Laptop Question

[Dick McGowan]

This may be a stupid question and I have no clue about computers, but I can't figure out what's wrong. On my chase yesterday, before hand, I took my laptop outside to test out the connection. I plugged it into the surge protector, which was plugged into the 300 watt power inverter. I noticed when I moved my cursor, it would click on random stuff, when I barely pressed on it. It would also move around strangely. When I went back inside, it was fine. I unplugged it from the surge protector outside, and it was still doing the same thing. So my question is, what can I do and what is the problem??? I can't say I've ever had this problem before.

 

[Kenny Drake]

To me it sounds like the buttons on the touchpad are getting stuck, which usually means they are in need of replacement. Out of all the components on a laptop, the keyboard and touchpad wear easily because of the use. Now fixing that is another issue...

 

[Dick McGowan]

Kenny,

This Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop was purchased in November, so it's fairly new. It also works fine, as I'm typing on it right now. It's just when I'm in my vehicle, it goes crazy.

 

[Shawn Scovel]

Dick,

A lot of that has to do with the ambient light in the vehicle. You'd think they'd actually sense pressure from your finger but I've noticed that in my E1505 too, I think they sense light with a combination of pressure (or something along those lines). If it is dark where i am using the computer i have to actually use a wired mouse...

-Shawn

 

[Robert Edmonds]

I have no idea, but if you can't fix it and it is becoming annoying. I think you can disable the mouse pad while your outside and attach a usb mouse(perhaps a roller ball).

 

[Kenny Drake]

Well whatever the cause, a USB mouse is not a bad option. If you have the touchpad driver on Dell's website installed then the touchpad should automatically be disabled when you plug in the mouse, so that should solve the problem. However, I'm still slightly confused because touchpad buttons are not controlled by light, they're controlled by applying enough pressure on the buttons. If your mouse pad allows you to "click" by applying pressure to it, then light could be an issue.

 

[Billy Griffin]

Dick,

Just a couple of things you might consider (this has happened to me)...

Have you tried it without the surge protector (just plugging it straight into the power inverter?)

Do you have any radio equipment or other electronic devices that might be causing stray RF interference? This was an issue I discovered while operating an HF radio along with my laptop. Hard to explain, but I finally discovered that when that radio was on, whether receive or transmit, and my laptop was plugged in to the power inverter inside my Explorer, the mouse cursor would just scroll across the screen uncontrollably.

You've probably already done this, but just double check the settings on your mouse pointer (touchpad) to see if it differs when unplugged versus plugged in.

And finally, in the control panel, check your "pointing device properties," under the MOUSE icon. See if changing the advanced settings, such as sample rate or input buffer length might help.

Does your surge protector have RF isolation protection? Maybe you're getting some strange things going on with your DC to AC inversion. Just a few ideas I thought might help.

Oh... one more thing... when you click on MOUSE in the control panel, go to POINTER OPTIONS and make sure that the check box beside SNAP TO is "unchecked." That can throw people sometimes as well.

Hope this might help.

 

[David Drummond]

Shouldn't be dirty power. If it was there would be worse syptoms than a mouse going rabid.

 

[KMcCallister]

This may be a stupid question and I have no clue about computers, but I can't figure out what's wrong. On my chase yesterday, before hand, I took my laptop outside to test out the connection. I plugged it into the surge protector, which was plugged into the 300 watt power inverter. I noticed when I moved my cursor, it would click on random stuff, when I barely pressed on it. It would also move around strangely. When I went back inside, it was fine. I unplugged it from the surge protector outside, and it was still doing the same thing. So my question is, what can I do and what is the problem??? I can't say I've ever had this problem before.

I have a Dell laptop that always has a similar problem in a moving vehicle. I keep the synaptics driver that came on the computer which has a selection to disable the "tap to click". Without the "tap to click", you have to actually press the button to click, but it eliminates my random clicking problem.