Jumping Cursor
 

When typing emails or on Word, my cursor will "jump" backward into the typed text. Has anyone experienced this problem and, if so, how did you solve it? It has happened 5 times while typing this. :ohdear::Screen_of_Death:

Are you using a laptop or a Desktop?

Something very similar happened to us and our computer guy told us our mouse was dying - it was - bought new one and now it is fine.

I am by no means a computer expert but, the times it happened to me, I had a virus.

Scoutii, I have a laptop.

I asked because if it is a laptop, you may be touching it's "built in mouse" ie the touch pad or joystick. Either type can be turned off, if you are using a traditional mouse.

Me too. And when it lags, and you feel like the keyboard isn't keeping up with you, it is a virus or some one hacking you.

Gracie, I have that think happening when I'm typing away but the letters aren't showing up. I also have a jumping cursor, but I think it is a problem with the ASUS touch screen.

On a notebook there is a function key that will deactivate the touch pad. I use it a lot because i have the same problem. On an Acer you press function and F7. The icon on the F7 key is the square touch pad with a hand on it. You can just do the Function/F7 key again to activate the touch pad.

I have a laptop also and our computer guy said to press the control key (Ctrl) and function key (Fn) simultaneously. This did work for me.

I have an ASUS and tried jojo's suggestion and got a blank screen. Had to shut down and restart. Problem still exists. Is there another way to turn off the touch pad...could be my problem...

Have an Asus as well - saw that post and he actually said Acer not Asus.

Since you asked how to turn off the touch pad, does this mean you are using a mouse? If so, is it a wireless mouse? If you have a wireless mouse, try changing the batteries. I can tell it's time to change the batteries in my wireless mouse whenever I get the symptoms you described in your first post. The "jumping cursor" goes away until the fresh batteries begin to die.

We have a Dell laptop. When my wife worked in Word, the cursor would jump. Have a wireless mouse, changed batteries which did not help. Could not find how to turn off the touch pad, so I taped a business card over the pad to test it and lo and behold the jumping stopped. Seemed like a sleeve or any brush over the touch pad would make the mouse jump. Doesn't look very nice but it works!

Thanks to all for your help and suggestions. I did research and apparently this is an ongoing problem with ASUS laptops. I will continue to try any suggestions offered. I did try pressing the "ctrl" and "fn" together and so far so good...thank you!!!!

right on. It is either your palm touching the touch-pad or a virus. It is possible the touch pad has gone bad, but that is unlikely. You can always troubleshoot it by getting an external mouse and keyboard and seeing if it still does it.

Ah, I found my people! This was driving me crazy on my new Dell laptop. I couldn't type more than a few characters anywhere -- online text fields, email, Word docs -- without the cursor jumping back or up/down to another line. I looked up suggestions online and most recommended resetting the cursor pointer, which I did, but no change. Finally saw a suggestion about disabling the touchpad. Duh.

The new Dell has a much larger touchpad and I didn't even realize I was brushing it as I typed. There's supposed to be an option to disable the touchpad while typing, but I never found that. I also had a really hard time finding the touchpad properties file since it wasn't in the taskbar where it's supposed to be. Finally just did a file search on "touchpad" and found the .exe file. Saved that sucker as a taskbar shortcut. I almost exclusively use the mouse so ended up disabling the touchpad entirely. It can easily be re-enabled if needed.

Hope this helps someone; it was a bugger for me to figure out!