Is your mouse pointer "drifting"?

[Rosetta]

If your mouse pointer is drifting around the screen of it's own free will, here's one way to fix it.

1) Do you have an optical mouse? Check the bottom of the mouse. An optical mouse has a light, while a regular mouse will have a trackball.

2) If your mouse IS optical, check the color of your mouse pad. If the color is dark, then this may be causing the problem. Try switching your mousepad to a white one. A piece of paper makes a good temporary soultion.

3) If this doesn't fix the problem, or your mouse is not an optical one, try these steps:

A) Update your mouse's drivers. They may be out of date.
B) Remove viruses and spyware from your computer. I personally reccomend Avast! Antivirus and Spybot Search and Destroy, both of which are free for use, and excellent programs.

[Lyte]

Hey Rosetta,

Welcome!

Oh... my mouse at work does this! We have an IT department that has "more important" stuff to deal with so, I never really looked into fixing the issue. And too... we're not allowed to download stuff from the internet. Even so, I think I'm going to try your suggestion! lol

I discovered my (old) Microsoft Optical mouse at home drifts on my new desk which has a glass top! At first I was confused as to why it suddenly didn't work. I've never used it wth a mouse pad so I tried putting something between it and the glass and bingo! It works fine now!

Lyte

[firestorm]

download it at home and bring it in . Thanks for the info!

-fire

[Ronin]

I always have this problem, I thought there was nothing I can do about it!
I was even going to get a new mouse to fix the issue, its just so annoying when you move the cursor then let go, and the cursor goes back the other direction on its own.

I dont use a mouse pad at all with my optical mouse.
I did find cleaning around the laser part can fix this issue though.

[Rosetta]

Ronin - I had forgotten about cleaning the laser. One time, my mouse was acting up, and it was apparently because there was a hair stuck under the laser. Oops!