How to disable an input divice

[bdoust]

Hi Guys,

I'm trying to fix an issue with a neighbours laptop (Dell Inspiron 4100.) The mouse randomly starts drifting to the corners every now and then and I believe it is being caused by the second mouse input (a 'nub' in the keyboard used as a joystick, im unsure of the technical term) that seems faulty. I would like to disable this and see if the problem persists but I don't know how to go about doing this so I was wondering if anyone on here could help me?

The laptop is running windows XP

Thanks in advance

 

[Steltek]

The device at issue is called a trackpad. Have you tried installing an updated driver from the Dell website? There are several Mouse, keyboard & Input device driver updates there from as recently as 11/03/2011. If you don't know which keyboard device is installed on your computer (to know which driver to install), look in Device Manager to see which device is shown and/or its properties. Or, you may need to look up the original configuration using the Dell laptop's Service Tag.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-4100/configuration


The trackpad itself will probably be shown in Device Manager under the "Mice and other pointing devices" category. If so, just right-click the device and select "Disable" to temporarily turn it off.