Laptop cursor pad

vicx · 16 June 2011 at 11:59PM

Hi all,

I have a Toshiba Laptop L40-17M, tonight I noticed the cursor pad was keep clicking on links when I'm moving the cursor. At first I thought it was just me being too heavy on the pad but it's definitely playing up. It's even opening new tabs and when I'm looking through my favourites it clicks the wrong one as I move the cursor. It is also highlighting text as I move the cursor about. This has never happened before, only tonight so unsure what is happening.

Does anyone know what could be causing this to happen? Is this a fault within the cursor pad? Sometimes it feels like someone else has got control of the cursor, like remote assistance. I'll plug the mouse in when I can find it to see if the same happens.

I've got the virus scan running at the moment to see if it picks anything up.

Thanks for any help

Humphrey10 · 17 June 2011 at 12:17AM

I find that always happens with those horrible cursor pads, I can't use them at all, the first thing I do with a new laptop is turn off any pseudo-mice it has built in and plug in a real one.

Are you maybe brushing the pad with your palm or another finger by mistake? Or applying variable pressure so sometimes it registers a click when it shouldn't do? Does it have a bit for moving the cursor and a separate bit for each mouse button (left and right click), could you be brushing the 'mouse buttons' by mistake? I've had all those problems and more with those trackpads!

Or it could just be faulty, of course.

vicx · 17 June 2011 at 12:20AM

I've had the laptop around 3 year and it's never happened before. It's definitely playing up. I think it's either developed a fault or it's a virus.

vicx · 17 June 2011 at 12:25AM

Virus scan has completed - no threats found. I'll check the settings in the control panel but I know the settings could not have been changed so it seems like it could be a fault.

vyle · 17 June 2011 at 9:30AM

Might be a long shot, but have you installed any software updates (windows or whatnot) that could have updated to new toshiba mousepad drivers?

Either way, even if the pad is dying, you can turn off touchpad-click and just use the physical buttons, if you dont want to buy a new laptop or a mouse.

vicx · 17 June 2011 at 10:09AM

Windows installed an update yesterday but I'm unsure what it was, I'll have to have a look through the update history.

I did check the touchpad settings in the control panel but couldn't see anything that had been changed.

Hammyman · 17 June 2011 at 10:35AM

Tap to click. Disable it.

vicx · 17 June 2011 at 11:03AM

It's always been set so I can tap to click and never had any problems with it. I can't see that option in the settngs so don't think it could be disabled anyways. It's working much better today, not sure why it was playing up last night.

Hammyman · 17 June 2011 at 1:24PM

Try changing the sensitivity on the touchpad. There is an option to disable tap to click but they usually bury it .

vicx · 18 June 2011 at 11:34AM

The track pad started playing up again but I think I have found out what was causing the problem. I have just unplugged the charger from the laptop and it's working perfect again. I bought a replacement charger from eBay only a few days ago and since then I've noticed problems with the trackpad but would never have thought it would have been the charger causing the problem!

The charger needs to be plugged in as the battery doesn't hold a charge so I've had to go back to my original charger which has a snapped wire inside but the trackpad is working perfectly again now