Windows 7 Adobe Reader 9.3.4 disabled my mouse wheel

[vmcgowan]

It took me more than a week to track this down, but after installing the most recent Adobe Reader (9.3.4) my mouse wheel became disabled and in the mouse control panel applet, the Wheel tab is not visible.

It takes more than a simple 'Restart' for the problem to become apparent (and to be resolved). It takes a full shutdown for the problem to appear after the upgrade and to be resolved after an uninstall of Reader. And Adobe only provides the most recent version on its web site so I can't roll back to an older version, so for now I'm unable to read PDFs.

I'm running 32-bit Win 7 Ultimate on an HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7640n Desktop PC
with an AMD Dual Core Processor. I had also noticed the problem on my T43 Thinkpad but a subsequent update of the Lenovo UltaNav software apparently resolved it on that machine.

 

[Joe S]

I use Foxit Reader Foxit Software - Best PDF Reader Adobe Acrobat reader is junk and a constant security problem just like their Flash.
Joe

 

[vmcgowan]

I'm not a fan of Adobe right now...

So this morning a web site wants the latest Flash (which I uninstalled during my trial and error to narrow down my problem) and since I was sure I had confirmed Reader was the problem I decided to give it a chance. BOOM! same problem re-appears...and even worse, now I can't make it go away like I was able to do with Reader. UGH!

 

[Joe S]

Maybe it corrupted the mouse driver. Delete and reinstall that.
Joe

 

[vmcgowan]

A new theory has emerged - the problem is with my Avocent Switchview box that my PS2 mouse is plugged into. I will need to see if there is a firmware upgrade available. The behavior has been very odd and was very inconsistent...until I noticed the T43 (also connected to the SwitchView) mouse bad behavior was back even though I hadn't installed anything on it today.

I checked the SwitchView manual (it's a PDF so I reinstalled Reader, since that now appears not to be a problem) and found and tried the mouse reset from the keyboard and VOILA now the wheel is functioning.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Joe S]

I'd still replace the Acrobat Reader with the Foxit Reader. I only use the Adobe crap on a rare file that Foxit doesn't open or one old piece of software that requires the Acrobat reader to proceed with install.
Joe

 

[Digerati]

While Adobe Reader and Flash player have their issues (and I sure don't like how Adobe tries to foist updaters and toolbars on us), they generally work as expected. My wheels work on all my systems after the recent upgrading so I suspect you are on to something with your switchbox. I have a 4-way KVM switch on my systems downstairs and have had similar problems after various updates - though I don't remember any after Adobe updates.