Why does my cursor randomly go back in text?
March 6, 2018 7:23 AM Subscribe
I have a Dell Inspiron 15 3000 series running 8.1. A while back, I started having a very irritating problem where I'll be typing and my cursor will suddenly jump back to an earlier place in the text. This happens in every program that involves typing. I can't find anything that the incidents have in common. Does anyone know how this might be or how to troubleshoot it?
I'll agree with softlord that it's likely your palms hitting the trackpad, and if the trackpad is configured with "tap to click", that can happen. I've turned off the "tap to click" setting on laptops to prevent that for me.
posted by ShooBoo at 7:34 AM on March 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by ShooBoo at 7:34 AM on March 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
There are small screws on the bottom that hold the keyboard in place. Tighten them. As laptops age, the frame may develop more flex, so setting the trackpad to be less sensitive may help. It's in with the mouse controls. Use the tip of a dental floss pick to clean between all keys, and blow out the keyboard with canned air. You can also use the sticky end of a post-it to get pet fur out of the keyboard.
posted by theora55 at 7:39 AM on March 6, 2018
posted by theora55 at 7:39 AM on March 6, 2018
When the battery starts to age it will bulge, which can put stress on the trackpad and cause it to not work well or register phantom clicks, which could be causing this? If you can replace the battery (not cheap), it might fix this for you (until the next battery gets old). You can find out if it is the trackpad by temporarily disabling it, as suggested above.
posted by richb at 7:59 AM on March 6, 2018
posted by richb at 7:59 AM on March 6, 2018
Response by poster: Thanks for the tips! I went to change trackpad settings and got a message in the control panel about lacking a driver (I think it was a pointer driver.) I reinstalled that and rebooted. Then I went under the settings--I didn't see anything about "tap to click." The only option I saw that I could change was delay to click. Am I missing something? I don't know what options are in 8.1 vs a different OS.
posted by mermaidcafe at 8:15 AM on March 6, 2018
posted by mermaidcafe at 8:15 AM on March 6, 2018
My track pad constantly clicks while I'm typing (and the controls haven't improved it much). I now make sure that the arrow is sitting somewhere where it won't move what I'm typing, like on the title bar of the screen I'm in.
posted by Margalo Epps at 8:44 AM on March 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Margalo Epps at 8:44 AM on March 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's going to be highly dependent on the specific driver. On my Dell, there's a link to the touchpad settings under Mouse in the Control Panel. I do have a "Tap to click" option, but there's also a "TouchGuard" option that's supposed to disable the trackpad while typing. Look through all the various settings and see if there isn't one or more that look promising.
And if you have access to an external mouse, try disabling the touchpad entirely as a troubleshooting step, to find out if the problem is actually touchpad related at all.
posted by yuwtze at 10:32 AM on March 6, 2018
And if you have access to an external mouse, try disabling the touchpad entirely as a troubleshooting step, to find out if the problem is actually touchpad related at all.
posted by yuwtze at 10:32 AM on March 6, 2018
Response by poster: Thanks ! I haven't seen anywhere that I can disable the touchpad. Should it be under "Settings?"
posted by mermaidcafe at 4:18 PM on March 6, 2018
posted by mermaidcafe at 4:18 PM on March 6, 2018
Try the article Disabling or Enabling the Touchpad on a Dell Notebook. They also mention The Cursor Moves Around Erratically While Typing on the Notebook Keyboard. Note both assume you have the Dell driver and utilities installed. If you don't, the second article has links to them, and you may find that the Dell drivers solve the issue just by replacing whatever default driver you had previously.
posted by yuwtze at 7:27 PM on March 6, 2018
posted by yuwtze at 7:27 PM on March 6, 2018
Response by poster: Thanks! It looks like I'm missing the touchpad driver, which is why I can't change the sensitivity. I'll update the drivers and BIOS as per the article you linked and see what happens.
posted by mermaidcafe at 3:34 PM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by mermaidcafe at 3:34 PM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: After going in circles a bit more, I found others who have this problem with an Inspiron 15 series running 8.1. I'm getting an external mouse and also trying this: https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-8-10-touchpad.html
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:40 PM on March 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:40 PM on March 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by softlord at 7:26 AM on March 6, 2018 [5 favorites]