Crazy Mouse

[golers7]

I am having a problem with Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop that is driving me nuts. For no reason at all my mouse starts behaving erratically and moves really quickly to the left or right. Does anyone have a clue how I can fix this? My only guess is that I have a bad touchpad. Thanks.

[Doc C]

We ran into a similar problem at work with a Dell 610. If you're using a USB wireless mouse, don't set your cellphone near it. Most cellphones send a signal out to the local tower to synch. We had the user move her cellphone and that solved the problem.

If it happens when you are typing make sure your thumbs aren't dragging across the touchpad. We had that problem with another user.

Neither of the above apply? See if there's an updated driver on the Dell site.

[YvetteKuhns]

When my ISP techs would tinker with my modem, their cellphones would make noise over my speakers. We had some strange problems with the mouse, but I didn't realize their phones would do that, too. Hmm...

For no reason at all my mouse starts behaving erratically and moves really quickly to the left or right.


It is possible that the mouse connection came loose. Unplug the mouse, plug it back into the computer, then reboot the computer. You should/may be asked to reinstall the driver or it should/may be instantly reinstalled.

My only guess is that I have a bad touchpad.

You can disable the touchpad, then test your mouse. You may also reinstall or update the drivers for the mouse and/or touchpad. Do one at a time, reboot, then test to see if it works.

[Doc C]

I missed a very basic question. Are you even using an external mouse or just the touchpad? You didn't state it in your opening post.

Yvette, we had a hard time believing that it was the phone causing the mouse error! The speaker buzz is a common problem.

[YvetteKuhns]

I missed a very basic question. Are you even using an external mouse or just the touchpad? You didn't state it in your opening post.

I reread the original post, because I wasn't sure, either. I don't like using the touch pad, but my son thinks it is neat. He still uses the mouse.