I'm using XP on a C600 with a similar if not a more severe problem. sometimes after starting up my laptop the mouse pointer just moves on its own without me touching the touchpad, nor any part of the computer. It sorta moves to one corner of the screen and 'hugs' it, meaning when i try to move it somewhere using the touchpad the pointer quickly and aggressively moves back to that corner, sometimes disappearing from the edge of the screen. I have no control over it. i keep moving the pointer and it races back to the corner. so the pointer becomes useless to me and i'm forced to try to use keyboard options to navigate. (ugh!)
I've tried reinstalling the latest drivers for it, but a few days later the behavior started up again. And then i decreased the sensitivity of the pointer and set the palm check sensitivity option to almost maximum, the problem prevailed. Then i figured i'd just use the little mouse stick in the keypad and disable the touchpad, the problem still prevailed and even the mouse disappeared! After rebooting, I then enabled the touchpad (also disabled the mouse stick) and slowed the pointer speed, and even decreased the hardware acceleration.
If your erratic mouse movement is not as severe as mine you can probably reference the following for help:
I purchased a used C600 laptop running Windows 2000 that exhibited the very same behavior that you are describing (dancing, erratic mouse movements). The mouse pointer would move to the right, and appear/reappear at the most inopportune times when I was typing. Attaching an external PS2 or USB mouse did not fix the problem. Changing the BIOS Touchpad/Mouse settings didn't fix the problem. Removing the little rubber thumbstick cover did not solve the problem, either. Rather than buying a new keyboard, I decided to take a more aggressive approach to fixing the mouse problem.
Here's what I did: I removed the keyboard, cleaned the keyboard cable contacts (with a slim eraser), wiped the hard drive, installed Windows XP, installed Service Pack 1 and all of the XP Critical updates via a free Microsoft Updates CD, installed the latest Synaptics Toucpad Drivers (v. 7.6.4, A11), and disabled the thumbstick (the pointer in the middle of the keyboard).
After I did all that, the dancing, erratic mouse movement problem disappeared, and it's been working great for the last two months.
I am not sure if it was one thing, or a combination of things that I did. (It could have been solved just by reseating the keyboard cable for all I know.)
Good luck.
Message Edited by airwolf_1984 on 05-25-2004 10:41 PM
I try to look after 80+ Dell laptops of various guises. I currently have 5 displaying this erratic mouse behavior.
What's worse, one of them is my own D800. I have tried the following: Complete reinstall of OS etc, different mice, PS2 and USB, with and without docking station, disabled all pointing devices including the joystick, etc, etc. Everything appeared to work at first, maybe minutes, maybe hours, sometimes a whole day, but this curse keeps returning. I am at a loss, as my phone rings daily with user complaints about this issue.
Anybody at Dell got any comments? or do I just line up all affected Laptops, and ask Dell to send a service engineer to come and fix them all at the same time.. (They are all still on cover).
zoukgirl
4 Posts
0
May 26th, 2004 02:00
Hi,
I'm using XP on a C600 with a similar if not a more severe problem. sometimes after starting up my laptop the mouse pointer just moves on its own without me touching the touchpad, nor any part of the computer. It sorta moves to one corner of the screen and 'hugs' it, meaning when i try to move it somewhere using the touchpad the pointer quickly and aggressively moves back to that corner, sometimes disappearing from the edge of the screen. I have no control over it. i keep moving the pointer and it races back to the corner. so the pointer becomes useless to me and i'm forced to try to use keyboard options to navigate. (ugh!)
I've tried reinstalling the latest drivers for it, but a few days later the behavior started up again. And then i decreased the sensitivity of the pointer and set the palm check sensitivity option to almost maximum, the problem prevailed. Then i figured i'd just use the little mouse stick in the keypad and disable the touchpad, the problem still prevailed and even the mouse disappeared! After rebooting, I then enabled the touchpad (also disabled the mouse stick) and slowed the pointer speed, and even decreased the hardware acceleration.
If your erratic mouse movement is not as severe as mine you can probably reference the following for help:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291570&sd=dell
otherwise, if anyone has any suggestions...help me please!!!
airwolf_1984
138 Posts
0
May 26th, 2004 04:00
I purchased a used C600 laptop running Windows 2000 that exhibited the very same behavior that you are describing (dancing, erratic mouse movements). The mouse pointer would move to the right, and appear/reappear at the most inopportune times when I was typing. Attaching an external PS2 or USB mouse did not fix the problem. Changing the BIOS Touchpad/Mouse settings didn't fix the problem. Removing the little rubber thumbstick cover did not solve the problem, either. Rather than buying a new keyboard, I decided to take a more aggressive approach to fixing the mouse problem.
Here's what I did:
I removed the keyboard, cleaned the keyboard cable contacts (with a slim eraser), wiped the hard drive, installed Windows XP, installed Service Pack 1 and all of the XP Critical updates via a free Microsoft Updates CD, installed the latest Synaptics Toucpad Drivers (v. 7.6.4, A11), and disabled the thumbstick (the pointer in the middle of the keyboard).
After I did all that, the dancing, erratic mouse movement problem disappeared, and it's been working great for the last two months.
I am not sure if it was one thing, or a combination of things that I did. (It could have been solved just by reseating the keyboard cable for all I know.)
Good luck.
Message Edited by airwolf_1984 on 05-25-2004 10:41 PM
up4it4ever
1 Message
0
July 29th, 2004 10:00
Hi,
I try to look after 80+ Dell laptops of various guises. I currently have 5 displaying this erratic mouse behavior.
What's worse, one of them is my own D800. I have tried the following: Complete reinstall of OS etc, different mice, PS2 and USB, with and without docking station, disabled all pointing devices including the joystick, etc, etc. Everything appeared to work at first, maybe minutes, maybe hours, sometimes a whole day, but this curse keeps returning. I am at a loss, as my phone rings daily with user complaints about this issue.
Anybody at Dell got any comments? or do I just line up all affected Laptops, and ask Dell to send a service engineer to come and fix them all at the same time.. (They are all still on cover).
Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks,