Mouse scrolling causes jump back if I scroll too fast

Help Desk
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  • Distribution & Version: Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon
  • Kernel information: 5.13.0-52-generic
  • When did the issue start happening?: A few months ago
  • Did anything change that caused it? (hardware change, upgrade): No hardware changes. Possible system/software upgrade?
  • What steps do you take that cause the problem?

A few months ago I found that when I scrolled too quickly the page would start going up as desired and then jump back down. This happened with browsers, file manager, applications. Anything where you would scroll.

If I scroll slowly it behaves as expected. I seems to me that the scroll input is saturating and the system is reacting to this by jumping back to an earlier position.

I replaced the mouse with brand new one (Same cheapo Easterntimes Tech D-09) thinking the scroll wheel had gone bad. No change.

I don’t have another working wireless mouse to test with but I tried with an HP wired mouse and it does not have the issue.

I have been very pleased with the ET mouse until the oddness with scrolling showed up. I used the first one for four years before it started doing this. Since the new one is acting the same as the old one, I assume the first one isn’t actually broken.

I tried imwheel and it hasn’t done anything for the scroll issue. I’m still tweaking the settings for different programs because I think it will be useful. But it isn’t the solution to this issue.

I tried the mouse on a different machine (Linux Mint 20.3 XFCE) and the scrolling is screwed up there too.

So: Any ideas on how to fix the scrolling issue? Or, should I buy a new wireless mouse?

If it’s going to be a new mouse, I will have questions.

Thanks for taking the time to look and, hopefully, for thoughts and ideas.

Does anyone have

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A couple threads here and here have many users in agreement on a solution I would not have guessed: clean the dust out of the mouse, specifically around the scroll wheel. It seems like a job for a can of compressed air, but it looks like some folks have had success just blowing into it. :man_shrugging:

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Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.

Canned air is the first thing I did, actually. Then after I got the new mouse I took apart the old mouse and gave it a interior clean. It wasn’t dirty inside and still acted in the same way. It just needs new sliders because the screws were underneath them. And the new mouse had the same problem as the old mouse.