touchpad and stick-pointer issues - need advice

Yeah, sometimes I pound on the touchpad to fix it, lol. When I get back from vacation I'm going to stick in knoppix (a linux distro on cd) and see if it happens at all in that OS. If it does then I doubt it's a software issue (I'm already doubting that since I recently just did format when trying to solve this issue and the problem still happens).

I thought about changing the touchpad but, when I have the touchpad disabled and it still happens, that makes me think it's something else (like the connection where the touchpad/stick connect to the motherboard)

I have found it to happen on other machines with optical mouses. I havent tried the linux box. will you post your findings.

Until the fix, i will just keep pounding.

Merry Christmas

Will do, won't be till after the 30th though. I do have an optical mouse on my laptop but when I formatted I didn't have anything installed or even my optical mouse plugged in and it still had that issue

I had this same problem on my Dell at work and they came and replaced the keyboard. A friend suggested taking the key board off and disconnecting the touch pad.

None yet. I have decided to leave the computer on all the time... with out turning it off when i dont have too. This helps limit the amount of time the mouse moves on its own.

I also grab the computer on a spot not close to the mouse pad. However the mouse begins to float away as soon as I start typing but settles down soon after.

I have found that squeezing, tapping, pounding (which ever mood I am in) on the wrist pads moves the mouse in that particular direction. Do you find this to be true as well?

I have the same problem with an Inspiron 4100 about three years old.  It is driving me crazy.  Have you found a solution for this problem?  My cursor floats, no flies away diagonally across the screen, and even when I try to drag it back into use, it seems to have a life of its own.  It seems to settle down after my computer has been on for a while, but I need to find a fix.    Have you found any solutions?

I just remembered this.  Before my cursor became stable I had noticed that if it hadn't floated for a few days, if I put the pc on standby it would usually start floating again

I have an Inspirom 8100 and had the floating pointer so bad at times I had to hold the stick with one finger and type around it. I got a cordless keyboard and mouse and had the same problem. I have mashed on the touch pad, set it up on blocks (some suggested that) but mine quit when I stopped changing drives.  I have a cdrw and a floppy.  They share the same bay.  Hven't changed them in about 20 months and pointer  hasn't floated any .Was that the cause?  I don't know.  GrannySue

Thanks Pierre , Will make a note of this.  I haven't had that problem in about a year or more.  I decided it was happening when I physically changed  drives and I haven't done so in quite a while so have not had the problem but many thanks.  GrannySue

If you haven't found the fix for it yet, here is what worked for me. If your keyboard has a pointer as well as a touch pad, it's likely the point that's causing the problem. Remove your keyboard carefully and you will see a connector with 2 cables that connects the keyboard to the Mobo. Carefully remove the connector from the mobo and then gently open the connector. there are 2 little tabs for this one on each side of the connector. Gently pull out the thiner of the 2 cables and reassemble the connector. Put a piece of tape over the "pins" of the small cable to sheild them from the computer. Now reconnect the keyboard to the Mobo and reassemble the keyboard assembly.


Your cursor should now behave.

Pierre

Yeah I re-seated the connectors the other day and put a small piece of a static free bag under my touchpad area, It's been solid for 3 days now without any issues.

This is caused by a very pervasive problem with the tracking stick on the keyboard. It is cheap and works that way.

I have an Inspiron 8000 and have been dealing with this for about 3 years as tech support has been completely unresponsive. Given that it is a different model here is what I have learned.

If you plug a PS/2 mouse into the port it disables the built in devices and solves all your problems (except for no built in mouse).

If you have synaptics drivers available for your model install or use them. There is a place under device settings in Synaptics to disable the pointing stick. Start==>Control Panel==>Mouse==>Device settings

If this is no help you may want to download Microsoft Intellimouse 4.2.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4348502a-61be-4072-abe2-e3fc3aa0eee6&DisplayLang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=76E870EC-5779-426F-BCA6-D528861E8935&displaylang=en

I like the static bag and connector solution; even though I solved my problem I will be implementing those right away. Thanks for the advice and help on this.

I found another web site discussing this problem. One suggestion was to remove the keyboard and cut the pointer stick cable. Another suggested a corroded contact. I've just put my keyboard back in after doing the latter and so far it seems to have stopped. I removed and replaced the connector several times.

My machine is over 4 years old. I had to have the hard drive replaced under warranty. Dell shipped me one at no charge. We had hard drive issues on numerous machines. Once we started doubling the ram, our hard drive problems went away.

Later my main board failed. I returned my machine to Dell for service. I had it back in 24 hours with a CPU upgrade, network card and a new main-board, at NO CHARGE. They've been very responsive to my needs. I'll buy Dell again.

All the best,
Doug White

Message Edited by dwhite53 on 03-15-2006 04:14 PM