Office & productivity software forum: Cursor Jumps Around Screen

If you can't find a software problem, it's time to begin suspecting the hardware.

Kees

I am sad to report I tried that for my Inspiron 9300 and it didn't completely fix the problem.

Reinstalling XP is a bit tough, Dell won't send the me OS on CD. The system didn't come with it!

But, when I restore the system (which I did twice) it doesn't fix the problem. Would you have expected it to do so?

I am reluctant to deal with Dell on getting the OS disks, it is well over 350 hours dealing with this computer so far, and customer service is a nightmare. Also, there's the reinstallation of everything - a huge undertaking with close to 100Gb of stuff on the system!

I appreciate your thoughts,
Debra

I just spent 40 minutes w/ HP customer service, and my cursor problems are over, seemingly. I was walked through a series of fixes, and the last one seemed to work. It was not a static charge, and it was not a driver problem, as was first suspected. I don't actually know what the problem was, just how it was fixed.
I was told to press <ctrl><f6> at the same time. When I did this it took me to the welcome screen (the one I get when I first turn on my comp). I clicked on my user name, and tried typing, and the problem persisted. This was repeated several times, w/ the problem remaining.
So I was instructed to reboot my computer, which I did, and after that the problem has been nonexistent (knock on wood). If the problem were still here, typing would be much too painful and frustrating to type this message, and would have inevitably resulted in a flying notebook.
I hope this saves someone the frustration that I just went through.

I have the same problem with the same setup. I have an Inspiron 8500, what model is yours? I usually use it with a mouse plugged in, so I disabled the touchpad thinking maybe I was tapping it. Didn't work, still jumps around.

I actually changed the name of a client into a curse word this morning when replying to an email in Outlook 2003 and didn't notice. Very embarrising explaining that one.

I disabled the track stick (NOT touchpad) and my problem is solved. I never realized I was hitting it while typing . . . or maybe it's just ultra sensitive or something, but I have the stick off and everything else on and it works fine.

It's got to be along the virus line. My laptop just started doing this two days ago. I have a HP Pavillion. I recently downloaded SP2 so don't know if that has something to do with it. But have noticed that it happens when I type the letter sequence of yo ... it just happened. I've run Norton, Xsoft, Adware, and have come up with nothing.

HELP!! It's impossible to type anything when 'almost' everytime you type the word you, the cursor jumps. (It didn't happen just them). Can't figure this one out.

I was told by my IT guy it's a hardware problem, related to pressure on the frame of the laptop. Bummer.

I've tried a mouse, disabling the touchpad, and everything else is up to date and checked out.

I had an Apple notebook OSX and had exactly the same issues with cursors. I ignored it thinking the notebook was just getting old or maybe I was just typing too fast.
However, wtrying to assist a friend with her PC laptop over the weekend, she complained about the same problem.
Tried all the tricks of turning off and on mouse/touch pad/keyboard settings to no avail.
Will now try some of the fixes I've just read in the blogs and will update. Seems like this issue is more evident with laptops.

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name LIFEBOOK
System Manufacturer FUJITSU
System Model LifeBook N6110
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1866 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date FUJITSU // Phoenix Technologies Ltd. Version 1.07, 4/25/2005
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2562 (xpsp.040919-1030)"
User Name LIFEBOOK\Owner
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 106.54 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.20 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Under "Mouse" you should have several tabs: Tapping, Gestures, Area Switch, Others, Buttons, Pointers, Pointer Options, Orientation and Hardware. Choose "Tapping" to adjust the touchpad. This is on a Compaq Presario R3000 running Windows XP Home. If this doesn't apply to you, I've head that cursor jumping can also be caused by a virus (don't know which one, though). Good luck.

Hello dbadger.
I had similar problems and noticed that it stopped when I unplugged my mouse on my Toshiba Satellite Laptop.
So I reinstalled my Logitech Rollerball Mouse software and that seems too have cleared it up.
Hope this helps

Phillip

I have an HP laptop, so it's not just a Dell thing. My laptop is about three years old and it just started doing this in the last 4-6 weeks. Makes me think it's a virus.

My R51 started doing it a couple of weeks ago.

I have the same jumping cursor problem on my Apple iBook which I must use at work. Also the random/auto/instant/highlight/erase thing makes me crazy. The touchpad is so sensitive that you can't navigate anywhere without highlighting something you don't want to. I need to use the touchpad since I carry the iBook around a lot in a wireless office environment. BUT - I have the same problem on the Dell laptop I use at home where I also use a wireless mouse on a wireless internet connection. Happened before we went wireless, too.