Mouse Acting Erratic and/or Not Moving Properly

Issue:

Mouse acting erratically and/or is not moving properly.

Cause:

This issue can occur because of one of the below possibilities. These may vary depending upon the type of mouse you have connected to the computer.

1. Mouse is not clean.
2. Optical portion of mouse is blocked.
3. Moisture or other material on finger.

 

Solution:

- Mouse is not clean

Users who have an optical mechanical mouse (most common mouse for desktop computers) are likely experiencing erratic behavior because the mouse is not clean or is dirty. Information on how to clean the mouse can be found on our cleaning page.

Optical portion of mouse is blocked

Users who have an optical mouse are likely experiencing erratic behavior because a portion of the optical eye is blocked. Most commonly this is caused by a hair.

- Bad surface

Although most mice will work with any computer surface if you're having issues we suggest trying a different mouse pad, a book, piece of paper, or something different to verify it's not the surface causing your issue.

- Moisture or other material on finger

Users who are using a touchpad may experience erratic behavior because of moisture or other material on the finger such as a lotion.

• If your cursor is moving by itself and you have a touchpad see additional help below and information on this issue.

   

• This issue could be caused by any of the below possibilitie:.

  Touching the touchpad without realizing it
  Driver related issue
  Dirty touchpad
  Bad hardware
  
  Some laptops may have a button around the touchpad or an icon in the Systray that enables you to temporarily disable the touchpad.
  
  
  - Make sure you're not touching the touchpad
  Because the touchpad often is close to where the palms of your hands and thumbs lay, it's possible that you may be touching the touchpad without realizing it. An easy way of quickly identifying this, would be to see if the cursor moves without touching anything on the keyboard.
  
  - Dirty touchpad
  Oils, lotion, and other substances from your fingers can cause the touchpad to not work properly. Make sure the touchpad is clean by dampening a cotton cloth with water and rubbing the touchpad surface.
  
  - Disconnect other external input devices
  It may not be touchpad that's causing your issue. If you have other input devices such as an external mouse, graphics tablet, keypad, etc., try disconnecting these devices to make sure they're not the cause of your issue.
  
  - Disconnect from docking station
  If your laptop is only encountering this issue while connected to a docking station, it could be the cause of your issues. For this issue we suggest the below solutions.
  • Make sure your laptop has the latest BIOS update.
  
  - Update drivers
  Because the drivers control how the touchpad interfaces with the operating system, if the drivers contain issues, any number of problems can occur. Including the cursor moving improperly. Make sure you have the latest drivers from your laptop manufacturer for your touchpad either by visiting their website or contacting their support.
  
  - Bad hardware
  If you've completed all the above steps and continue to have issues with your touchpad, it's possible you may have a physical hardware issue either with the touchpad and/or interface connected to the touchpad.
  If your laptop is out of warranty and you do not wish to spend the money it takes to repair the laptop, we suggest disabling the touchpad and using an external USB mouse.

- Disconnect other external input devices

It may not be the mouse that's causing your issue, if you have other input devices such as another external mouse, graphics tablet, keypad, etc. Try disconnecting these devices to make sure they're not the cause of your issue.

- Update drivers and uninstall older drivers

Because the drivers control how the mouse interfaces with the operating system if the drivers contain issues any number of problems can occur including the cursor moving improperly. Make sure you have the latest drivers from your mouse manufacturer.

We also highly suggest that you go into Add/Remove programs and uninstall all previous installations of previous mouse drivers that have been installed on the computer. This is very important when moving between mouse manufacturers such as going from a Logitech mouse to a Microsoft mouse.

- Mouse has been cleaned and still has problems

If you've cleaned the mouse and continue to encounter issues and this mouse has worked in the past fine unfortunately your mouse is likely defective. One additional test that can be done to help determine if this is the case or not is to connect the mouse to another computer. Otherwise we suggest replacing the mouse.