Mouse cursor moves by its own against my will (acting like a spring)

I just disabled the pointing stick.. so far soo good... my touchpad isn't going crazy... even when I bend my lappy :).

Will try to remember to post results within a week of usage.
If this proves useful then I have to disable my pointing stick for good :( (i can live without.. but sometimes I need to use it on sweaty days ;)

Thanks,
ctraN

Ok, hope it works for you, but i already know this does not solve my problem.. disabling the touchpad is not a solution here..

My problem is that i actually like / love the mousestick and hate the touchpad, so disabling the stick is not a solution for me, and that is only going around the problem, not solving it! I have a brand new computer and expect that this should work.. When you buy a car you expect that everything works perfect.. so if suddenly the steering wheel takes a lef when you want to go to right, then you have a problem..

I have had this problem with my D800 as well. I CANNOT use a mouse all the time as I travel quite often and don't bring it with me. I use the pointer quite a lot and only now did I decide to look this up on the internet but in reality it has been happening for approx 6 months on and off. I noticed before someone mentioned that if I leave it alone for 10 seconds or so it stops, this sometimes works but sometimes doesn't.

 

Also, has anyone noticed that while typing sometimes their mouse will click and highlight text and delete it? or click the mouse and focus on a different window? Since I first noticed it I have disabled the touchpad and pointer buttons but it still happens. Oh well. Did anyone get the other problem successfully fixed either via software or hardware changes?

I just got confirmation from Dell that they cannot fix theis problem and that i just had to live with it or get my money back.. there is no solution to this problem...

I think that if they are going to have this problem fixed, they have to "create/design" new keyboards. Or maybe a bios update will fix this problem in the future..

 

Well, i am not going to do much more than i already have done about this case.. i might consider getting my money back.. but i have problems finding a PC that is the same price calss and have the same spec/quality

Good luck to you all who wants to keep fighting for this case / problem.

UPDATE: the disable pointing stick work-around is good. No crazy mouse movements so far. Looks like I have to disable the pointing stick forever in order to use the touchpad. :|

ctraN

I'm sure you all realise by now that this is not an isolated problem! But in case you were in any doubt, I have an Inspiron 4100 (approx 2 years old) which does exactly the same thing and has done since day 1. (mouse jumps around and wanders off all by itself) I know for sure that this is a hardware problem, as touching/squeezing the case of the laptop can actually reverse the direction of the wandering pointer, and sometimes even stop it from wandering temporarily. It is although the whole case is  a huge pressure pad for the pointer, which is highly frustrating and renders the machine unusable when it's having a bad day. My machine is out of warranty now, so i guess that I will just have to live with this for the time being.....

seems like a perfect opportunity for a class action suit. Dell must have known it was shipping a defective design for at least 3 years, must have been a million laptops with these problems. Lost time and energy and product value over the product lifetime.....

They must have known about this problem and ignored it.. Maybe this is a way to make money? Well, let's hope Dell will do something about this now, so that the new laptops will ships without this defect..

Add another one to the list. I've got an Inspiron 8100 with a mobo from a Latitude (C810 if I remember right). Same problem. Cursor is sometimes moving so fast that I can only get it out of the corner of the screen a tiny amout. Bios is updated to the latest Inspiron 8100 bios and running Windows XP Pro w/SP2). Still drivers? Nope, same problem running with clean installs of Redhat 9.0 and Mandrake 10.0. :/

I had this problem with my Latitude CPIA (PII 366) laptop.  There was no mousestick -- just a glidepad.  For years I just disabled the glidepad and used an external mouse.  In the last 6 months of that machine's life, after upgrading to Windows XP Pro, updating all drivers, etc., I was finally able to re-enable the glidepad w/o having it jump all over the place and highlight things.

I now have a new Latitude D600.  After a month, I experienced the same problem.  All along I thought it was the glidepad again and it was only today that I tried disabling the mousestick and the problem went away.

I am on my laptop a dozen hours a day and I do believe the chassis flexes over time.  The problem started out with a few movements here and there while resting my hands and typing, but within a few hours, deteriorated to mouse movements without even resting my hands on the palm rests.  Carefully touching keys with my hands suspended would also send the mouse all over the place.  The problem then deteriorated to the mouse continuing to move all over the place for several seconds after removing my hands from the keyboard entirely.  It had gotten to the point where I was actually fighting the mouse to get it to go where *I* wanted it to go!

Haven't contacted Dell Support yet, but will do so.  Not anxious to rebuild a new laptop again though...

To Dell - Bob T
I have rebuilt my c800 from format C: many times this fix you speak of does not work .... period.
What is the fix????

Roger


OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name RBBDELL850
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Latitude C800
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 6 GenuineIntel ~847 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Computer Corporation A23, 1/21/2004
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name RBBDELL850\Roger
Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 287.23 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.22 GB
Page File D:\pagefile.sys

I've sent my boss' D800 to Dell service *twice*, and still the same problem occurs--occasionally the track stick will either stop moving left/right (up/down works fine) or move erratically. The touchpad works flawlessly though.

The first time they replaced the keyboard and upgraded the BIOS and drivers: no dice. The second time they replaced the mainboard, and everything seemed to work fine until the same problems came back about a week later, most of the time coinciding with the CD/DVD drive spinning up.

I found that pressure on the palmrest seemed to bring the track stick back to life, but then it would jump to the right of the screen. So I opened up the case, removed the keyboard, and tightened every visible screw that I could. Reassembled it and everything seems to work okay. And the case feels like it doesn't flex as much. So maybe that's the problem (and hopefully the fix), but I wish Dell would come out and admit it's a hardware issue. If anyone else has any input on a similar vein, please post.

So what you are saying is that only by tighten all the screws under the keyboard on the laptop, and the problem with the mouse disappears for good?