Hello, I recently purchased a laptop on eBay. (I don't need the "you shouldn't buy stuff on eBay, you'll get ripped off" pitch, there is a binding contract they make, not going to get into that.) It worked perfectly for two days and I began having problems with the two mice on it. It has the pad mouse as well as the mouse in the middle of the keyboard. The pointer just started going nuts and jamming itself into corners. It does this at random times for random lengths of time and gets better. It will stop doing it for days and then start doing it again. The local computer shop told me it might be a virus so I installed McAfee and cleaned it and it still didn't fix it. Anyone know what this could be? And how much it would cost to fix it perhaps? By the way, I'm running Windows XP Professional. Thanks.

What is the make and model of the laptop?

You might try reinstalling the drivers from the manufacturers web site.

Dell latititude C840.

Try reloading the ALPS driver under Mouse and Keyboard

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&catid=&impid=

I did that, thanks for the tip, but it will take some time to see if it worked or not. Hasn't flipped out in a couple of days, though. If it comes down to it how much would you think it would cost to get it fixed?

Just a quick search for Dell touch pads has prices from $20 to $100.

You would have to find an exact match for your model.

If it is working at all I doubt that you need to replace it.

If it is not software then it might be a bad connection inside which changes with movement for example.

Here is the Service Manual:

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...n/sm/index.htm

The touch pad connection to the motherboard is shown in the Palm Rest section.

Okay that didn't work, and I don't feel comfortable taking it apart, so what would you suggest now?

Does an external mouse work?

I tried using our desktop's mouse when this first started happeninglast week or whenever, and it seemed to work but then it started acting up again.

Just to verify:

The problem is the same with the external mouse?

If so i would uninstall then reinstall your graphics driver.

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&catid=&impid=

Video > Nvidia Driver

Uninstall your present driver first via Add / Remove programs.

You also might want to monitor your temperatures.

Could very well be overheating.