Computer help please - skipping cursor syndrome

[Gailey]

I''ve had this problem for a while now. My cursor skips all over the place. All of a sudden, e-mails will send themselves before I''ve finished, contents of my clipboard will suddenly appear for no reason and I will be typing a line of text to find that the cursor has jumped somewhere else and I am typing away in the middle of a previous portion of text.

Has anyone experienced this or know what to do about it?

Stormy? Anyone?

 

[monarch64]

SO has the same problem with his work laptop. It''s a Dell. We have no idea what the issue is either, so I hope Karl will chime in here!

 

[radiantquest]

If it is a laptop I have the same problem. I think it is because my hands rest on the mouse pad. The problem that usually happens with me is that when I am typing my hand is also resting on another button that causes another tab if IE to open. It is really frustrating, but I know that it is from my own hand because when I concentrate and make sure that I am not resting my hand on anything it does not happen.

 

[vc10um]

Date: 1/26/2010 4:54:25 PM
Author: radiantquest
If it is a laptop I have the same problem. I think it is because my hands rest on the mouse pad. The problem that usually happens with me is that when I am typing my hand is also resting on another button that causes another tab if IE to open. It is really frustrating, but I know that it is from my own hand because when I concentrate and make sure that I am not resting my hand on anything it does not happen.

This was my thought, too...

 

[Gailey]

It''s definitely a problem common to Dell, although I have read about it affecting other laptops (mine is a dell). I don''t think it''s a user problem because we have two other laptops in the house that I use and it doesn''t happen on either of those.

I know what you are thinking, "well duh Gailey, use another one!!". Well one is only a notebook and so small it is difficult to use for any length of time and the other one belongs to Mr. Gailey and it is often not here.

 

[monarch64]

It''s not from resting your hands on the mousepad, I have a Dell too and mine doesn''t do it but when I use SO''s (well, when anyone uses it) it skips and has a mind of its own.

 

[asscherisme]

Date: 1/26/2010 3:27:55 PM
Author:Gailey
I''ve had this problem for a while now. My cursor skips all over the place. All of a sudden, e-mails will send themselves before I''ve finished, contents of my clipboard will suddenly appear for no reason and I will be typing a line of text to find that the cursor has jumped somewhere else and I am typing away in the middle of a previous portion of text.

Has anyone experienced this or know what to do about it?

Stormy? Anyone?

I had this happen on a desktop and it turned out to be a faulty keyboard. It was a few years ago and it was a mac.

 

[Karl_K]

known problem with the touch pad on some laptops.
Try running the dell software update utility and see if it installs a driver that fixes it.
otherwise contact support.

The touch pad area extends under the palm rest and pressure on the palm rest is seen as input.

 

[Sha]

I have the same problem with myToshiba laptop. It''s so frustrating!!!

I figured it was some kind of bug?

 

[Gailey]

Thanks Karl (can we not call you Stormy any more?)

I will try that and report back. One thing I noticed is that when I type slower and lift my wrists off the laptop completely, it doesn''t seem to happen. Interesting.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Date: 1/26/2010 6:47:01 PM
Author: Sha
I have the same problem with myToshiba laptop. It''s so frustrating!!!

I figured it was some kind of bug?

I have a Toshiba netbook and this is a constant annoyance for me. I''m now using an external mouse with it and avoiding the TP all together. Karl, is there some way to disable the TP all together? This is a brand new netbook, so I find it odd that it needs a software update already!

 

[Miss Sparkly]

First, I hate Dell and I hate the windows operating system - Hooray for linux and leopard! Anyway, I have a dell laptop that was a gift and I''ve found that if I reformat the harddrive every so often it runs quite well. If that is an option for you, you might give it a shot.

 

[deegee]

I had that problem with my Compaq laptop that ran with the Vista operating system. It was incredibly irritating, and I never knew where the cursor was going to pop up when I was typing. I tried to install a driver (unsuccessfully) to fix it, there was no way to adjust mouse sensitivity, and hubby couldn''t figure out what to do either - and he''s computer/electronics savvy. That computer died before it was even a year old, so I thought maybe it was just a bad computer. Sorry - no help.

 

[Gailey]

It''s not a Vista thing because I had it with Vista and it didn''t go away when I upgraded to Windows 7. Keeping my wrists off is definitely helping. Given that it effects various different laptops, would it not suggest that it is a hardware fault?

 

[Karl_K]

Date: 1/26/2010 11:19:29 PM
Author: Gailey
It''s not a Vista thing because I had it with Vista and it didn''t go away when I upgraded to Windows 7. Keeping my wrists off is definitely helping. Given that it effects various different laptops, would it not suggest that it is a hardware fault?

It is a hardware issue.
What the fixed drivers do is ignore the input from the bad areas it doesn''t really "fix" the problem just makes it not visible.

From above yea you can call me storm :}
I like it better than my real name lol

 

[that_someone_special]

Date: 1/26/2010 7:53:56 PM
Author: Hudson_Hawk

Date: 1/26/2010 6:47:01 PM

Author: Sha

I have the same problem with myToshiba laptop. It''s so frustrating!!!

I figured it was some kind of bug?

I have a Toshiba netbook and this is a constant annoyance for me. I''m now using an external mouse with it and avoiding the TP all together. Karl, is there some way to disable the TP all together? This is a brand new netbook, so I find it odd that it needs a software update already!

There should be, under settings. My last PC laptop had a button right next to the TP...

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I think I figured out how to shut off the TP when the mouse is plugged in, so hopefully that''ll solve the problem for now.

Thanks Strm and everyone.