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get a wireless mouse. Most college kids don't even use the mousepad, they just have a mouse.

A reason why the support folks might have had trouble helping you is because you are calling a mousepad what is usually termed a touchpad, trackpad, or clickpad. Some not familiar with this new laptop hardware would probably not know what to do.

Many of these new laptop trackpads have multitouch features which allow you to perform certain functions using multiple points of contact (ie. two/three fingers on the surface at once). With differently defined gestures, you can do things like scroll, zoom, and rotate. This may be what's happening to you. Inadvertently, you could be resting another finger or your palm on the pad and this would cause weird things to happen when you use your main finger to move the cursor around.

While it's "okay" right now, the technology is far from perfect and crazy stuff can happen even when you intentionally want to use it.

To disable these multitouch features, go to the Mouse section of the Control Panel. Snoop around and you should be able to find some options to disable them.

As a side thing, I would agree with the poster above me. I never cared for these laptop trackpads and only use them when there is no alternative. I usually bring along my trusty (wired, with the cable shortened via a sinnet) Logitech USB trackball. They sell low-profile (wired) mouses made especially for laptops ($7-$12) as well as wireless ones ($15-$25).

I've been spending a little time with a cast-off Apple "PowerBook", and behold, it has that feature, too (the first one, magnifying the screen.) It can be turned off. The funny part was surfing the web looking for clues. Lots of instances of this problem, at least I am pretty sure exactly this problem, but half a dozen totally irrelevant answers before I found one that contained the clue I needed. Like the people who haunt these computer help forums have some daily answer quota to fill.

Hi-
Just wait for Apple's OS "Lion" next month--see the stream of it--no side bar needed--everything is cone with the track pad...
mark

the elephant wrote:

Donn wrote:Like the people who haunt these computer help forums have some daily answer quota to fill.

ITFJ?

Exactly!

bloke wrote:OK...... HOW DO I TURN OFF THAT IDIOTIC USELESS DESTRUCTIVE FEATURE ????? thanks!

I use a wireless (USB) optical mouse. All is well as far as that device is concerned.

However.... my stupid Toshiba touchpad does some goofy stuff sometimes... like scrolling for no reason. The pad is centrally located just below the space bar and apparently I was brushing it while typing. I guess I could root around and find a way to turn if off. But... knowing Windows 7... it would probably disable something else or I couldn't get it to work again if I had an emergency and the optical mouse went bad.

So.... I did what I did with my old Dell when it had a similar problem... tape a piece of light cardboard over the mousepad. Ugly... but it works!

bloke wrote:It's not bumping other keys. A counterclockwise circle suddenly replaces the mouse "arrow" on the screen, and any further movement causes the browser to go to the previous webpage (again, very destructive, if typing information into fields).

Hmmm... sounds like you've managed to inadvertently set up a 'back' shortcut. Until you figure out how to undo it... can you hit the 'escape' key to get rid of it?

I too hate those touch pads. When ever I'm visiting my mother-in-law (age 86) she always seems to need some help with her lap top. When ever I get on there my thumbs (hovering over space bar) inadvertently touch the pad and the cursor moves. So I too have resorted to using a card to cover the touch pad. I bought her a small mouse last year, but she didn't like it. With that double-click touch pad she has slid her email program right off the desktop and then couldn't find it again. I had to drive over there, change the size of the screen to see it, and then slide it back.

If I ever got a lap-top it would be one with a joy stick instead of a touch pad.