Windows Vista Cursor Jumps When Typing

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with my Dell XPS M1330 everytime when I'm typing the cursor jumps all over the place resulting my work unreadable. This is so annoying. Please advise if anyone had experienced this problem and how to rectify it.

All the best,

nra54

 

Hi,

Just before typing, are you clicking on the place where you wish to type. This can happen if the active window is changed. Something about Vista I have noticed is that you are not taken back to your active Window if you go to Start (orb).

Is something changing your active window? Spyware or ad-ware?

Matt

 

nra54,

Welcome to the BBS. In additions to Matt's advice, you should be able to go into the control panel and go to Mice and pointing devices and change the sensitivity of your touchpad. My suspicion is that it is currently too sensitive and as a result, when you rest your palms on the lower shell while typing, there is enough pressure on your touchpad to cause the mysterious moving cursor.

 

Thank you Matt and Rockster2U for your advice.

I already scanned my computer for maleware and spyware using wndows defender and McAfee. I'm sure no malware or spyware resides on my pc. I didn't notice that my active window has changed.

I tried to reduce the sensitivity of the touch pad and it seems it works. I will do more tests, actually while typing this reply I got only one jump, perhaps I need to reduce more the sensitivity of the touch pad.

Thanks..

All the b

 

Disappearing TEXT CURSOR maybe?

Hello,

I have had this exact problem once and it took me a long time to find the problem. Even searching the web did not help. He is what to do:

First most people gave me advice on unchecking "hide my cursor when typing " This was not my problem.

There are two types of cursors. The first is the most obvious. The mouse cursor. This is controlled as people describe in the mouse properties.

Then there is the TEXT cursor. This is the small flashing cursor just before you type you see. If this TEXT cursor is disappearing on you then I can help.

I found for some odd reason my text cursor disappearing during typing an e-mail. I would look up and see a sentence half complete and no text cursor.

I narrowed it down to the mail settings. I had it set to auto check e-mail every 1 minute. So every minute my text cursor disappeared. I changed this to ten minutes and the problem changed to the text cursor disappearing every then minutes. Better but not good.

Then I set it to only check for new mail upon opening the mail program. To have my mail checked every minute I installed a small free program called MailWasher. MailWasher is a junk mail filter. Just set it up to check your mail every minute.http://www.mailwasher.net/home
Hope this helps,
Marty

 

Thanks Marty for the advice. The text cursor is not disappearing but it is jumping from one place to another in the same window. It happens everythime I type either in ms word, excel or emails. Now I turn off my touch pad and it helps. I think the touch pad is highly sensitive and any movement above it, even not touching triggers the cursor to jump.

All the best,

nra54

 

I just went to Dell's web site and if you have a x32bit Vista you should not have installed any Dell Driver for your built in touchpad. It must use the Vista supplied driver.

If you have, you need to delete the driver and let Windows re-install it correctly. Do this by right clicking "MY COMPUTER" then Properties, then "Device Manager" Find the device under Mice and pointing devices and right click it and "UN-INSTALL" it. Reboot.

Marty

 

Same place your link takes you. There are four drivers listed there. Most are for web cams, external mouse options Dell sold with a laptop, and one for a Touchpad/pointing device. If you did not get the optional pointing device there really is no need for the driver, and maybe it is conflicting with nra54's external mouse.

Under what this driver fixes, says: Fixed various font cut off issues in non-English languages. I take this as a fix for the pointing device.

My suggestion is to eliminate any added on drivers and lets see if Windows Vista standard drivers fixes nra54's problem.

I would also suggest if the external mouse came with any driver that he installed, he should try removing that software and letting Windows install a general default driver.

I think it is worth a try for him. Don't you?

Hope this helps,
Marty

 

Hello PeteC,

I stand corrected on the external mouse. I read one of his earlier post and took what he said" I turn off my touchpad and it helps" as he now was using an external mouse. I re-read it and now think he was doing this as he types and then has to turn it back on.

Thank you for pointing out my error.

You maybe right on the pointing device being a small mouse like the old IBM's had. I just never say one in a new Dell myself.

Dell also says that driver is Optional.

I think we both agree it is a good possibility that we have a driver issue. So I still suggest going to the Device Manager and deleting the driver and rebooting and see if this corrects the problem. Then he can go into the mouse properties and turn down all the sensitivities setting.

Hope he gets it fixed as this could really be annoying.

Marty

 

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the technical discussion. I downloaded Dell's driver update and I selected to turn off the touch pad when usb mouse is plugged. Right now I'm using usb mouse and my typing is ok.

All the best,

nra54