Member Avatar for babigirl

I have a Dell laptop (which are apparently notorious for this problem) and recently the mouse has had a mind of its own and has started moving by itself. Occasionally it will drift to the bottom or top corner of the screen and stay there and its really hard to pull it back (the computer is touchpad). I have found that if I shut down my computer and start it up again the mouse is often back to normal. I have tried all these things to fixed it;

1. buying a wireless mouse which gets it out the corner of the screen but it soon drifts back.
2. cleaning the touchpad
3. Running anti-virus software
4. Turning off enhanced precision on the mouse
5. System restore

It still does it and is driving me insane. Please could someone tell me how to fix this, I need it working properly for my exams

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Ezzaral
Member Avatar for caperjack

(which are apparently notorious for this problem)

maybe hardware problem then

2. cleaning the touchpad

if it goes to the same corner up and down make sure there isn't something between the touch pad and the top cover if it is like my Dell laptop ,if it newer laptop it may be all one piece ,like my daughters new Compaq, you didn't say what model dell you have !

Member Avatar for FlamingClaw

try to clean the mouse's infra red , if a hair or anything else into it then the mouse's cursor is moving by itself

Member Avatar for babigirl

Its quite an old laptop im not sure of the make, I have a touchpad and a brand new wireless mouse and i cant gain control of the mouse by using either ...maybe there it cant be fixed but i was just wondering if anyone else had the same problem? Thanks for trying to help

Member Avatar for Ezzaral

Try disabling the "Pointing Stick" (the little mouse nubby thing that's in the middle of the keyboard) in the mouse section of your control panel.

Member Avatar for babigirl

Ok just had a look in the control panel mouse system and there is nothing there regarding disabling the pointing stick ... when i went into the hardware section it had PS/2 compatible mouse but would not let me disable it.

Member Avatar for Ezzaral

There is a rather lengthy discussion about fixing this here if you need to try a few other things. A co-worker of mine had the same problem recently with an older laptop he picked up and he fixed it by actually clipping the wire to the thing, but you might not want to go that far just yet :)

Member Avatar for babigirl

Thank You ... ill try it tomorrow and post what happens

Member Avatar for babigirl

Thank You so much, since I installed the pointing stick driver and turned off the pointing stick , it hasnt moved and the touchpad is more responsive and fast :)

Member Avatar for Ezzaral

Glad to hear it :)

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