Office2007/Outlook/IE Strange behavior

Question

About a month after I got my Latitude D820 Laptop it started acting weird. Occasionally the cursor would move to a different spot on the page while I was typing or a single letter or word somewhere in the document would highlight and blink. This was obviously incredibly frustrating but I thought I could work around it until I had time to investigate further. I was running Norton Internet Security version 10.3.0.12. I have checked for worms, viruses, trojans spyware, malware & everything else I can think of.

The problem is getting insidiously worse. Now I can hardly type a document because the cursor skips around so much and it now highlights paragraphs rather than just words so if you don't stop typing the second it highlights then the next click of your keyboard erases everything you just typed. This makes sending emails, typing documents, or chatting on a message board very frustrating. One person at one of the companies said it might be a problem with my rich text editor. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Office and this didn't help.

Please help because I want to love my computer again and right now I'm not feeling a lot of love.

Thanks....

ArtChik · Answer

I forgot to mention that I am using Vista OS and Office 2007

Rebel9 · Answer

Usually this erratic cursor movement is caused by an overly sensitive touchpad. You may be touching or brushing the touchpad as you are typing. Are you using a mouse or just the touchpad? If you are using a mouse, there is a setting to turn off the touchpad if a mouse is connected. If you are strictly using the touchpad, there should also be a setting where you can control the sensitivity of the touchpad (so that the cursor doesn't jump around erotically if you accidentally touch it). If nothing above works for you, you might want to reinstall the touchpad driver.

ArtChik · Answer

I'll try that rebel. I use the mouse but the problem is occurring when I am typing, not when I'm using the mouse or the touch pad. I will try to see if I am inadvertently brushing the touch pad while typing. I know I'm not bumping the mouse because I move it across the desk surface when I type. But in addition to brushing the touchpad to move the position of the cursor I would also have to depress one of the buttons to set the cursor in the new position or use it to drag the cursor at the same time the button is being depressed in order to highlight it. That seems like a lot to do accidentally.

mykalel · Answer

I'm having exactly the same problem as ArtChik on my Latitude D820.

Attempts to solve the problem so far have been:
1. Dell replaced the TouchPad
2. Dell replaced the Keyboard
3. Dell replaced the motherboard
4. I disabled the microphones as per
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_office2000&message.id=19530&query.id=48621#M19530
5. I installed the Dell Touchpad v7.1.102.7 driver dated 8.24.07
6 I disabled the pointing stick
7. I verified that my hands are no where near the TouchPad when typing

None of these solutions have worked. It seems from other postings on this board that other Dell models are having the same problem. No-one seems to have the answer yet.

Anyone care to prove me wrong?

ArtChik · Answer

Mykalel,

I was finally able to fix the problem the following way....

Control Panel

Mouse

Device Select

I left all of the pointing stick options enabled & also the touchpad options, but I checked the box at the bottom that says "Disable Touchpad/Stick when USB pointing devices are enabled." That way whenever I have a mouse connected to the computer it turns off the poiners & touchpad. Apparentely what was happening was the joints at the back of my thumb were hovering over the touchpad and it was just sensitive enough that it was reading it as commands. Good Luck.

Productivity Software

Office2007/Outlook/IE Strange behavior

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