Jumpy mouse on laptop

[cameo]

Hi there,
My daughter has a Toshiba laptop. Recently we had to purchase a new charger and cable for it and so it has been out of use for a couple of weeks.

Today it was up and running again but now the mouse is all jumpy and erratic. We never had this problem before.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?
I'm a bit of a techno-phobe so please keep it simple!!!

thanks x

[Vicasso]

Can think of a couple of things.

You say laptop and 'mouse' not touchpad.

If you are using a wireless mouse, try a new battery in the mouse.

If its an older mouse with a ball mechanism, turn the mouse over and, normally using on just two fingers on either side of the ball, remove the retaining ring holding the ball in place. The ring doesn't screw out, it has lugs and normally a quarter turn anticlockwise will free it. Take the ball out and clean the little rollers that you can see in the body of the mouse with a cotton bud or similar. Re-assemble the mouse
The ball tends to pick up fluff and gunge from whatever it travels across and deposit this the rollers. Over time the build up causes the contact between the ball and rollers to become erratic.

Hope this helps,

Vic

[cameo]

Sorry Vic, I meant touchpad!