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XP mouse issue

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by natasha lynn 1 view

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I have a Dell laptop running Windows Xp. I've checked all the mouse settings and everything seems to be fine, but about half of the time my mouse will just wander to a corner of my screen and stick there. Then it'll decide to wander to the other corner and stay there... it's got a mind of it's own!

I can use the touchpad, the little circle thing in the center of my keyboard, AND an external mouse and it always does the same thing! I am at a loss and since my laptop is no longer under warranty I would like to figure out what's going on (and avoid spending a ton to fix it!)

If anyone has any advice please let me know! :)

Thanks,
Natasha

6 replies

by oh smeg

But the most common is a Touch Pad that has been damaged along the way.

Some times you can minimize the problem by making the Mouse less sensitive but other times you just need to replace the Touch Pad.

Col

by boxfiddler Hot topic

with the 'ball' of my hands when I type. Which causes the pointer to behave in the same fashion.

edit the usual

by older mycroft

Because if there is - I've approached feeling of GBH toward my mouse on occasions, when the pointer drifted away on its own.

I found that, particularly with laptops, there can be a tendency to insert/remove the usb plug into/from varying usb sockets over a period of time.

If the system encounters 'New Hardware" - a socket not previously used for the mouse - XP can be guilty of loading mouse drivers again, ending up with multiple instances of mouse drivers all happily (supposedly!) co-existing in the system.

Check in Device Manager, expanding each instance of a mouse, for any Yellow or Red entries.

Then -with the mouse disconnected- using the TouchPad, uninstall ALL the mouse drivers you find.

Shutdown. NOT reboot.

Start up again, then plug in the mouse and wait for 'Found New Hardware', making a point from then on to only ever use the same port for the mouse.

Worked for me! :)

by natasha lynn

I will try that... but this happens to the touchpad (and I'm not brushing it... when it's in startup mode and it starts to boot the mouse appears in the center and instead of staying it wanders into a corner and stays) with an external mouse (just plugged into the USB, which I think is what you were saying yours was) and also the little pointer thing that is in the middle of the Dell Latitude keyboards. I'm not sure what it would be called.

The odd thing is (to me anyways) that if I use a mouse or the touchpad I can't get the pointer to move AT ALL... but with the little keyboard thing if I literally hold it to one side (enough to make your finger hurt if you do it for too long) then I can usually control it enough to click on maybe one of two things.

I will try your suggestion and hope it works! *fingers crossed*

Thanks!!

by oh smeg

It sounds as if the Joystick on the Keyboard is broken. The only answer here is to replace the Keyboard.

You can order one On Line here or organize the Keyboard Replacement at your nearest Computer Repairer

http://tinyurl.com/yqwdpu

Col

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