Cursor problems

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JohnLawlor · #1 Post by **JohnLawlor** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:10 am

Hi, For the last couple of months my 3-year old T42 has had a problem with the cursor: When I go to move the cursor, it moves a certain distance, then stalls for maybe a second, and then it overshoots (maybe this is down to me as I overcompensate for the stalling cursor). This happens whether I use the internal mouse or attach an optical mouse + keyboard or an old-fashioned wired mouse. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, to no avail. A friend of mine had a similar problem with a dell Latitude, and apparently it was due to the pressure his hand was putting on the laptop casing when he was typing. His solution was to pick up the laptop at both ends and twist it slightly, which took the pressure off some internal part. Could it be the same with my thinkpad??? Don't want to try it without advice ..

thanks for any help!

#2 Post by **jdhurst** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:58 am

The external mouse trial says clearly it is not mouse-related, so it is probably not the Trackpoint.

However, I most definitely (emphatically) would NOT twist the laptop. That is good for cracking the motherboard. Indeed, a number of us, including myself, have had T4x motherboards replaced either because of a defect, or modest (totally inadvertant) twisting. Don't do it.
... JDH

#3 Post by **jdhurst** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:13 am

For a software issue that may be affecting your mouse (Trackpoint or External), there are a couple of things (amongst several) that can account for it:

1. Disk access: Something (like Instant Messenger, a disk defragger, antivirus checking, or a just plain heavily-fragmented disk that has to work overtime for regular stuff.
2. The Hard Drive Protection application, and somehow, the ThinkPad is being moved. That could explain the Trackpoint issue (TP on your lap), but not the external mouse issue.
... JDH

JohnLawlor · #4 Post by **JohnLawlor** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 3:23 pm

JD,

thanks for the heads up on the cracking motherboard!
It did strike me that the problem might be related to an almost full hard disk. My hard disk is split into a c drive with 19.5 gb capacity and a d drive with 8.4 gb capacicty. They have 3.8 and 3.6GB free respectively. I defrag regularly given tightness on the C drive, but makes no difference.
How would I check for the other possibilities?

thanks again.

dr. zoidberg · #5 Post by **dr. zoidberg** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 7:02 pm

Maybe it happens because the system is paging to/from disk? Sometimes when my computer is under heavy load (e.g. right after cold booting and logging in) the mouse will skip ocassionally

JohnLawlor · #6 Post by **JohnLawlor** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:55 am

Not sure what paging to/from disk means ... how would I check?

dr. zoidberg · #7 Post by **dr. zoidberg** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:12 am

paging is something the operating system does as part of memory management. It basically copies non active programs to disk. The bottom line is, if you have more RAM, there will be less paging. You can also tweak the size of your page file.

If it is paging related, adding more RAM will help. How much do you have now?

JohnLawlor · #8 Post by **JohnLawlor** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:00 am

I have 768mb RAM, having increased it from 256 about 6 months ago. the problem with the cursor has arisen since then.

I've moved the paging file from the C drive to the quieter D drive, but that makes no difference.

I'm beginning to conclude that this is a question of faulty hardware. The question then arises ... is it worthwhile getting fixed, and upgrading other bits, or investing in a new machine??

the original spec for my machine is:
T42 23731UG
P M 1.5GHz, 256MB RAM, 30GB 4200rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 24x-8x DVD.

Cursor problems

Cursor problems

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