Strange Mouse Behaviour

[B.W.]

A friend of mine has a laptop and he tells me that when the laptop is idle
for a while the mouse cursor takes off on it's own accord and meanders all
over the screen and then the mouse is not controllable and so he has to
close down Win XP. Apart from viruses has anyone heard of this happening and
what the solution might be.

TIA

B.W.

 

[Chuck]

Laptops usually have a touchpad as well as provision for a mouse. Both may
be active. if so, touchpad sensitivity may be a player. Otherwise, the usual
mouse driver issues and possibly the mouse connections are suspect.

 

[Gunther]

This happens on those laptops that have a little round thing in the
keyboard that can be used as a mouse. That mouse is extremely sensitive
so it has to reset it self to a neutral position. Lets say the mouse
has slack and it is leaning forward ever so slightly. It resets that
forward position as its new neutral position. If you put your finger on
the mouse and move it manually it know your moving the mouse and at
that time will not reset. But lets say you move your mouse at a steady
rate in approximately the same direction. The mouse will reset the
current position into a new neutral position. Then when you let go with
your finger then the mouse will appear to move in one direction
steadily. This is when you freak out and try to move the mouse
oppositely but it doesn't listen so you restart. If you just leave the
mouse for like 10 or 15 seconds it will find the actual neutral
position and it wont freak out. I'm not sure who to adjust the
sensitivity though.

 

[B.W.]

This is an actual mouse that does this.

 

[Gunther]

If it is optical clean the lens that focuses the beam of light. If it
is a ball mouse clean the round discs that move in front of the
interrupters, will require you to open it. Try it and see if the
problem persists. Also instead of restarting the computer, unplug the
mouse and replug it back in.

 

[B.W.]

Thanks Gunther. As the mouse (ball) and laptop are almost new I don't think
it will be dirty inside. My friend cannot handle the touchpad and still
resorts to using a mouse. I wonder is there any way of disabling Acer
laptops touchpads as I wonder if this is what is causing the problem with
the mouse. Also how do you change the sensitivity of a touchpad.

 

[Gunther]

Sounds like something in the CMOS settings.