Dell Inspiron 4100 mouse drift problem

My old Dell laptop has been giving me grief all day, and I was hoping
someone could offer some troubleshooting tips.

The problem is my mouse pointer will drift across the screen by itself,
and sometimes stay stuck in a corner. I am using a PS/2 mouse, and
the mouse will just stop working until I use the touch pad for awhile.

I did some checking on the net, and discovered that other people were
having the exact same problem with this model. The solution offered
was to disable the pointing stick. I downloaded new drivers, unplugged
the PS2 mouse and restarted the laptop. I was able to see an option
for disabling the pointing stick. However, when I plug the regular
mouse back in and start up the laptop, I get the mouse drift again and
the pointing stick still works. This is driving me insane!

Can anyone help?

Thanks


David

I don't recall exactly, but I'll bet there is a setting (possibly in the
BIOS) that would dictate what happens to the touchpad when an external mouse
is plugged in.

The usual options normally are

Disable touchpad when external mouse is used
allow both mouse and touchpad to work at the same time.


<> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> My old Dell laptop has been giving me grief all day, and I was hoping
> someone could offer some troubleshooting tips.
>
> The problem is my mouse pointer will drift across the screen by itself,
> and sometimes stay stuck in a corner. I am using a PS/2 mouse, and
> the mouse will just stop working until I use the touch pad for awhile.
>
> I did some checking on the net, and discovered that other people were
> having the exact same problem with this model. The solution offered
> was to disable the pointing stick. I downloaded new drivers, unplugged
> the PS2 mouse and restarted the laptop. I was able to see an option
> for disabling the pointing stick. However, when I plug the regular
> mouse back in and start up the laptop, I get the mouse drift again and
> the pointing stick still works. This is driving me insane!
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks
>
>
> David
>

loose wire under keyboard?
i dont think this is software.
to prove it, boot off a bootable cd and you will see it happen there also.

wrote:
> My old Dell laptop has been giving me grief all day, and I was hoping
> someone could offer some troubleshooting tips.
>
> The problem is my mouse pointer will drift across the screen by itself,
> and sometimes stay stuck in a corner. I am using a PS/2 mouse, and
> the mouse will just stop working until I use the touch pad for awhile.
>
> I did some checking on the net, and discovered that other people were
> having the exact same problem with this model. The solution offered
> was to disable the pointing stick. I downloaded new drivers, unplugged
> the PS2 mouse and restarted the laptop. I was able to see an option
> for disabling the pointing stick. However, when I plug the regular
> mouse back in and start up the laptop, I get the mouse drift again and
> the pointing stick still works. This is driving me insane!
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks
>
>
> David
>

this is true, however it only applies to a ps/2 type mouse (not a usb
mouse).
if the on board mouse is disabled then the drift will go away (as in use a
ps/2 external mouse and have the bios set to disable internal mouse when
external is detected - at boot that is, not if plugged in later).
a replacement keyboard will solve this for you. i might have a used but
working spare if you are interested or call dell spare parts for one. easy
to install and under $40.
oh, did you happen to install drivers for you external mouse? if so that
may become a problem too as the synaptacs touch pad driver does no coexist
well with other drivers (particularly logitech).

"hdrdtd" <> wrote in message
news: ...
>I don't recall exactly, but I'll bet there is a setting (possibly in the
>BIOS) that would dictate what happens to the touchpad when an external
>mouse is plugged in.
>
> The usual options normally are
>
> Disable touchpad when external mouse is used
> allow both mouse and touchpad to work at the same time.
>
>
> <> wrote in message
> news: ups.com...
>> My old Dell laptop has been giving me grief all day, and I was hoping
>> someone could offer some troubleshooting tips.
>>
>> The problem is my mouse pointer will drift across the screen by itself,
>> and sometimes stay stuck in a corner. I am using a PS/2 mouse, and
>> the mouse will just stop working until I use the touch pad for awhile.
>>
>> I did some checking on the net, and discovered that other people were
>> having the exact same problem with this model. The solution offered
>> was to disable the pointing stick. I downloaded new drivers, unplugged
>> the PS2 mouse and restarted the laptop. I was able to see an option
>> for disabling the pointing stick. However, when I plug the regular
>> mouse back in and start up the laptop, I get the mouse drift again and
>> the pointing stick still works. This is driving me insane!
>>
>> Can anyone help?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>> David
>>
>
>

I have an old beat 4100 that I was tinkering with and it started with the crazy mouse problem. After reading this thread, I removed the rubber cap on the joystick pointer, grabbed the plastic part that the rubber attached to with a plier and pulled up.The plastic popped loose revealing another smaller plastic joystick stump below. I noticed a decayed foam seal around this stump. I scrapped the seal away and put a few drops of contact cleaner around the stump. I snapped the plastic part back onto the stump with a firm downward pressure and reinstalled the rubber cap. No more crazy mouse. Hope this helps someone.