The Windows "Grid" Problem

Charles Sherwood

Software: Internet Explorer 6.0
Windows 98 SE
Microsoft PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse
Microsoft Intellipoint 4.0

Screen shot 1For the last few weeks, I have had my computer completely lock up while browsing in Internet Explorer. The only warning would be the display would suddenly have "grid lines" completely covering the screen. The few times I could get some "mouse movement" on screen, the screen would be corrupted every place the mouse cursor passed over. If I could exit the browser, the Desktop would also be covered with these vertical grid lines. At that point, the computer would lock up completely and force a power off to recover.

Screen shot 2

To solve the problem required excluding the mouse wheel functions in Internet Explorer. To do this, go to Control Panel and click on Mouse. In the "Wheel Troubleshooter" area, select the "Wheel" tab (see screen shot1), and select "Advanced". Click on the "Add" button and use the browse function to find the program to disable, in this case, Internet Explorer (see screen shot2).

Charles Sherwood is a member of HAL-PC and can be reached at csherwood@houston.rr.com.