<p>Well, I figured this would be a perfect place to ask a computer problem. </p>
<p>I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 which is about a year old. I am planning on taking it to college, so I really need to fix this problem.</p>
<p>Well, whenever I type in text boxes like this, in word documents, or anywhere where I can basically type, my text cursor jumps and begins typing somewhere else. For example, as I type this, the text will jump to the top and begin typing where I wrote "Well, I figured this would..." area. It's kind of like the text cursor is possessed and will start off anywhere randomly.</p>
<p>If worse comes to worse, I will just have to format my computer, which will be the last resort action. </p>
<p>Please someone help me! If you need more details or have questions, please reply. </p>
<p>Don't format your hard drive. Is it a laptop? What Operating System? You could try checking the properties of the mouse in Windows. If you asked a friend who is competant about computers and actually had it in front of them they could probably fix it.</p>
<p>As ShortLifeLived said, we'd probably need the computer infront of us if you wanted us to fix this problem because honestly, I've never heard of this either!</p>
<p>Are you sure you're not tapping your touchpad as you type? Touchpads nowadays will actually register a mouse click if you tap it.</p>
<p>Definitely don't reformat your harddrive... this is not a process to play around with as it is a very serious haulover for your system. Re-format only if you're an enthusiast who wants to get rid of bloatware on a new system or if your computer has 15 viruses and you can't boot up without having something go drastically wrong.</p>
<p>EDIT: ShortLifeLived: Inspirons are Dell's home-line laptops :)</p>
<p>Laser mouses sometimes do this, but since you have a laptop...</p>
<p>talking about possessed, once my speakers started emitting music and some talkshow quite loudly. . . it was soooooooooo weird because I had NOTHING playing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Re: Dell laptop with a jumpy mouse/track pointer</p>
<p>You could go to Control Panel and check to see how sensitive your pointer is... Unless you made some changes to your settings, it's not likely to be your problem.</p>
<p>Find or buy a cheap USB mouse and plug it into your laptop. If the problem goes away, it's your track pad that failed. </p>
<p>You have two choices:</p>
<p>Continue to use the USB mouse.
Have your laptop repaired.</p>
<p>you take the laptop apart, then you take the cover where tha touchpad is, figure out how to detach the touchpad itself from it, then wipe the sensitive surface with alcohol. but first, turn the touchpad off in control panel in windows, connect a USB mouse and see if the weird stuff continues to happen. if it doesnt - go ahead and clean it, if it does - then try the same thing with the keyboard. if neither keyboard nor mouse replacement dont work, then boot in safe mode and see if the weird stuff continues. if no - run some adware and antivirus software in normal mode, if yes - then i'll have to think of some more reasons this can be happening :)</p>
<p>Some blogs report problems with the Dell touchpad running linux...</p>
<p>If cleaning doesn't help, try uninstalling the touchpad from your system and allow XP to re-install the device drivers.</p>
<p>Go to Control panel
System
Hardware
Device Manager
Click on Mice and other pointing devices
Right click on your pointing device
Click on uninstall
Wait for the uninstalled message
Reboot your laptop and allow XP to re-install your drivers.
You'll see some messages in the right hand bottom conner of your screen.
The laptop will automatically reboot when it's done installing the touchpad drivers.
See if that helps.</p>
<p>Otherwise, the touchpad part cost around $35.00 on the net...</p>
<p>Don't format the laptop - it's not an OS or software issue.</p>
<p>I had this problem with my dell and determined I was occasionally hitting the mouse stick that's in the middle of the keys. I went into the control panel and changed the properties to disable the stick. I now only occasionally have the problem and I think it's when my thumb accidentally hits the mousepad. This problem wouldn't exist with an external mouse but I prefer not to use one.</p>