I bought an HP Victus 15 about two months ago, and after leaving it suspended instead of shutting it down—or sometimes after using it for a long time—it starts behaving strangely. Chrome tabs repeatedly navigate backward as if the Back button were being held down, and Windows sometimes stops responding to mouse clicks even though the pointer still moves. Restarting usually fixes it, but I have occasionally needed several hard resets. I cleared Chrome data, removed extensions, tried another mouse with the touchpad disabled, tested a different keyboard, restarted Windows Explorer, updated the mouse driver, and scanned for malware. The mouse works normally in Device Manager but not reliably in Task Manager. What could be causing this, and what should I try before taking the laptop in for repair?
3 Answers
Try removing the mouse from Device Manager, shut the laptop down completely, then start it again so Windows reinstalls the device. Also test the system from a Linux Live USB. If the same behavior happens there, it points more strongly to hardware; if Linux works normally, focus on Windows, drivers, power settings, or third-party utilities.
A faulty built-in keyboard or its circuitry could be sending phantom inputs, including repeated Back commands, and might also interfere with mouse clicks. Connecting another keyboard does not necessarily disable the internal one, so the problem could remain. Since the laptop is only two months old, documenting the behavior and using the warranty may be safer than opening it or replacing parts yourself.
This may be related to the laptop's suspend or power-management settings rather than Chrome itself. Try disabling sleep or suspend temporarily, switch between Balanced and High Performance modes, and install every BIOS, chipset, touchpad, keyboard, and other driver update available from HP's support page. HP's management software may also offer firmware updates. If the issue continues, temporarily remove unnecessary HP utilities to rule out a conflicting background service.
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