Wandering laptop curser

I use a Dell Latitude as well and have the same problem. In my experience the problem lays in the touch pad, since it usually goes crazy when I press the right mouse button or just before I touch the pad. Maybe the touchpad is too sensitive to static?

I haven't thought to much about this problem since it's company property and I'm not allowed to tinker with it. What I usually do to fix this without having to restart the laptop, is to press with 2 of my fingers at separate points on the pad at the same time for 5-10 secs and, more often than not, works.

Good Luck.

If you go to your mouse settings in the contol panel there is a number of options there that will help you. I was able to turn my joystick off, or use it just for scrolling pages on a Latitude D810.

Hope this helps.

I had the same problem with a DELL Inspiron 8000.

Go into bios setup and I had 3 choices. Disable touch pad, enable touch pad if no other mouse, or use both touch pad and external mouse. I use second option and use external mouse 99% of the time.

Not really wandering and sometimes I am cursing Micro Soft. (That will make me a stationary MS curser)

What gets me about the mouse pad is that my finger gets tired of hovering above the surface during GIS work and then touches the pad and set some unwanted action in motion.

Beyond the wandering, that's why I shut my touch pad off. I find an optical tailed mouse the most reliable.

I also use a mouse and keyboard whenever I can. Tailed mice are a bit awkward when using the laptop on your lap. I have tried working the mouse on my belly without much success.

That is why I use Logitech's Cordless Trackman Wheel mice. I can place it anywhere, and since it doesn't move, can use it easily with the notebook too. Rolling a ball with my thumb to move the cursor has always made more sense to me than moving a whole mouse. They are cheap too, cost less than 50$US.

I have four of them, one for each computer. Used to use the wired ones but enjoy the cordless much better.

A regular mouse drives me nuts, having to pick it up and move it to get more travel out of the cursor.

It probably will take a little time to train your thumb to work smoothly, but once you have that figured out, you might like it. I sure do.

Hi,

I had this problem with my inspiron 8100 as well, there is a setting in the touchpad configuration to disable, if you cannot find it then check on the Dell web site to get the latest driver to suit. One of the early fix suggestions from Dell was to update the driver but this didnt work, I used to put a little pressure and twist the base to improve at times.

I did in the end place 3 warranty calls to Dell, and the keyboard, touchpad and palmrest area was replaced each time. But with the last call they worked out there was a connector issue in an area above the keyboard. I have no issues now and it is getting to be 6 years old.

Cheers,

Trevor.

This is actually a very common problem with the (somewhat) older Dell laptops. The problem is that the plastic casing itself is not rigid enough. This causes the entire case to twist, thus causing the touch pad or joystick to be "pressed" internally. In my experience, the cursor usually scrolls uncontrollably towards the top right corner. Often if you lightly twist the laptop from opposite corners or prop it up a bit in back it will stop the scrolling.

However, it is easier to just disable the touch pad or joystick and use an external mouse if possible.

Thanks to all who responded. I'll again review the bios settings.

Problem with the idea that it is related to flexing of the laptop body, touchpad sensitivity (which can be adjusted), or anything external is the fact that the same thing occurs regardless of whether the computer is used portably or as a desktop; closed and in its matching docking station.

Thanks again.

We've had a few at work that when being used "as a desktop" would exhibit this problem sometimes. We found that pressing on one corner of the case or inserting a pad of paper under a corner would often stop the scrolling...just a thought at any rate!

I've seen this problem before and it usually occurs on laptops which have been in use for some time. We found that debris (dust, food, crumbs, etc.) and other debris gets in between the edge of the cover on the touchpad and the touchpad itself. The junk creates a small pressure. The result is that the cursor moves to one side or another on the screen and gets stuck there. I think that Dell has a fix or tech bulletin on their website. I'd try loosening the cover and cleaning the edges of the touchpad. Be very careful, it's fragile and loose parts don't do well in a laptop.

If I were rebooting, I'd hold down the power button until the laptop shut itself off (about 5 seconds) rather than removing the battery.

Regards, PeteG.