Laptop cursor jumping around

I have a Dell laptop and while I'm typing, the cursor will sometimes jump to a different part of the sentence/paragraph I'm typing and insert the letters there. I'm wondering if I somehow dropped some crumbs into my keyboard or something which is making the cursor jump and/or if there is some way to fix whatever the problem is. Thoughts?

Is your wrist or other part of your hand hitting the finger pad thingy? This sometimes happens to me if I'm not paying attention.

I hadn't thought of that but I just tried to type this response several times being careful not to touch the finger pad thingy and the cursor still jumped around (please be kind and don't point out any typos!). ;-)

Something I have noticed is that my cursor is "sensitive". If it happens to be resting on the delete email button, without my even left-clicking to delete the email, it will sometimes delete the message just by virtue of the fact that the cursor is hovering over the delete button.

Hhhmm...totally weird. I'm out of ideas. Stupid cursor.

Stupid fucking cursor.

clean the touch pad?

danielle123 wrote: Something I have noticed is that my cursor is "sensitive". If it happens to be resting on the delete email button, without my even left-clicking to delete the email, it will sometimes delete the message just by virtue of the fact that the cursor is hovering over the delete button.

This won't solve the main issue but on the side issue (phantom clicks) your default touchpad settings may have double-tap set to be same as a right-click.

Not sure what is making it think it is sensing something, but perhaps you might at least be able to disable the double-tap = right-click for the time being while you find the source of the overall Delltergeist.

you may also be able to disable the touch pad, and make it only take movements from a mouse.

Have a spare mouse around?

This happened with one of my old Dell laptops. After a couple of weeks of cursor wonkiness, the touchpad stopped working completely and I had to call Dell to replace it (laptop was still under warranty).

Subject: cursor

always happened with my old dell. 2 things helped, check for updates to install, and if you still have software that came with the computer there should be a reinstall or maintenance cd or something, specifically for touchpad.

Most of the time I use a wireless mouse so I don't think the touchpad is the issue.

I will try to download software updates. Does anyone have any other thoughts about the jumping cursor?

danielle123 wrote: Most of the time I use a wireless mouse so I don't think the touchpad is the issue.

I will try to download software updates. Does anyone have any other thoughts about the jumping cursor?

I have a Dell laptop and the same thing happens to me.
It seems to happen when I am typing and my palms or heel of my palm is too close to the touchpad.
Please let me know if you figure it out

Subject: I have the solution

I called Dell and got the solution. Either your/my palm is hitting the touchpad or the "pointing stick" (blue button between the "g" and "h" letters). Here is the solution:

1. Click on the "Dell Touchpad" icon near the time on your laptop
2. Click "Device Select" on the upper lefthand corner
3. If you have a mouse that you use sometimes, you can click on the bottom "X" box to "Disable touchpad/pointing stick when external USB mouse is present
4. If you don't use a mouse, you can still click on that same page to "disable" the pointing stick, touchpad, pointing stick buttons, touchpad buttons.

I hope this helps! Thanks!

Thanks Danielle you rock