MS wireless mouse won't allow monitor to switch off

[prathapml]

This was a problem I was experiencing, and finally solved it, so posting it here for the benefit of others or for myself to look up if I experience it again.

My monitor supports the usual DPMS power management, and through Power Options, I had set it to show screensaver after 1 minute, and go to sleep (no display) after 2 minutes.

And this worked just fine, with cheap no-name mice connected through PS/2, USB, and even Microsoft's Optical Basic mouse.

But then I got myself an MS Wireless Optical Mouse (model number 2000), and the problem started - the screensaver just wouldn't come on, and the screen never switched off. I verified this multiple times by plugging in a wired and wireless mouse, and found that the problem is happening when the wireless mouse is connected (either by itself, or along with the wired one). The OS is Windows Vista SP1 64-bit edition.

I tried a bit of googling which made it clear that this wasn't happening to me alone. Apparently, MS IntelliPoint 6.30 drivers need to be installed for it to work properly. So what's the root cause?

Look in: 'Device Manager > Human Interface Devices' and by default, you'll find a generic device when the wireless mouse is connected, named HID-compliant consumer control device. When you install IntelliPoint, this device changes to HID Non-User Input Data Filter and the problem is solved. Until then, unnecessary signals keep the monitor awake due to perceived continuous input, and therefore the OS gets no "idle input" instructions to act upon; but once this driver is installed, the mouse can discard the junk signals and differentiate in favour of the actual input coming from you.

Now, separately installing one extra EXE, means one extra thing to keep track of when I re-format, so this wasn't a route I wanted to take. I extracted the IntelliPoint 6.30 installer using WinRAR, and separated the unnecessary setup and EXE files from the actual driver-related INF/CAT/SYS/DLL files. Then integrated these into the Vista driver store using vLite, and its all good now. I can simply plug the wireless mouse in and it works the way it should, without thinking about any further actions.

Hoping this helps.

[Zxian]

Thanks for the info prathapml! Glad to see you're still peeking in now and then.

[prathapml]

Ah, indeed.

I have always been dropping in and tracking the forum, but I usually don't log-in unless there's something useful to say.

And Zxian, I'm glad to see so many old-timers still around, and some who've come back after a long period of inactivity.

Once an MSFN'er, always one.

Edited September 23, 2008 by prathapml