Jittery, sporadic mouse (touch pad)

[gusdinsmore]

I recently purchased a refurbished HP laptop from Target. When I got the laptop, it was still on Windows 10 and needed to be updated to Windows 11, so I did that. 

About a week after almost daily use after I got it, my mouse (using the laptop’s touch pad, no a wired or wireless mouse), started acting up. Every couple of days, it’s jumpy, sporadic, and opens random applications and windows without me clicking on it if I try to move it or scroll. I can hardly do either one of those things at this point because it jumps, lags, and glitches so much. It’s very slow too, and doesn’t respond to my touches or attempts to move it around the screen at all sometimes. 

I’ve tried everything I can possibly think of. I’ve made sure the touch pad is clean and free of any oil, dirt, or any type of residue whatsoever, I clean it daily with a semi damp cloth or gently with a wet wipe. I’ve restarted and shut my entire laptop down and turned it back on more times than I can count, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled everything I can think of, I’ve made sure my laptop itself is at full charge, I try not to let it overheat if possible, it’s never had any water or any other liquid spilled on it. I’ve updated everything I can including virus protection, Windows system updates itself, I restart it and check for updates DAILY. I’ve tried everything that I could find advice wise on this website, Reddit, etc. I don’t know what I HAVENT tried at this point. Maybe getting a wireless mouse will be what I have to do? I’m so sick of this issue, I’ve given it my all, and I’m entirely frustrated because I JUST got this laptop. Yes, it’s refurbished and therefore not brand new, but it was working just fine for about a week after getting it and now this is a weekly, if not daily problem. Please help!! 

[Sneha_01]

Hi @gusdinsmore 

Welcome to HP Support Community.

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to help you.

I'm really sorry to hear you're dealing with this frustrating touchpad issue! It sounds like you've already put a lot of effort into troubleshooting, but let's see if we can narrow down the cause and find a solution. Sometimes, when a touchpad starts behaving unpredictably, it's a software, driver, or hardware issue. Here are some steps to try:

1. Check for Touchpad Driver Issues

It sounds like your touchpad drivers might be outdated or not fully compatible with Windows 11. Even if you've updated Windows, it’s possible the touchpad drivers didn't get updated properly.

Steps to update or reinstall the touchpad drivers:

1. Press Windows + X and select Device Manager.
2. Scroll down and expand the Mice and other pointing devices section.
3. Right-click on your touchpad device (it might say something like Synaptics, ELAN, or Windows Precision).
4. Select Update driver and choose Search automatically for updated driver software.

If Windows doesn’t find anything:

1. Right-click on the touchpad device again and select Uninstall device.
2. Restart your laptop, and Windows should automatically reinstall the default touchpad driver.

2. Enable/Disable Windows Precision Drivers

Windows 11 supports Precision Touchpad drivers, which can cause issues on some laptops if they're not set up properly.

To check or switch Precision drivers:

1. Open Settings (press Windows + I).
2. Go to Devices > Touchpad.
3. Scroll down and toggle between Windows Precision and Generic driver options (if available). Try disabling Precision drivers to see if that fixes the erratic behavior.

I hope this helps.

Please mark this post as “Accepted Solution” if the issue is resolved and if you feel this reply was helpful click “Yes”.