The cursor keeps jumping to different areas as I type

thefizz

I recently got a new laptop and find the cursor is jumping to other areas as I type in word, excel etc. which is very frustrating.

Any idea why this is happening?

beauf

You might be touching the touchpad by accident. Make sure you have the latest drivers for the touch pad installed.

thefizz

beauf wrote: »

You might be touching the touchpad by accident. Make sure you have the latest drivers for the touch pad installed.

Yes my first thought was the touch pad but I'm fairly sure I'm not hitting it.

ItHurtsWhenIP

thefizz wrote: »

Yes my first thought was the touch pad but I'm fairly sure I'm not hitting it.

If you haven't already done so, try beauf's suggestion of updating the touchpad drivers. No harm in doing the keyboard drivers too.

If that doesn't work, see if you can borrow a USB mouse, plug it in and disable the touchpad (in Device Manager) and then see if your typing still causes the jumping around. if it does, then try a USB keyboard. If the jumping around stops, then here's something funky with the laptop keyboard.

If the USB mouse seemed to correct the issue, then you were probably hitting the touchpad with your typing. :P

thefizz

Definitely not the touch pad. It even jumps out of the program sometimes to the normal windows screen. I'll just contact Dell and report it.

aabarnes1

I have an easy solution for cursor jumping problem. Double click on touch pad icon in your system tray. click on "Pointer Options". Then click on "Advanced" tab in left upper corner. Click on Advanced Feature setting. Click on "Settings" in Pointer speed and tapping setting box. Uncheck "Enable Tap" box. Click Apply. You are all set.

thefizz

aabarnes1 wrote: »

I have an easy solution for cursor jumping problem. Double click on touch pad icon in your system tray. click on "Pointer Options". Then click on "Advanced" tab in left upper corner. Click on Advanced Feature setting. Click on "Settings" in Pointer speed and tapping setting box. Uncheck "Enable Tap" box. Click Apply. You are all set.

Sorry I'm IT challenged and have no idea where the system tray is, could you point me in the right direction?

HeidiHeidi

aabarnes1 wrote: »

I have an easy solution for cursor jumping problem. Double click on touch pad icon in your system tray. click on "Pointer Options". Then click on "Advanced" tab in left upper corner. Click on Advanced Feature setting. Click on "Settings" in Pointer speed and tapping setting box. Uncheck "Enable Tap" box. Click Apply. You are all set.

I have a similar problem to OP, and I'm also sure that I'm not touching the pad.

(I've already had the cursor skip twice just while typing this far!)

However, does this solution that I've quoted not just effectively disable the touchpad? (Also like the OP, I'm fairly IT challenged as well, so apologies if that's a stupid question)

aabarnes1

Have a look at the above and all will become clear to you, right click and open in new tab

aabarnes1

It's the bit at the bottom left of your screen where the time/date is and thevolume icon, wifi icon and notifications icon.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Silly question, is it a touch screen?

A colleague had a similar problem to what you discribe with the pointer randomly jumping all over the place. It turned out that the touch screen was faulty and it was regsitering phantom touches.

Just a thought. What model Dell is it btw?