Laptop cursor acting up

KGhaleon

I've got this Dell Inspiron running windows XP that I'm working on that was working fine last week, but when I came in after the holiday break I noticed some strange activities with the cursor. It will work fine one minute, then it will suddenly shoot down toward the bottom left of the screen...as if something was stuck in the corner of the touchscreen, making the cursor move there.

I tried to get the cursor back on screen, but the touchpad doesn't respond and the smaller mouse that is built around the keys is difficult to move. I hooked up a PS/2 mouse and it works fine for a while, then returns to doing the same thing. Thinking it's a driver issue, I deleted the mouse drivers but that didn't change anything.

It worked fine up until now, so I'm sure it's software-related even though it was once dropped on the ground(it has a cracked screen). It's been quite a while since it was dropped and the customer has been using it with an external monitor, so the probability of it being hardware isn't high.

The mouse drivers I deleted belonged to the PS/2 Mouse...so where can I find the drivers for the touchscreen or other pointing devices? I scanned device manager and couldn't find them. They may be the cause of the issue. Suggestions?

KG

sprkymrk

I've seen this problem a lot with Dells. Unfortunately it's usually caused by a loose connection inside from the touchpad/keyboard to the motherboard and is a real pain to get at in order to fix.

You can try loading the Synaptics Touchpad software, it should be available from Dell's siite under support/drivers and software. Key in the assett tag of your laptop to get there quicker.

KGhaleon

I went on Dell website and checked for the Dell inspiron 8200 drivers and found some for a Alps GlidePoint/StickPointer. After installing them and rebooting, the problem still persists...however this time the cursor seems to be stuck in the upper right hand corner.

KG

KGhaleon

I spoke with the customer and he said that it would happen from time to time and that a laptop specialist told him there was a broken part that needed to be replaced. After playing around with touchpad drivers it wasn't working, so I restored the system back a day. Now everything works fine and I haven't had any problems with the mouse.

Total confusion, but as long as it works now. <_<

KG