Expert: Troy M. MCSE, CNA, MCP, CST, IC3, A+ - 6/2/2009

Question
Hi ,When i am typing my cursor jumps backwards to any position of what i have already typed .I have a notebook windows xp  Thank you .

Answer
Hi there Ramble,

I am assuming your name comes from the fact that your laptop seems to be 'rambling on and on' on it's own? Heh. I have an answer and I don't have an answer, to be honest, for this issue. Let me explain...

Laptops seem to have this issue, you are not alone. Acer is one but Dell and most other brands seem to be experiencing it as well, it seems to not matter what brand or vendor your laptop comes from. The first thing most companies will say is 'update your drivers', but before that I want to mention one thing first.

It may seem silly, but one of the main problems typers have with laptops is letting their hands/palms/fingers touch near the TouchPad. This of course activates it and moves the mouse around, or in this case, moves around the source of where one is typing. This happens more than you might think with notebook computers but you will be happy to know that learning to type without going anywhere near the TouchPad area is easy to teach yourself, if hard to remember to do for a while. Most people rest their palms near the area, and thumbs often go astray. But, before suggesting anything else that may require excess effort on your part, I want to suggest this. Even if this is not the main source for the issue, learning to type this way while on your laptop will help you avoid any similar problems.

So, the issue itself seems to be known and many people blame it on software, the operating system, the manufacturer of the notebook, etc. and while one (or all) of them may have a hand in it, here's some suggestions of what you can do about it:

> Update Drivers
I hate saying this, it is one of the first things any tech support people say and many people do not even know what it means. I only say it here because it actually may help. There are many companies (including Microsoft) that 'know' of the issue and are trying out patches/updates to their software that may alleviate the problem. So, by updating Windows as much as you can (windowsupdate.microsoft.com or through Automatic Updates) and updating your vendor software (Acer/Dell/etc Websites) you will be privy to patches and updates that they think might help, if any come out.

> Use an external keyboard
This is useful only if you are at home or at the office and not on the road, but plugging in an external (full size, desktop) keyboard will give you more room for your fingers/hands and will help greatly along with an external mouse, if you seem to be having troubles hitting the mouse/touchpad area. This may not be the reason for your issue but it may help.

For an official answer, there isn't one... Companies know about this problem and noone is sure if it is hardware (the devices) or software (the programs running in the system) quite yet. Keeping updates drives/applications will help, in case something does come out that will fix it, but until then, trying these few ideas may help. Sorry that there is no definitive answer as of this time.

Try to continue to have fun and stay sane!