I'm running Windows 11 on a Ryzen 7 9700X system with a Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi motherboard, RX 9070 XT graphics, and 64 GB of DDR5 memory. My Corsair Dark Core Pro mouse intermittently stops registering normal left clicks: I can still track, right-click, and hold left-click to drag, but clicking taskbar icons, windows, or applications does nothing. It feels like an invisible window is sitting over the desktop. The problem temporarily disappears after opening Task Manager with Ctrl+Alt+Delete and pressing Escape, or after opening and closing the Start menu several times. I've cleaned the mouse, disabled and reinstalled iCUE, checked for macros and conflicting bindings, reset the mouse firmware, reinstalled its drivers, restarted Windows Explorer and Windows Input Experience, tried wired, Bluetooth, and 2.4 GHz modes, changed cables and USB ports, and tested multiple mice, including a new Dark Core Pro, a known-good Razer, and a wired Logitech. The mice work normally on another laptop, but the problem even appeared after resetting Windows during initial setup. What could cause Windows to ignore ordinary left-click selection while still allowing dragging, and what should I try before completely formatting the drives?
2 Answers
Also test without the wireless receiver and try both wired and wireless operation, since receiver interference or a bad USB connection can sometimes look like missed clicks. Those modes, different cables, and several USB ports were already tried without changing the behavior, so that makes a physical mouse or port issue unlikely. The remaining direction is a Windows-level input, shell, overlay, or background-software conflict rather than the mouse itself.
Test the affected mouse on another computer or even an Android device to separate a mouse problem from a Windows problem. In this case, the mouse reportedly works normally elsewhere, and multiple known-good mice show the same behavior on this PC, so the evidence points away from a defective button.
I tested Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz, and wired connections, plus a new mouse and two known-working spares. The issue continued with all of them, even after resetting Windows, so I’m also leaning toward something affecting Windows input or the desktop shell.