Only one portion of screen works - Windows 8.1 issue?

[Magycmyste]

Hi! I recently had to upgrade my laptop, and (slightly against my better judgment) went for one with Windows 8.1 on it (mostly because the specs I was getting were great for the price I was paying).

However, I've repeatedly had the problem of not being able to navigate properly in Scrivener with my mouse. When I open it up, it seems like the first area I click in is active, but afterwards, my mouse will not work in any other area, and I can't change. So if I click on the binder first to change scenes, I can't then click on the appropriate place in the editor to start typing. And if I click in the editor in the beginning, I basically have to restart Scrivener in order to change scenes. I am able to access the menu bar via the alt key, and then arrow keys, but that's about it.

I don't run into this every time I run Scrivener, but often enough that I felt it warranted asking here.

I'm using the latest version of Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell, an Intel Core i7-4720HQ Processor (2.60GHz 1600MHz 6MB) and 16GB of RAM. Looking at Task Manager, it doesn't appear that I'm running out of either RAM or CPU power (I shouldn't be - that's the reason I got this laptop. Unfortunately, Scrivener combined with Winamp and Chrome constantly caused my old laptop to hang because it was running out of resources). Is this a common issue with Windows 8.1 (and if it is, please god let it be fixable!)? I am aware that there is a mouse issue with some of the "modern apps" that come with Windows 8.1 (in which the mouse/touchpad seems to sop working entirely). But I don't think Scrivener falls into that category. (Also, I've been having a little trouble with Scapple, but I'm willing to say that perhaps my laptop whose quirks I'm still learning may not be the best platform on which to learn a program. ::sigh::

I am working on both a novel with parts (with a WHOLE lot of files), and a short story in Scrivener(recently started, so this is a pretty light scriv folder), and I've run into this problem with both templates.

Help, please! I would really llke to not have to restart Scrivener every time I want to work on a different scene.

[devinganger]

This honestly sounds like it could be a driver issue, or some sort of background software causing a problem.

Try rebooting your laptop in Safe mode and work with Scrivener and your normal applications -- see if it recurs. If not, then one of the applications that gets launched in the background is the culprit. These kinds of conflicts are common on new laptops, with the slew of crapware that PC manufacturers like to put on them (except for the Microsoft Signature loads you can get from the Microsoft Store).

[Magycmyste]

Sorry about the delayed reply - my topic notification got directed to spam. >.<

Thanks, that does sound likely. I'll try testing it out in Safe mode and see what happens. It isn't a 100% issue, so I may need to test it a few times. Also need to go through and see if I can identify and delete/uninstall all the bloatware Lenovo installed.

This might take me a little while, since the battery that came with the laptop is defective (I don't think this is the issue here, just that it means my laptop lasts for half of the advertised time (and that's with the power-saving features turned on. Or is it the power-draining features turned down/off). But
Lenovo is sending me a replacement laptop, so chances are that any testing I do on this one, I'll have to duplicate on the new one.

I'm also very tempted to go ahead and install Windows 10, since the icon to "Get Windows 10" is now showing up in the bottom left corner, but my brain is telling me to wait until there's some more reviews.

I'll report back what I find out!

[devinganger]

FWIW, the "Get Windows 10" icon won't install it immediately -- it just gets you signed up and registered for it when it releases on July 29.

Good luck! Lenovo bloatware is some of the worst. One of the reasons I finally stopped buying and recommending them both in consumer and business configurations is because of the bloatware (and the absolutely silly batch-file based rescue "rebuild everything from the ground up" media). The Surface Pro line is what is currently eating my heart and wallet.

[Magycmyste]

Ah, I thought it sounded a little early for Windows 10 to be out.

And thanks! I got enticed to get the Lenovo Y50 for the specs. And the thought that if I really hated Windows 8, I could just do a clean install of 7 (I've got an extra copy here). But... surprisingly enough, I'm not hating it enough to do it. At least not yet. Classic Shell helps a LOT.

The mouse thing is irritating, though, even if I don't run into it too often.

[Magycmyste]

So, I recently got the replacement laptop and copied everything over (though I'm hanging onto it a little longer to make sure everything got copied over).

And... now I'm wondering if Classic Shell had something to do with the problems I had on the old one. The battery seems about the same (to be honest, I'm not sure if I can expect better, even though the reviews did claim slightly better battery life), but I'm not having the mouse problems I was before, and... so far, at least, everything on Scrivener seems to be working fine. There is also the possibility that Lenovo did a rush job on my first laptop for some reason - I remember being really surprised that it shipped out two days after I ordered it. This time, it shipped out over a week and a half after the replacement order was made, and everything... just seems to work better. I'm even kind of enjoying Windows 8.1, I think (now there's something I never thought I'd say). (Although, all of a sudden, some of the apps I downloaded won't start up. ::sigh:: At least most of those aren't too important to me.)

I didn't get to testing the other laptop in Safe Mode yet - I might still do it before returning the laptop, just to check the problems. But I'm happy I'm not running into them on this one. Just need to hunt down all the bloatware to delete...

[MimeticMouton]

Re: the apps that won't start up, you might try running them in compatibility mode (for Win7 or even for Win 8.1). That sometimes gets around tweaks in a minor update that are preventing compatible applications from running properly.

[Magycmyste]

Eh, I uninstalled and reinstalled them, and they're working fine now (or at least the games are - I haven't reinstalled the Wikipedia app yet). They were ones specifically meant for Windows 8 and downloaded from the Microsoft store. I think they must have gotten corrupted somehow.

Thank you! And devinganger!