In message , VanguardLH
writes:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

Occasionally, I find I can only move the pointer horizontally or
vertically (not diagonally). I'm pretty sure this is triggered by some
action on my part. I can usually return it to normal by scribbling with
Ctrl pressed.

Tried rebooting into Windows' safe mode and retest touchpad operation to
eliminate any interferrence possible from startup programs? I've seen
where a background program interferred with mouse positioning.

It's not a startup prog.; the pad is always working how I want it after
a boot. I "know" that the changes to how it works are triggered by some
action on my part - and they're designed to be; for example, the
switching to only moving horizontally or vertically is intended to be
triggerable by a user action, for use in (say) drawing prog.s where you
might _want_ to limit the pointer movement to horizontal or vertical.
I've forgotten what triggers it - possibly something like sliding in the
scrollwheel area while holding shift key down, or something like that; I
could find it again by looking in the touchpad control area, which tells
me. The thing is, whatever it is, it's something that's - for _me_ - too
easy to trigger accidentally. So I was hoping someone knew a way to
prevent it happening. (I don't _think_ I've ever wanted the X-Y only
limitation on movement; if I did, I wouldn't mind having to remove a
lock.)

In the touchpad setup, there are probably hot zones defined, like along
the rightside for vertical scrolling and along the bottom for horizontal
scrolling. Been too long since I last used my laptop but recall it had
other hotspots, and special meanings for multiple taps (e.g., 3 taps for
dragging) or 2-finger modes. Try disabling those special use zones and
special tap modes so the touchpad ONLY does positioning of the mouse
cursor. If the problem goes away, could be you are accidentally
multi-tapping or using a hotspot.

I've tried - I've certainly turned off the scroll areas (by reducing the
scroll hot areas to zero width), because I found those tended to cause
unexpected scrolling. I don't _think_ I've got any hotspots left.

How many mice or pointing devices are defined in Device Manager
(devmgmt.msc)? Did you leave plugged in a USB transceiver for a mouse
or keyboard?

No, but good thought.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

We no longer make things, but sell each other consultancy on how to run
consulatancies better. (Michael Cross, Computing 1999-3-4 [p. 28].)