Erratic mouse movement on Thinkpad

First off, your problem has nothing to do with which OS you are using. It is a simple mechanical problem with the "joystick" specifically the contacts are either dirty or damaged.

That having been said, disassembly of these laptops is not for the faint of heart. I would recommend switching to using an external mouse, unless you are either experienced at dis-assembly of laptops or don't mind risking damage to your machine.

i agree sounds like faulty hardware...
i wonder if it could be a resource conflict. have you looked this up on the ibm website. do you also have an internal modem on this laptop.
sometimes stuff on the serial ports will conflict. do you have a mouse on this laptop during the problem? what interface (serial/usb/ps2?).
does taking the mouse off help? (you could always disable the touchpad and use a mouse, yes?)

did you enter hour BIOS settings and peek around and see if what settings were available? what happens if you disable all the serial ports (via the BIOS) for a test
agreed, replacing the keybd a laff a minute. you will need certain torx i believe and long shanks on them etc. worth buying. i would hang out lots at ibm website and look for help with this there also look for instructions on replacing the keyboard. if you don't find any then don't do it imho

Hi-
I agree with the first two in that this is a hardware issue, but I have something else you may want to consider.
Removing the keyboard is fairly easy, go here and scoll down to #7 for instructions.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4YQKLQ
But cleaning the mouse thingy is a bit more complicated.
If it looks like something you would rather take to the shop, there is an alternative. Now that you see how to remove the key board, you might want to buy a new one rather than take it in to the shop. At $84 an hour shop labor, replacing the keyboard is much cheaper, here's an eBay link to the catagory.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&catref=C12&maxrecordsreturned=300&frpp=50&satitle=thinkpad+600+keyboard&sacat=31530%26catref%3DC6&bs=Search&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp=&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=56001&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=
None of the auctions are mine, so I'm not trying to sell you anything, but I figure why pay shop fee's and end up with the same old used keyboard, when you can get a new one cheaper.
HTH
ED

I have had many IBM Thinkpads (TP) (x40, x41, r40) and colleagues that experience intermittent issues with their IBM TP's, where the mouse curser/pointer slams down to the lower right side of the screen and bugs-out with clicks and movement. It has gotten to a point where it occurs 1:3 times I use IE 6 and 7. When it occurs, it completely hinders the laptop!

I opened a case with IBM not too long ago and they basically said, if it doesnt happen in safe-mode then its not our problem.

Is anyone else experiencing this and/or have a solution?