Rotate Manipulator Issue

Hello everyone! I apologize if this is a common question, as I’ve done my best to search for similar inquiries and even thought I solved it at one point in the process.

My issue is that the rotate manipulator doesn’t work consistently. Clicking on an axis (although the most commonly problematic one is the Y-axis) results in the shape instead switching to the free-form translation mode as if I had selected that mode from the left toolbar. I’ve tried switching through all of the selection modes in the User Preferences, and although that worked for awhile the problem simply cropped up again. Locking the actual translation axes down before rotating results in nothing happening when this issue is in play. The translate and scale manipulators however work perfectly.

I have no Blender file to show as I’ve only just played around in the factory default file (I’m going through the Blender Cookie tutorials to refresh myself on 3D work). I did change some user preferences, but those only amounted to Blender’s visual theme and using the left mouse button as my selector button. So am I just making an obvious beginner’s mistake or is Blender simply being difficult?

As for my specs, I’m using Blender v. 2.75 on a new Dell Inspiron 3847, Windows 10, with an Intel HD Graphics 4400 card.

Using the left mouse button as the selector is known to cause some problems.You should probably start getting used to using the shortcuts. R followed by X,Y or Z for rotation,you can hold Ctrl while rotating to rotate in increments and you can hold Shift to do fine rotations.

Alright I’ll try that out, because trying out different user interfaces and praying to God every time that it would work wasn’t cutting it. Thank you! ^^