Summary: Fortunately for most cases, there is a simple solution to why your mouse pointer would jump around the screen.
My infrared Microsoft Intellimouse is being erratic. Doesn't follow the direction of the hand movement and lags behind sometimes not moving. I have checked all settings and drivers as much as I know how.
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Erratic mouse movement is a pain. You move one way, and the mouse jumps around the screen - often to some other random location.
In most cases the solution to a jumping mouse pointer is actually pretty simple.
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Optical mice are great - I love 'em. No more dirty mouse balls (and the jokes that go with them). Over time I've converted all of my mice to optical, both wired or wireless.
But what I've found with optical mice is that they are surprisingly sensitive to the surface they're on. On a bad surface they'll often behave exactly as you describe. They seem to not only stop responding, but occasionally misread movement and dart off in completely unexpected directions ... like a mouse scurrying for cover.
The best surfaces for the mouse would be something with a slight texture, and a constant surface. Make sure there's no high contrast text or images as well.
After not using mouse pads for a long time, I've found that they're typically the best solution and very helpful in keeping my optical mice behaving.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - My mouse is super sensitive and seems to do things on its own. What do I do?
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Ask Leo! - How do I control is the mouse right-click functions in Windows XP?
Article C2296 - March 2, 2005
I had a wireless mouse up until today. My mouse issues were when a new page was loading or I tried to click on certain links on certain web pages (not all web pages)the mouse jumped and I would be unable to get it to stay. Now I am wired again and it's not jumping around when a page is being loaded, but is still doing the other things. I've cleaned my mouse pad with no improvements. I've even tried just using the desk top with no pad. All old mouse programs were deleted and all possible scans/cleaners were ran.
Posted by: John at December 7, 2009 3:57 PMAny advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
im thinking there could be some other underlying cause..( could be any of the already mentioned btw Jennifer best have you scanned with an online virus scanner to see if theres a resident malware/spyware/virus ? try trend home call ) anyway im thinking it would be useful if eveyone with problems stated their hardware manufacturer for both the pc/laptop & mouse & age of hardware. A recent pc i bought (3 years old 2nd hand unit-bit of a mistake really) anyway mines a DELL & have the same problems- now Ive been reading & Ive come to the conclusion that the capacitors maybe bad-even though visibly they look OK (I havent got a multimeter to check) but internally they couldve dried out- this bad capacitor problem is common on PC's that get hot from a lot of usage- I wonder if its the same cause for laptops suffering from same problem..anyways I just stopped on my travels-regards & I hope to visit again someday :)
Posted by: al at December 13, 2009 4:37 PMI use a PS/2 IntelliMouse. Quivers like a little bird flapping. Have changed to Ligitech. Must restart the comp. Will be OK for an erratic amount of time. Then starts fluttering the arrow/hourglass. Will continue to flutter with mouse disconnected. Flutter locks down machine & I must go to Task Manager to shut down. HELP.
Posted by: reloader3 at January 4, 2010 10:34 AMHi, I've recently bought the wireless optical desktop 1000 and had a similar problem (my mouse either spontaneously jumps or middle-clicks and starts scrolling around), I haven't found a complete solution but I'm pretty sure what the problems are!
I'm not an expert on mice, but I've worked with optical and radio gear before.
One of the skipping problems is due to the mouse optical position mechanism - going over a surface that gives sharp changes in reflectance due to shininess, scratches or even color can cause a change in the signal and a jump occurs. Better mice probably have filters and things to compensate for this, but cheap ones will be, well, cheaper. I've covered the wood grain of my desk with a piece of paper and thrown away my zebra skin mouse mat and it seems happier. This only accounts for movement though, not the random clicking!
The other problem is radio interference from the receiver. I know my Dell power supply and dvd unit chuck out EMF like nobody's business, and sure enough if I put the receiver right by the computer the mouse becomes unusable. I've moved the receiver as far away from the computer and the stereo as I can and it does seem better, but not completely healed.
so...is there anything else I can do?
Posted by: Fillbe at January 24, 2010 6:23 AMpls i need your help i'm kind of new to this forum. i use a toshiba satellite pro L300 laptop with vists sp2. and my mouse pad malfuntions(jumps around) when i plug in the ac power. but i can use an external. i've tried formatting but it still persists. can please offer me any help. thanks i appreciate
Posted by: fksamp at January 28, 2010 9:58 PM