My mouse cursor will suddenly shoot up into one corner of my screen.

I have a Dell, Inspiron something-or-other laptop (it is at home, I am at work). The cursor will suddenly shoot into one corner of the screen for no reason. I have an external mouse that I use, and I would like to say that it is NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE MOUSE, only because I have gone through 2 ball-mice and currently have an optical mouse that I really like. It is nothing to do with the operating system, I had the same problem with MS Milleniun as I do with XP. I can say (guiltily) that if I hammer on it enough, the cursor will stop acting up. I once pounded on the thing so hard that this problem went away altoghether for 4-6 months, but now it is back. The computer is a POS anyway and I am getting a new one next fall, but it is still agravating, particularily during a game of Unreal Tournament when my character will suddenly start spinning in circles at the speed of light because the mouse (hardware? software?) is acting up.

Sometimes the cursor will be fine, but as soon as I start to type something, the cursor will shoot up into the corner. Like the typing is triggering it or something.


Advice? Ideas?

(I'm assuming the laptop has a touch pad.)

I've found that touch pads can do flaky things in combination with external mouse usage. When both are active together you can get odd results.

You can also get odd results if you unknowingly rest one finger on a touch pad while using the other finger to "mouse around." The cursor will leap all over the place.

and have disabled the touch pad and the joystick, to no avail.

I have not tried unplugging the external mouse altogether, I am not sure if the effect happens when I only use the touch pad. Still, even with an external mouse, with the touch pad disables, this shouldn't happen....

Ok, if the touch pad is disabled that probably rules that out.

Next, is your mouse wireless or wireed?

If it's wireless, is it possible something might be interfering with the signal?

If its wired, maybe the cable got pinched? That's how all my wired mice failed. The wires would wear and break right where they enter the mouse, and I'd get random movements.

Hope you can find the problem.

Can't say much more based on the available info.

Optical mice can be sensitive to the surface they are used on,
not saying that's the issue here.

FWIW I've seen it lots. If you want us to agonize over it
some more, tell us the OS, type of mouse, etc, and while
you are at it check for the driver for the mouse in question
on the OS in question and install/reinstall it.

Does the mouse pad have a picture or something on it? With optical mice they can be messed up with a weird picture on the mouse pad. Try using a flat black mouse pad or no mouse pad and see if it still happens. Check to make sure you aren't hitting the pad on the laptop either :) You may want to try reinstalling the driver for the mouse also.

On my optical mouse, if I let my fingers extend all the way down to the mousepad and block any light coming in from the sides, it sometimes gets confused. I haven't checked to see if this still happens in a dark room.

Prior to this, I had a problem with the mouse that came on my Dell Desktop. I went to the Microsoft online help and found the "cure." I must have had a mouse and a half installed or something. I had to get rid of one mouse by editing the registry. The instructions were confusing and I think they repeated steps that weren't meant to be repeated. (Did a cut and paste and took too much text.) I finally figured out where to ignore the duplicate instructions.
I don't know what windows version you are using, my problem was on Windows 98.
MY error fix was in: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 185663 - Pointer Moves Erratically or Does Not Respond.
If you get to the Microsoft Knowledge Base, hopefully, you can find your problem described there.

You probabaly know the difference but just in case, is it a rectangular connector or a round one. Round is PS/2.

Whichever one you use, try getting a mouse of the other type, or an adaptor and see if you have the problem.

It almost sounds like it could be a hardware problem with a PS/2 port. If you are using USB, then that is not it.

on the little rollers that c;ontrol the X/Y ;motion of the curser.

every so often i have to get a sharp tooth pic or Q-tip with alcohol and soak off the debre.. then pick it all off clean then use windex and clean the ball and clean off the pad or replace it.