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General discussion

Cursor jumps, letters not appear, content erases

Feb 20, 2015 6:26PM PST

I have a Dell Latitude 5400 laptop. I use Internet Explorer 8 with Windows XP Professional. Microsoft Security Essentials scanned and reported no problems with my hardware and software.

But, the cursor jumps around when typing, sometimes letters do not appear when typing, and sometimes content is erased when typing.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Discussion is locked

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Just something to try
Feb 20, 2015 7:35PM PST

I know it it may sound foolish but laptop keyboards can be sensitive to any stray and accidental contact to the touchpad. A user may not even be aware that they've touched it. One way to tell is to disable the touchpad and work strictly from the keyboard for a while. If the problem goes away, you've found the culprit.

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Touchpad
Feb 20, 2015 11:20PM PST

How do you disable/enable the touchpad?

Thanks for the additional help.

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Old kybd.
Feb 20, 2015 7:55PM PST

Wear and tear do come into play as XP suggests its an old system. Turn over the system and "burp", tap the backside several times to dislodge anything that could be stuck within the kybd. area(power-OFF). Next, just see if it appears that common keys used could be a problem. Overall, I wouldn't entirely trust MSE s/w to be that capable thought its better than nothing, use AVG or Avast free versions to better scan and/or check the security forum here for the list of scanners, etc..

Alas, if this is due to wear, exchange the kybd.. The reason some tapping on the backside is because staples, hard crumbs, and/or gunk cause weird mishaps, so don't take it for granted. replacement kybds are available for reasonable cost, if that's the next step. being a Dell, they provide maint. docs are teardown.

tada ------Willy Happy

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Burping
Feb 20, 2015 11:21PM PST

I'll try your idea. Thanks!