Cursor Flickering and Jumping to Bottom Left Corner

I am using Windows 10 (on a Lenovo Laptop) and over the past few days, I have been facing a strange problem. My cursor randomly starts to blink and goes to the bottom left corner of the screen and automatically clicks on the Search bar.

I searched online about this problem and a forum recommended disabling the search bar. I made this change but my problem still persists. The cursor now goes to the same spot, but instead of clicking on the Search bar, it now clicks on Task View.

This is happening repeatedly and I do not know how to fix this. I have also tried restarting my computer several times.

How can I fix this?

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You say elsewhere that you have tried unplugging the mouse and just using the trackpad but you are still seeing the same symptoms. It's possible that the trackpad is the cause of the problem. Try disabling your trackpad and seeing if the problem persists.

You can disable your trackpad by going to 'Change your mouse settings', clicking 'Additional mouse options', and unchecking 'Enable TrackPad'

A mouse that develops a mind of its own is a broken mouse.

Try cleaning up all internal contacts (if you can), and try again. Or try another mouse, and if it works then just replace your own..

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  1. If it is a wireless mouse, look for battery problems, or interference (i.e. try a wired mouse).

  2. In some games, this same symptom was caused by having a gamepad (like an Xbox controller) plugged into the PC at the same time. It wouldn't get initialized properly so would generate phantom move requests. In the same way, multiple mice could cause the same type of problem.

It's most likely due to hardware - either interfering with your mouse or a problem with the mouse. Either way, try an alternative mouse, try unplugging all 'extra' devices from your computer (printers, scanners, headphones, microphones, etc... especially USB devices if your mouse is USB-based).

Does the mouse still move if you unplug the mouse? If so, this would tell you it isn't the mouse. Have you tried a different port? If it's a USB mouse, have you tried a different USB port? Please try another mouse -- preferably a hard-wired one. Please update your question with things you have tried.

==UPDATE==: Since you say you are using an external USB-mouse on your laptop, can I assume the laptop has a builtin cursor-movement type device (touchpad or stick)? If so,

0) (repeating a previous point) -- It would be REAL helpful if you could try another external-mouse type device to see if it does the same thing.

1) Does the problem happen when using the builtin-device (and with the external mouse unplugged)?

~2) I hate to suggest a 2nd way -- since if your ext-mouse, for some reason doesn't work you need to know how to navigate Win10 with your keyboard sufficiently well to reinstall a driver, BUT, if you do feel comfortable doing this, create a restore point and disable the built-in mouse-type device in the "Devices" Control panel; then see if the external-mouse works properly. (note -- if it doesn't, that's when you need to know how to use the keyboard, well-enough, to restore your 'restore point'.

Update (saw your message that the internal mouse, by itself, is showing the problem). Yuck.

Now we know it has nothing to do with the mouse or its connections. Wow! Cripes! It has to be something w/the builtin mouse.

It could be a driver. Have you tried looking for any updated drivers for the builtin-mouse from your manufacturer's website or the maker of the builtin-pointer device?

I'm starting to wonder if it could possibly be a hardware fault in the built-in device (or maybe it got dirty -- dust or something got inside).

While it certainly is possible to take apart a laptop for cleaning, it is certainly not for the faint-of-heart and may affect any warranty you might have (though if you do, you might try contacting the computer's service department).

So 1st driver checking, 2nd warranty checking, 3rd op is to reconnect an external mouse. Once it is working, you'll need to disable the driver for your builtin mouse through the Device Manager. You'll need to make sure you disable the correct device -- i.e. find it before you attach a new mouse, if you can. After getting new mouse to work, then go back in and disable the internal mouse. On the Device Manager, it should be under "Mice and other pointing devices" (at least on my Win7 version). Hopefully the internal mouse has its own entry -- it shouldn't be the same driver as your external mouse -- if it is, that's a problem, but hoping it won't be.

Does that give you some more steps to try? cheers -Astara

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I had the same problem just now, using a wired mouse that I replaced my last wireless mouse with, as the wireless mouse's cursor would only move 2-3mm from a specific spot on my screen. So I replaced it with a corded mouse and new corded keyboard, which isn't ideal, but is much preferable to having a useless and non-functional mouse.

Tonight, the corded mouse's cursor kept jumping to the tool tray at the bottom of my screen, so in frustration, I removed my camera charge cable and my drawing tablet's cable from the two front USB ports (the mouse and keyboard are both plugged into USB slots on the rear of the tower).

Result? No more mouse jumping! It's working perfectly.

David Miller

David Miller

Executive Financial & Market Analyst

David Miller brings 15 years of experience in global economics, personal finance strategy, and market dynamics. He specializes in turning complex economic trends into actionable insights for everyday readers.

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