mouse pad skips around while typing

Hi Greg,

This is quite a common problem - I fix computers for a living, and I see it all the time.

It's caused by the vibrations of typing triggering movement on the touchpad. Sometimes this is because that's just what the laptop does (rubbish, I know), and sometimes it can be because the wrong touchpad driver is installed for your machine.

Right click 'Computer' and go to 'Properties'. At the bottom of the screen, make a note of the version of Windows you're running, and whether it's 32 or 64 bit. Then click on 'Device Manager'. Under 'Mice and Other Pointing Devices', make a note of what it says here.

Then, go to the manufacturer's site, and look up your laptop in their support/drivers/downloads section. You might need to get the laptop's real model name or number from the back of it. You might also need to put in the version of Windows you're using (as we ascertained just before).

Look down the list of available drivers, and check that the name of the touchpad matches the one in Device Manager. If it does, go ahead and download the driver from the site, and install it - it's probably a later version.

Restart your machine. If the problem is still happening, there is a very nifty little application from Google Apps called TouchFreeze, which disables your touchpad while you're typing. It's a workaround, but it does the job very well, and will almost certain ease your problem. You can download it here (it's safe and virus-free - I promise you!): http://code.google.com/p/touchfreeze/dow...