Mouse Wheel Button taking over!

Hello,
I have an Asus N550JK, had it for several months and love it. But now something strange has begun to happen. For no apparent reason the mouse wheel button has taken over the volume control. When I push and hold the mouse wheel button the volume drops exactly as if I were holding fn + F11. This would not be a problem most of the time but I have a game that occasionally requires the mouse wheel button to be held down for several seconds, and of course the volume drops to nothing which can be very annoying.

Note that I have been using this mouse, a Gear Head MPT3100 since I got the machine with no problems at all. I will try a different mouse but my feeling is that the problem will remain.

If anyone has any clue about this, some setting or anything at all that might be the problem or a solution I'm all ears. I have searched but can find nowhere that says anything about linking mouse actions and function keys. Like I said it's not devastating but neither is it right. I don't like things that aren't right.

Thanks,
Ken

 

Update: I tried a Microsoft 5000 mouse and the problem went away. However, it has it's own set of problems, namely it stops working altogether at times, too often to be of use. I tried installing the software for it but that didn't help. This is puzzling since, on my desktop, this is one of the best mice I've ever had - works really great.

So I tried reinstalling the Gear Head driver and software. It allows you to program all the buttons but one - you guessed it, the mouse wheel button! I also tried assigning a side button to the quick items (crossbow, bombs etc) but holding it down doesn't seem to work. It arms and fires or throws immediately - no chance to aim.

So I guess I will program the custom button (upper left) to raise the volume and just deal with it, PITA that it is. But it's still not right. And I still don't like not right.

 

Are you using the same port?

 

Yes, the same port, however . . .

I have found the "problem". Kinda duh. The fact is the mouse wheel button does not turn the volume down, but tilting the wheel does. I didn't realize I was tilting the wheel. I knew the wheel had a tilt feature when I bought it but never used it and forgot about it. The tilt is very subtle so amid a heated battle I didn't realize how heavy handed I was getting.

It's still kind of a pain, having to be really careful with it, but I did also find that if I do happen to turn the volume down I can turn it back up by tilting it the other direction. If I could disconnect this functionality I would, but my searches have found nothing of the sort. So I'll deal with it. But at least I know that neither the machine nor the mouse are behaving in a manner that can be considered "wrong" - a relief of sorts.

 

Tilt has its own, dedicated micro-switches. If you don't mind soldering; remove them (or cut their pcb trace) and tilt no longer functions.