Calm your jumpy mouse cursor, make special keys work properly and stop random scrolling on a laptop
Cursor jumps around your laptop screen
If your laptop’s cursor won’t stay still on screen, chances are the touchpad is the culprit: one wayward brush of your wrist and your cursor zooms all over the place. If you have a modern multi-touch touchpad, you may even experience a lot of unwanted scrolling or zooming.
To take control in any Windows version, press Win+R then type main.cpl and press Enter. Now select the Device Settings tab, click to select the touchpad and then click the Settings button. Available options vary, but you’ll definitely be able to disable the touchpad completely, or even just tweak its sensitivity so it ignores accidental input.
Mouse movement is jerky
It’s a myth that modem optical mice can’t get clogged up with gunk like old-fashioned ball mice. With enough fluff in its electronic eye, your mouse will soon suffer from jerky or intermittent movement. So, grab a cotton bud or a can of compressed air and treat the lens on the underside to a gentle clean. If movement is no smoother afterwards and your mouse is wireless, try replacing the batteries - those AA cells don’t last forever. Also have a look at your work surface: optical mice don’t always work well on shiny surfaces or glass worktops. Best to use a dedicated mousepad or old tabletop instead.
Arrow keys move the whole screen
When navigating spreadsheets or other programs that display data in tabulated form, pressing one of the arrow (cursor) keys will usually take you to the adjacent cell. If this changes so that the entire table moves instead, then chances are you’ve inadvertently hit the Scroll Lock (ScrLk) key. Not all keyboards have an indicator light to tell you when this has happened. A second tap of that key will restore normal behaviour.
Keyboard doesn't work during startup
If your keyboard refuses to respond before Windows has started up, then you’ll have trouble accessing your BIOS. In true chicken-and-egg style, this might actually be caused by an option in the BIOS. First, try attaching your keyboard to a different USB port, because some PCs assign priority to a particular port. If not, beg, borrow or buy a PS/2-style keyboard to access the BIOS, then look for an option to enable USB ports at boot. If you can’t get one or your PC doesn’t have a PS/2 port, venture inside your PC and pop the CMOS battery out then back in - this will reset the BIOS settings.
Special keys don't work
Many keyboards have keys dedicated to controlling media playback, or for web-browsing actions like Back and Home. These keys are enabled by special drivers, so if you’re having trouble getting the keys to work you should first check that Windows has the latest drivers installed. In any Windows version, press Win+R then type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. Double-click Keyboards, then right-click your keyboard and choose Update Driver Software. Click ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’. If this doesn’t find any drivers, visit the manufacturer’s website directly to see if there’s a download link and install the latest version.
If some special keys work but others don’t, or they do the wrong thing, press Win+R then type main.cpl keyboard and press Enter. What you’ll see here depends on your keyboard, but for Microsoft models select the Keyboard Settings tab and then click the Restore Defaults button. If this doesn’t work, scroll through the list to find an affected key, click to highlight it and then click Configure (see screenshot above) -and then use the dialogue box to set the desired control.
Keyboard keys get 'stuck'
Do you keep finding that keys appear to get virtually ‘stuck’? For example, you press the Shift key just the once, but the subsequent letter you type also appears in upper case? Then you may have inadvertently enabled a Windows accessibility feature called Sticky Keys. To disable it, launch Control Panel and click ‘Change how your keyboard works’, then untick ‘Turn on Sticky Keys’. To prevent it happening again, click ‘Set up Sticky Keys’ then untick ‘Turn on Sticky Keys when SHIFT is pressed five times’. Click OK.