Runaway cursor

granjo39 Mine's a desktop, too, but my keyboard has a small touchpad to the right of the keys and that's what I was inadvertently touching. Your keyboard may be similar???

Thanks everyone for your help.
Ana-I don't have a touchpad,it is a desktop.
Pompa- Yes it has worked okay previously.Probably does need cleaning.
But Shh.... it is working okay at the moment perhaps using a different USB slot is the answer. Nevertheless I will print off all your helpful suggestions and place them in my' Help' folder.

Ana

Oops! That was meant to be a not a maniacal grin...

Ana you've just solved the problem I have! When I use the backspace key it deletes words and jumps all over the show - now I know why! My hand brushes the touchpad. Thank you

It all depends on whether the mouse has been working OK, if it has and you have not made any changes, I would be pretty sure it needs cleaning. If it has never worked properly then you may need to install a driver for it or change the mouse settings, but don't do that if it was working.

Your PC might also offer a keyboard shortcut (such as pressing Fn and F7 simultaneously) to disable the touchpad - that's what I did when doing it via the control panel didn't seem to work!

Does your computer run Windows? You can change your mouse settings at
Control panel/Ease of access/Change how your mouse works/Make the mouse easier to use/Mouse settings

I had dreadful trouble as well with a wireless mouse, because Windows couldn't find it - "No windows mouse detected" - so it assumed that I wanted to use the touchpad. That was so sensitive that if my wrist just brushed the surface of it the cursor went mad. I solved that by going to Control panel/Ease of access/Change how your mouse works/Make the mouse easier to use/Mouse settings and changing all the mousepad settings to the minimum possible sensitivity, but I have to repeat that EVERY TIME I SWITCH ON THE COMPUTER which is a pain.

Probably needs cleaning, google the kame/model of your mouse for instructions. If it has a ball, that can be removed and you will probably find the sensors caked with grot (that is the technical term) or if you have an optical/IR mouse you will need to clean the lens/sensor. Dirt is nearly always the problem if a mouse becomes erratic. I clean mine about once a month.

Have you got a touchpad on your keyboard?

I used to have problems with my cursor jumping about when I was typing until I managed to turn off the touchpad on my laptop completely, even though I was sure I wasn't accidentally touching it or brushing against it.

Thanks Tricia,I'll bear that in mind. I must admit that I am a bit heavyhanded when using the computer.

I think you can adjust the speed of the cursor?

I had that problem once - went into the 'puter shop and the man suggested I was perhaps absentmindedly touching the rightclick side of the mouse from time to time.
I never found out the reason for sure, but it doesn't happen now.