Mouse Jumps

[Howard Schlossberg]

I recently got a new Dell desktop machine with Windows XP Professional.
For whatever reason the mouse jumps to another place on the screen.
It is frustrating when I am ready to click on a certain area then I notice
the mouse has jumped to somewhere else on my screen.

It doesn't happen every time I move the mouse -- maybe once every 10
minutes or so of semi-regular mouse use. And it doesn't happen in a
certain part of the screen or only in certain applications. It just
happens unpredictably.

New Dell Dimension 3000, new Dell optical mouse.

Is there anything in particular that I should check?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Howard Schlossberg
FM Pro Solutions Los Angeles, California

 

[Richard Urban]

Optical mouse? Blow away the accumulated dust from the bottom LED/Laser
hole.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Plato]

I recently got a new Dell desktop machine with Windows XP Professional.
For whatever reason the mouse jumps to another place on the screen.

Same thing happens when you tried another mouse?

 

[witan]

Try the following two things:

In the Control Panel, go to Mouse properties > pointer options.
UNCHECK "Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dalog
box.
Check "Show location of pointer when I press the Control key". I have
found this is a very useful feature.

 

[Colin Barker]

I recently got a new Dell desktop machine with Windows XP Professional. For
whatever reason the mouse jumps to another place on the screen. It is
frustrating when I am ready to click on a certain area then I notice
the mouse has jumped to somewhere else on my screen.

It doesn't happen every time I move the mouse -- maybe once every 10
minutes or so of semi-regular mouse use. And it doesn't happen in a
certain part of the screen or only in certain applications. It just
happens unpredictably.

New Dell Dimension 3000, new Dell optical mouse.

Is there anything in particular that I should check?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Howard Schlossberg
FM Pro Solutions Los Angeles, California

I had a similar problem, and cured it by investing in an
optical-mouse-friendly mouse pad.

 

[ms]

I had a similar problem, and cured it by investing in an
optical-mouse-friendly mouse pad.

I assume if it's a ball mouse he has cleaned it, but if it's optical try
testing the mouse on different surfaces. Something with a bit of texture and
not shiny.

I have a black shiny table top and an optical hates that. Even some mouse
pads it won't work properly, so currently I an using a flat piece of thin
cardboard.

 

[heisenman]

I just had the same trouble. What it turned out to be for me was my
optical mouse was having trouble with my new desk (the pattern on the
look-of-real-wood formica, I guess). So I put a mouse pad under the
thing and it all works fine now. Fairly annoying problem up to that
point though.

Since I used the newsgroups to try and find an answer quite a bit, I
thought I should post what worked for me to contribute to the
knowledgebase.

Best,
Hans