mouse arrow goes away

[ebb]

With Linux Mint 13 xfce, the mouse "arrow" on the screen sometimes goes away. I'm able to then
shut things down, because I can see that the mouse is still functional from the fact that when
I move the mouse over various menus, they light up, then, I shut down without having actually
unplug.

This is a really old PC (10+ years). It is also a replacement USB mouse. Might the fact that
it's a USB mouse be a factor?

Thanks

[jjaythomas]

if 10 year old computer... Have old PS2 connectors (little round conects with 8pin/holes? for mouse/keyboard

is the USB using version 1 (alot slower) or version 2 (2.2 usually) which is the standard. and USB 3 in stores now is even (blazing) faster all are backward compatiabe to lower USB versions. but the devece (mouse, keyboard, webcam, HD ect.) must be that version to use that speed or reverts to the slower speed.

Your replacement mouse may have to play with the refresh rate of the pointer (icon).

J.Jay

[misce]

Funny thing. I've been running Linux for a month or so now and have never had this issue (but had another seemingly common/known issue - on more than one occasion - mentioned below), but today I was reading the forums and caught in the corner of my eye this thread's title... and then my mouse pointer disappeared later in the day.

I don't know why it happens, but I reason it's probably like Xfce's window manager process(es?) shutting down for no good reason. Nobody seems to know why that randomly shuts down either.

I simply rebooted, didn't even turn off the "save session for next login" setting, and on reboot my mouse was back.

[igor83]

Funny thing. I've been running Linux for a month or so now and have never had this issue (but had another seemingly common/known issue - on more than one occasion - mentioned below), but today I was reading the forums and caught in the corner of my eye this thread's title... and then my mouse pointer disappeared later in the day.

I don't know why it happens, but I reason it's probably like Xfce's window manager process(es?) shutting down for no good reason. Nobody seems to know why that randomly shuts down either.

I simply rebooted, didn't even turn off the "save session for next login" setting, and on reboot my mouse was back.

Windows XP does the same thing on old/iffy USB ports. Instead of rebooting, unplug your mouse and then plug it back in again and see what happens or plug it into a different port.
.