Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2019 June 3

= June 3 =

Jumping Cursor
When I am editing with my Dell laptop computer, which is running Windows 10, the cursor sometimes jumps to somewhere else on my screen, often backward in the Word document being edited, or, if I don't have the screen maximized, sometimes even into another application that was open on the screen. It is as if the cursor is going to somewhere random on the screen. I am using a mouse that is connected by a USB connector as the cursor control device. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what is the most likely cause of the problem? Would replacing the mouse be likely to solve the problem? Is the problem more likely in the application (which is normally Word)? I don't have the problem when I am using a desktop computer running Windows 10, but the desktop computer is a different computer and has a different mouse. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:49, 3 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Is the touchpad on the laptop enabled?--Phil Holmes (talk) 07:06, 3 June 2019 (UTC)


 * I'm a bit confused over whether the issue is the pointer, usually an arrow visible everywhere on the screen, typically controlled by the mouse alone, or the cursor, usually a flashing vertical line or box, in text areas only, controlled by both the keyboard and the mouse. It might be the keyboard, as many keys, such as the HOME key, change the text cursor position. If your laptop allows an external mouse and keyboard, you might try those, to see if that makes the problem go away. Hopefully you can figure out the problem from there, and maybe fix it. SinisterLefty (talk) 13:34, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
 * In Windows events from a keyboard and a mouse fall into the same queue. This allows easy multiplication of devices - for example, you can attach an external keyboard and use interchangeably both the attached and the built-in one. Similarly both a touchpad and the mouse co-control the pointer. So, attaching new devices does not suffice for finding a source of the problem. The main step would be detaching, switching off or otherwise disabling those already active to see if the problem disappears. --CiaPan (talk) 13:55, 3 June 2019 (UTC)


 * That would certainly be useful, but if the issue is that hitting some other keys on the laptop keyboard incorrectly sends the HOME key signal, then using another keyboard would help, in that the user would no longer hit the trigger key on the laptop. And the same with the laptop built-in pointing device. SinisterLefty (talk) 14:00, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, I can check the touchpad when I can set up the laptop in the shade. (If the sun is high, it is too bright to use the laptop outside.)  So the question for now is:  Do we agree that the problem is a device, or can there be something else that is causing the jumping?  Robert McClenon (talk) 15:06, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:06, 3 June 2019 (UTC)


 * The hardware seems the most likely explanation, yes, but we can't entirely rule our software. For example, some poorly written piece of software could have overflowed it's designated memory and written to the memory used to store the pointer/cursor position. If this was happening, I'd expect lots of other glitches soon. And a reboot would likely solve this problem, at least for a while. SinisterLefty (talk) 01:50, 5 June 2019 (UTC)


 * I really don't think the key can be responsible for moving the cursor into another application window. --CiaPan (talk) 13:11, 4 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I've experienced jumping, probably due to me being clumsy with the touchpad on my laptop (or my laser mouse losing track of where it is), but switching to another screen is something else again. That's almost certainly multiple touches to the pad/mouse - or something else entirely. Matt Deres (talk) 14:49, 4 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Disable the touchpad and see if it happens again. A friend of mine had the same problem and it went away when he switched to using a mouse. I think he was probably brushing his wrist or sleeves slightly against the touchpad while typing and he didn't notice it but it was enough for the touchpad to go crazy. 93.136.105.251 (talk) 03:44, 5 June 2019 (UTC)