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A friend lives in an apartment and has a Microsoft wireless keyboard and a Logitech wired (USB) trackball.

Since installing a new laptop we keep getting messages that the wireless MOUSE batteries are low. But she has no wireless mouse! However a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 3000 shows up in Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Devices and Printers

Presumably this is picking up a wireless mouse at a neighboring apartment. (Hence the weak signal.)

I disabled the wireless mouse in the device manager but then still got the battery is low message. We've checked the box to no longer show the message.

The real question is whether there is some way to tell the wireless system USB receiver that a given device is NOT to be connected.

In Bluetooth terminology (which this is NOT using) I want to "Un-pair" the device.

bwDraco
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lcbrevard
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2 Answers2

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OOPS... The mouse with low battery was in fact a mouse that came with the keyboard and had been put into a drawer nearby - in 2006!

We happened to find it and THEN my friend remembered that there was one.

SO... she was NOT picking up something from a neighbor.

I'm still wondering what binds a given mouse / keyboard to a given receiver and how does that work if more than one is in the same range.

I also wonder why with the new computer it decided to pickup that mouse after all the years.

lcbrevard
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I humbly submit that you replace that keyboard.

Ordinarily that's a stupid, evasive answer, but in this case I argue you have a security issue. You have a receiver that picks up information from a mouse in another home. That implies that another home has a receiver that is picking up your keyboard input. Just like you haven't knocked on their door and suggested they replace their batteries, they may not have done anything about strange keystrokes appearing on their screen from time to time...

Microsoft recently put out a wireless keyboard and mouse combo that offers encrypted communication with the dongle. Price: $40. Here's the first article I found on Google, but I learned about it from an MS Hardware rep a few days ago: http://www.techspot.com/news/44096-microsoft-offers-keyboard-with-128-bit-encryption.html

Stefan Mohr
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