cell, or enter data. I cannot move the pointer out of the Excel window to point to the menus or navigate on the desktop (the selection just keeps scrolling to additional cells in the excel worksheet or pauses in the upper left corner).

Nothing can be done in Excel and I must terminate Excel in Windows Task Manager (and I get the message "Microsoft Excel Cannot Close" - so I force the program to close anyway), but problem returns immediately or soon after restarting Excel until I restart the computer.

I have encountered this problem multipe times in various Windows OS's, Office 98, 2k, and now 2003, on Dell Latitude, Compaq Presario, & others

The related information found on Microsoft's support site only applies to embedded spreadsheets. I tried their suggestions anyway. Didn't help to press escape. I checked for and did not find stuck keys on keyboard.

PCs are otherwise running fine. No known problems in any other programs. After restarting, problem is less likely to occur right away.

A friend of mine, also an IT professinal, has encountered this problem, and I supervise students who run into this problem in a school computer lab.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[KenWright]

Do you see EXT in the statusbar, and if so have you tried hitting F8 to release it.

Regards
Ken.............

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It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission

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[beccabob]

No EXT, but tried f8 anyway. Didn't help.

thanks, though!

 

[KenWright]

This was a an annoying bug some time ago that a number of people seemed to be able to track back to Mouse software, namely MS Intellimouse software. You could try ensuring you have the latest drivers for your mouse.

Regards
Ken...................

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It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission

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[fitzdr]

Did you every resolve this?

Im having the same problem and have tried everything in the message above.

Thanks david.fitzgerald@idc-ch2m.com

 

[carrr]

fitzdr,

I had the same problem some time ago.
Read here: thread68-700203
I wound up replacing the mouse, but you might find a fix within the many suggestions in the thread.

Tired of waiting for an answer? Try asking better questions. See: faq222-2244