Sony Vaio Z keyboard/touchpad wierd behavior. Cursor jumps to a different location arbitrarily.

Since the last few weeks, I noticed that sometimes during the middle of my typing, the cursor jumps to a different line on its own. This drives me nuts, especially when coding. Initially I thought that I might have accidentally brushed my palm against the touchpad, however this is not the case since I take extra care to not brush against it accidentally nowadays.

I checked for malwares and dont see any on my system. I also reinstalled the touchpad drivers. At this point I am inclinded to think that this migh be something with the touchpad or keyboard hardware. Anybody knows how I can identify the cause, short of rebuilding the machine from scratch. Also, this is so intermittent that I dont have a consistent repro for this, but it happens 4-5 times a day.

Thanks.

 

I read some reports that some users had issues with their touchpads as well. It was too responsive in each case so touching the palmrests half an inch from the touchpad edges made the cursor move, yes very annoying. Make really sure you don't touch it in any way. If it still makes your mouse cursor jump around it may be a service case. An easy way to get rid of that is to just disable the touchpad in VAIO control center - this anyways is just an option if you don't need the touchpad when developing.

 

Is modifying the PalmCheck feature slider in the Synaptics software helping?
I think your hands may be brushing the touchpad while typing on the keyboard or exuding some sort of static, so modifying the value there will stop it from accepting too large of a contact (such as accidental), and only accepting very narrow input like your finger tips.

 

I had a similar issue which I eventually traced to my mobile phone being in close proximity to the laptop.

 

First, right click the synaptics icon in your tray, then select moodpad and look at what is being registered.

Second, have you opened your Z lately? Maybe you didn't reattach your keyboard ribbon cable a bit? or maybe the touchpad?

 

Is it possible to mod the Z to make it accept the FN+F1 function on the SB? The FN+F1 combo disables the touchpad when it senses the keyboard is functioning on the SB but it apparently doesn't work on the Z (there's no mini icon under it).

 

No you can't really disable it, you'll have to try out some settings. The most you can do is disable it when inserting an usb mouse.