Hi all.

This is my first post here; beginning to lose my mind with this problem!

I've just installed a new hard drive, and have XP Pro on it. I used to have
regular XP Home, but laptop wouldnt boot from the recovery disks I made,
thats another story!

Anyway since the fresh installation, I notice when I type in forums or in
emails (OE), or indeed anywhere, the cursor randomly jumps to a different
location. If your not paying attention to the screen you end up messing up
your message. Sometimes the window Im typing in actually closes and I have to
reopen it, or maybe it doesnt close, but minimises.

Ive googled this and seen many other people who had this problem too, but no
explanation. In some cases the problem occured after a reinstall of XP. Why
would it suddenly happen after a fresh instalation? Do I need to uninstall XP
Pro and somehow try to get recovery disks for my old OS to work?

Some people offered solutions related to mouse and touchpad, but its not the
mouse cursor, its the TEXT cursor.
Could it be virus related? And apologies if i have posted this in the wrong
place, if so please redirect me.

thanks

h

"hawthorn59" wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> This is my first post here; beginning to lose my mind with this problem!
>
> I've just installed a new hard drive, and have XP Pro on it. I used to have
> regular XP Home, but laptop wouldnt boot from the recovery disks I made,
> thats another story!
>
> Anyway since the fresh installation, I notice when I type in forums or in
> emails (OE), or indeed anywhere, the cursor randomly jumps to a different
> location. If your not paying attention to the screen you end up messing up
> your message. Sometimes the window Im typing in actually closes and I have to
> reopen it, or maybe it doesnt close, but minimises.
>
> Ive googled this and seen many other people who had this problem too, but no
> explanation. In some cases the problem occured after a reinstall of XP. Why
> would it suddenly happen after a fresh instalation? Do I need to uninstall XP
> Pro and somehow try to get recovery disks for my old OS to work?
>
> Some people offered solutions related to mouse and touchpad, but its not the
> mouse cursor, its the TEXT cursor.
> Could it be virus related? And apologies if i have posted this in the wrong
> place, if so please redirect me.
>
> thanks
>
> h

Only time I've had this was because when I was typing I was knocking the
touchpad, which was moving the cursor then as the touchpad was set to do a
left click if enough pressure was used the text cursor moved to another
location in the document.

Might be a idea to try disabling the touchpad see if that does make any
difference.

> Might be a idea to try disabling the touchpad see if that does make any
> difference.

Thanks for your reply. But you see its the text cursor/indicator that
suddenly jumps! Even if I deliberately brush off the touchpad, that only
moves the mouse cursor. Unless there is a connection between them.

The mouse cursor itself behaves impeccably, and never moves!

h

hawthorn59 wrote:
>
>> Might be a idea to try disabling the touchpad see if that does make any
>> difference.
>
> Thanks for your reply. But you see it's the text cursor/indicator that
> suddenly jumps! Even if I deliberately brush off the touchpad, that only
> moves the mouse cursor. Unless there is a connection between them.
>
> The mouse cursor itself behaves impeccably, and never moves!

Edit an email or other document, then click a spot within the document;
the cursor will move there. Agreed, the pointer probably will too.. A
key such as the Home key, or Page Up, could move the cursor too, without
moving the mouse pointer, but that wouldn't explain the minimizing and
other actions; the touchpad could cause all these. I don't have a
laptop to check whether a quick peck moves just the cursor, or just the
pointer though.

Turn off the tap to select feature as a test, if there is such an
option, or lower the sensitivity, if that's available.

It could be malware too, as you surmised.. there've been a few that
cause the mouse pointer to jump to random spots.

Another thought, try lowering the graphics hardware acceleration. You
can lower graphics hardware acceleration in Display Properties, Settings
tab, Advanced button, Troubleshooting tab. If this helps, you probably
need a different graphics card or drivers.

--
Joe =o)

> Edit an email or other document, then click a spot within the document;
> the cursor will move there. Agreed, the pointer probably will too.. A
> key such as the Home key, or Page Up, could move the cursor too, without
> moving the mouse pointer, but that wouldn't explain the minimizing and
> other actions; the touchpad could cause all these. I don't have a
> laptop to check whether a quick peck moves just the cursor, or just the
> pointer though.
>
> Turn off the tap to select feature as a test, if there is such an
> option, or lower the sensitivity, if that's available.
>
> It could be malware too, as you surmised.. there've been a few that
> cause the mouse pointer to jump to random spots.
>
> Another thought, try lowering the graphics hardware acceleration. You
> can lower graphics hardware acceleration in Display Properties, Settings
> tab, Advanced button, Troubleshooting tab. If this helps, you probably
> need a different graphics card or drivers.
>
> --
> Joe =o)
>

I am nervous about adjustments I know nothng about.....but anyway, I know Im
not hitting off home keys, etc. This never happened until I got the new Hard
Drive and installed XP Pro on it. Never any trouble before.

Now a strange thing....even though I am(was...!) adamant it had nothing to
do with the touch pad, I tried turning it off and since I did theres no
problem. OK its only while Im typing this reply, but by now i would have had
lots of jumping!

I will continue to observe....!

h