dell latitude keyboard problem

Hello, I have a Dell Latitude C400 notebook, about 5-6 years old, and I've been having cursor problems with the keyboard intermittently for the last 2 years or so. It got to the point where I didn't use this notebook for anything at all for an entire year because it was useless for typing anything longer than 2 words. My text cursor jumps randomly around whenever I'm typing - and it's not limited to Word or to email, but anytime I'm typing in a text box. A google search indicates that this is a common problem on Dell notebooks, and I installed a mouse driver on the recommendation of someone from an old thread on another forum, and downloaded TouchFreeze. It seems to be helping a lot but if I type fast enough the cursor still jumps back 5 words or so every now and then. It's not nearly as bad as before though, when it would not only jump around but also highlight entire passages of text that would then get deleted when I continued to type. Can you give me any more insight into this problem, and any other advice on how to deal with it? I'm more curious than anything else at this point since after installing TouchFreeze the problem is very manageable. Thanks so much! Jenny

Got a spare PS/2 keyboard? Consider plugging it in to see if it might be something directly to do with your keyboard padding under the onboard keys. Typing on the external keyboard should not give any evidence of the "jumping" you describe. Let us know how you go with that. Best Regards

This is an old topic, but couldn't resist. I've heard this complaint many times… The answer is, "Keep your thumbs off the touchpad!" That's why a program like TouchFreeze helps. (I don't know what this program is, but I can see by its name it is meant to fix the issue) If you want to turn the tap feature off, you can adjust those settings in the "Mouse" applet of the Windows control panel (Control panel -> mouse). The settings for tap will be located under the hardware tab -> properties. Most touchpads on laptops have a hotkey or button to turn the touchpad off and on. You may use this button/hotkey to disable the touchpad while you are typing documents. Read the manual to the computer to find out what button or hotkey you need to press to accomplish this. Ofcourse, using an external keyboard will work, because your thumbs won't be anywhere near the touchpad.