Mouse Drifts Across the Screen – How to Eliminate it?

Mouse drift is a common problem on laptop computers: the mouse cursor wanders automatically and continuously till it stops in some corner of the screen when you are moving it or not moving it at all. Otherwise a few optical mouse devices get this failure as well. Then how to eliminate it?

Laptop mouse

If your laptop mouse drifts, you can follow the tips below to fix it: One, you need to clean the trackpoint, or swap it with another. When the trackpoint is used for a long time, there will be a lot of grease and dirt built up on it which will affect its normal use, but the drift will be improved if you change the small trackpoint cap with another new one. Additionally, we need to repair or swap the trackpoint sensor in time if it is aging or becomes ineffective. Two, disable the trackpoint or touchpad and use an external pointing device instead.

Optical mouse

If your optical mouse drifts, follow the tips below:

One, maybe you have moved your pointing device on an unsuitable mouse pad. Since an optical mouse is surprisingly sensitive to the surface it is on, if you work it directly on the glass, the metal mirror or the pure cardboard, etc, which would make your mouse work improperly and wander across the screen easily. So you’d better use another mouse pad with tiny and steady pocks on it.

Two, keep your optical mouse away from stray light, because this light would interfere with your mouse working.

Three, too much dust and dirt in your mouse would again make it move irregularly, so remove the mouse and clean it.

Four, you’d better swap your mouse with another good one if it is too old to be used or it is badly damaged.