Mouse pointer start drifitng across the screen

Cambridge1,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

There is a Dell knowledge base article that gives instructions on troubleshooting your touch-pad:

Why does my cursor jump around the page while typing.

If you are using an external mouse and it requires additional drivers, I would suspect that these drivers are likely conflicting with those for the touch-pad. You should remove the drivers for both pointing devices and then reinstall those for the mouse that you wish to use.

Dear BobT,

Basicaly your only suggestion is to reinstall the touch pad drive (i.e. you don't know what may be causing the problem in the first place and have no idea on how to solve it).

For what concern the external mouse, your suggestion doesn't really apply, as the mouse in question is the one I have always used when I wanted/needed an external mouse and I didn't install any further drive when I first used it with my laptop and ever since.

I am Still quite confused and whitout a clue on how to repair the fault. Has anybody had the same problem with a drifiting mouse pointer? By the way when the problems occurr is constant and not only when I am typing.

Many thanks in advance for your help

i have the same problem. it happens with either device connected or not. the only way i get it to not do this is disconnect the touchpad from the mainboard. but this means no mouse when mobile. i just put in a call to tech support, we'll see what they say

I administer 20+ Inspiron and Latitude notebooks.  There is definately a problem with the pointers on these systems.  I have had quite a few replaced and continue to have similiar problems (mouse drifting and not working) with many of the machines, even the ones that have been replaced.  It would be nice if Dell would address this issue instead of blaming other mouse software or Windows.  Personally I think the root of the problem is cheap parts or bad design.  They also obviously did not test the pointer on these systems well enough before they sent them out or they would have discovered this common problem. 

The only solutions I could offer is to either uninstall the Synaptics software and use the built-in windows mouse driver or change the Synaptics settings for the pointer for Heavy Touch.  Both of these things helped a little. 

I personally will not purchase another Dell laptop for my company, I've just had way to many problems and service calls with them. 

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@jarasta wrote:

I administer 20+ Inspiron and Latitude notebooks.  There is definately a problem with the pointers on these systems.  I have had quite a few replaced and continue to have similiar problems (mouse drifting and not working) with many of the machines, even the ones that have been replaced.  It would be nice if Dell would address this issue instead of blaming other mouse software or Windows.  Personally I think the root of the problem is cheap parts or bad design.  They also obviously did not test the pointer on these systems well enough before they sent them out or they would have discovered this common problem. 

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I have seen my pointer drift down the screen and I use an external mouse.  It has nothing to do with the hardware whatsoever, just like the drifting of the pointer when using the touchpad has nothing to do with the hardware.  It is a software issue.  The cursors are run via software.  People do see it as Dell's problem because we expect one-stop service from the people we buy our hardware from, but it is actually due to software written by a totally different company.

Suggest you look at the Moving Mouse Cursor - Inspiron 4000 thread, which is relevant, and perhaps make it the one to put pressure on Dell.  I reckon this is a problem for many users caused by a physical design flaw.

This view supported by some of the comments on that thread - it looks to me like it's a loose connection disrupting the electrical input to the software.

Very easy to fix without spending money - just disable the keyboard mouse tracker using the properties on the icon on teh toolbar.

I am so glad that you have all posted replies to this issue.  I have a new Inspiron 1100 (bought this June)and just started having a similar problem with my synaptics touchpad.  When i try to use it, on random occassions, it pulls to the edges of the screen. When i use my dell mouse, it is solved.  then on other random occassions, the pointer starts to drift.  Do you have any ideas on how to solve the problem with the touchpad?  Thanks for all of your help.

Nealirose

I had a similar problem with one of 2 identical Inspiron 8000 models. As soon as I touched any key on the keyboard, the pointer started to wander around erraticallty one one of then (lets call it A for now...), making Shift+Click or Ctrl+Click an exercise in patience and finger acrobatics. Installing the latest Synoptics driver and disabling the pointing stick solved the problem.

Still, there's some mystery:

The second 8000 (let's call it B) does not have the problem without the Synoptics driver installed. I made the test to swap the harddrives, and A instantly showed the problem when running B's drive without the Synoptics driver. B ran fine with A's drive with the pointing stick enabled. This would tells me that it's a hardware issue with the stick.

Next step im my test was to use a fresh drive, put it into A and install Windows XP out of the box. Both A snd B do not show the problem. As soon as I install the display driver for the ATI Radeon but not the Synoptics driver, A has shows the problem again but B not.

I also have this same problem with my Inspiron 4000 series laptop.  Over the last 6 months this problem has got more severe causing me to have to reboot my system many times a day.

My symptums are identical to those of Cambridge1.  At this point I would have no problem totally disabling the touchpad and going strictly with an external mouse.  Is there a way to do this?

If you are not using an external mouse, you can disable the track stick by going into the Control Panel/Mouse/Hardware and look for the Enable Yes/No entry for the track stick.  Once this is done, the problem will go away only if you are using the touch pad (MESSAGE TP DELL---- ITS A SOFTWARE PROBLEM).  If you start using an external mouse, the problem will come back.

Dear BobT

Your instructions are of no value and not relevant since you did not read the description of the problem.

The problem is "Mouse pointer starts drifting across screen".  The problem is caused by a fault either the track stick or the track stick driver.  The slightest pressure on the track stick, even pressure from having the laptop on an uneven surface, will cause the pointer to start drifting.  It is clear that a large number of Inspiron users are having this same problem.

What solution does Dell have to fix this?

 I am happy to say that after reading some of the comments, I went to Dell Downloads and found that there was a driver for the touchpad that was newer than the one installed on my system.  After loading this driver, my problem has disappeared, at least for the last two days.  The new driver is designed for Windows XP which my system now uses.  I hope this helps someone else as well.

Steve