External Mouse jumping around screen!

Question

I installed a Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse 1.0a on my Inspiron 6400.  I plugged it directly into a USB Port.  Sometimes, the cursor jumps around the screen for no apparent reason.  I checked the mouse settings in control panel and I cannot see anything unusual.  Windows XP Home SP2. I set the Synaptics touch pad to automatically disable when an external pointing device is detected.

kiker · Answer

make sure the the surface is smooth.. you can use a mouse pad... try another mouse so that you can determine if its a problem with your computer or the mouse it self

Julzie · Answer

Another thing I've found that can confuse an optical mouse is a patterned mouse pad, like light and dark stripes or something like that. I started using just a plain old solid color pad and it helped.

E1505x2 · Answer

check to see if there is hair or dust/dirt in the area around the optic sensor underneath the mouse. generally a very fine hair will cause the mouse to misread and the pointer to jump around erratically.

Miami_Mike · Answer

That seemed to do the trick.  My surface is wood-grained with alternating dark and light areas that must have confused  the mouse.  Funny, my old Microsoft Optical mouse that I replaced did not jump on the same surface.  Thanks for your help.

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External Mouse jumping around screen!

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