Why does the mouse pointer jump around the screen?

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That's fascinating, thanks for the report!

The only solutions I can think of are for one of you to go
to a wired mouse, or for one of you to switch to a different
wireless technology such as bluetooth.

Leo

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Re wireless mouse interference - try resetting the mouse to receiver link while your neighbor is using their computer. This should result in it picking up a different channel. I had to do this with a wireless keyboard when my neighbor complained that she was getting my text (including passwords in plain text) on her screen! And she lives next door!

One erratic problem which I faced with a laptop was that the mouse pad seemed to accept a double click instead of a single click no matter how slow I made the Windows double click setting in Contol Panel >> Mouse section. It was really irritating & I decided to reinstall the complete OS from scratch when I discovered the cause. Guess, The problem was that I was connected to an Online UPS. This UPS was giving Poor Quality Power Output which made the Laptop run smoothly but disturbed the Mouse. After getting the UPS out of the Power Circuit between the Laptop & Mains, normal working was restored. Lucky though, my laptop's mouse pad did not fry.

Secondly, Optical Mice do have a problem of the Mouse Pointer running in a Particular Direction. The most common cause being debris between the surface & optical sensor of the mouse.

I had exactly the same problem with erratic mouse behavior and found out the problem thanks to one of the comments. My wireless keyboard was interfering with my laptop's mouse (any mouse for that matter. even touchpad). As soon as I disconnected it, all problems went away.

I have a wired Logitech Optical mouse and experience this erratic behavior every day. There is no cell phone sitting on the cord, and I use a solid black cloth mousepad from Staples. The behavior is insane and there is no driver specific to this mouse (Logitech says it doesn't need one). Sometime the bouncing from place to place on the screen will go on for a full minute before I regain control of the mouse.

i was having the same problem,i turned the wireless mouse over to take a better look at it and there was a dog hair stuck to the sensor

I have a SOLUTION to the jumping cursor problem. At least for my situation. From my research I discovered that the Logitech mouse is incompatible with some versions of XP. I then found a switch on my Logitech settings panel that allows me to select either SETPOINT, Logitech's software, or the OS, to govern my mouse's speed and acceleration. This setting makes all the difference in the world. If you have a logitech mouse, find the panel that lets you decide which system will govern the mouse's SPEED AND ACCELERATION, and select OS, not Logitech's Setpoint program. In my case, the dancing mouse left immediately upon making this change.

I have a Logitech G7 mouse that runs from exchangable rechargable batteries. When it started jumping around on the screen I fixed it by cleaning the metal contactpoints on the batteries. I used a small screwdriver to scrape off the dark brownish spots. Now it works. Cheers.

Another possibility is that someone is remotely snooping on your screen - and their mouse movements are actioned by your PC. Especially noticeable when they close (top right) a window, or go for the Windows start button (bottom left). Some snooping software is very sneaky and doesn't show as a running process or service in Task Manager.

Hello...Twice in the last month, I have lost control of my wired mouse. The arrow just goes all over the page but does not click on anything (as if some had control of my pc) and I have no control until I reboot.
Any ideas? I have Vista. Thanks...joe

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