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Cursor Floats Across Screen

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11 replies

by douglasb

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I'm working on a laptop where the cursor will begin to float across the screen. It normally heads for one of the four corners. Upon booting into XP Home it is ok. After a short time it begins to float and the computer must be rebooted to fix it. I have downloaded the latest driver, it's a touch pad, and still does not fix the problem.

11 replies

by stephanisat

I had, but my "pencil eraser" as we like to call it would get stuck and send my pointer all over the screen. It would move slowly, but the pointer would head toward the corner of the screen. If I tapped the top of the device, my pointer would stop floating.
-On a side note, if someone could tell me the correct name of the "pencil eraser" I would be most grateful.

by douglasb

No, this is a Dell laptop with a touch pad. I don't know what you call the "pencil eraser" but I think that is a good description, I knew exactly what you were talking about.

by hsantal

is actually called a TrackPoint.

From IBM's site: Distinctive design elements like the TrackPoint pointing device are what set ThinkPad notebooks apart from the rest. This unique pointing device is standard on all of our notebooks? legendary full-size keyboard.

by parhelia

The inventor is Ted Sleker and the device is called a "pointing stick."

by w2ktechman

The touchpad usually uses heat to determine mouse position, and sometimes they are too sensitive and sometimes not enough. But when the 'floating' problem starts happening (on HP notebooks at least) replacing the keyboard has always fixed the problem for me

by douglasb

Thank you for the info. I have never seen this before until now.

by douglasb

Well, well,well, something else to add to the worthless info pile. I like your description better, it tells exactly what it is. Who would know what a "track point" was?

by stephanisat

I am so glad to know the name of what I otherwise call a "doo-dad" or "pointer thingamabob." I have a Dell laptop, but I guess the name is still the same?

by hal 9000

While not a common thing I've seen several cases now where the cloths that the user wears cause a buildup of Static Electricity which cause these units to malfunction.

If you are wearing a lot of Synthetics this is a very common problem.

In one case the person in question found it impossible to use the Touch Pad as it just flew around without a rime or reason but when someone else touched the thing it worked perfectly. Of course the give away was the fact that many people got hit with a static discharge from this guy when they shook hands or had other contact with him.

To cure the problem with this person I just supplied a USB mouse and the problem was solved.

However Heat and some other factors are quite often a problem with these devices as well and in many cases the unit is faulty from new and I replace them out when I run across this problem on a new unit.

Col

by lucia kremzar

Thanks for the great suggestion to use an external mouse. Never thought of that. Could have saved the 99.00 I paid to Microsoft Help for them NOT to fix my problem.
Alas, all's well for now! Laptop nightmare with the roving cursor makes me want to curse!

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