What am I doing wrong?

[Newportnobby]

Or what have I buggered up?
I no slouch when it comes to typing but lately I've been pounding away on the jolly old keyboard, glance up at the screen and find I'm typing half way into what I'd already typed
It's almost as if there's a certain limit to the characters I can type and then it goes back halfway and starts again.

[N_GaugeModeller]

Are you sure your not accidentally hitting the home key or something similar ?

NGM

[port perran]

What device are you using Mick ?

[jpendle]

What program(s) are you having the problems with?

Is it this forum, or a Word doc, or an email client, or something else?

John P

[Newportnobby]

I use a Toshiba laptop. The problem occurs in any form of typing e.g. forum posts, e mails, Word etc
I think Paul has it right and that when I hit the backspace key to correct a typo I'm clipping the Insert key which is just above it. I'll try to avoid that and see how I get on.
Thanks all.

[NScaleNotes]

Just in case it doesn't fix it. I've had a similar problem on an Acer laptop that took me forever to diagnose, I thought I was going mad when the cursor would move around unexpectedly.

It turned out the OS had taken it upon itself to assign the wrong keyboard layout to the keyboard (if I remember correctly, it was after some system updates) and because some of keys on a laptop have a double use, certain key presses were actually moving the cursor around.
I use Linux but I imagine something similar could happen on Windows too.

If you want a quick way to test without delving into the system settings, attach a normal usb keyboard and use that instead of the built-in keyboard and see if you still have the same problem. Once you've established that it is related to the keyboard mapping then maybe one of the Windows users here can help you work out how to change the keyboard settings.

Simon

[Newportnobby]

Still something very wrong. Example - I just this minute typed the word 'wrong' and immediately the cursor went back to between the 'w' and the 'r'. Just breathing while using the mousepad on my laptop highlights everything as if I was going to cut/paste it all.
I don't have a separate keyboard I can test so maybe the laptop needs someone to look at it. I'll ask a chap at North West Computers to see if he has any ideas.

[N_GaugeModeller]

It might be worth looking at the trackpad setting, perhaps touch settings have somehow been set too light.  don't suppose you have a mouse you could plug in and check how things are with the trackpad turned off.

NGM

[Jim Easterbrook]

Touching the trackpad as you type would be my diagnosis. Is there a setting to automatically disable the trackpad whilst typing? I think I've seen such a setting on Linux machines but I know nothing of other OSes.

[The Q]

I've had the same problem but on an android based machine. the only cure I've found is save the data, and reboot the computer..

[Newportnobby]

I have nothing I can plug in to test anything, but am thinking maybe the 'left click' key is sticking intermittently. That would explain away the 'highlighting' issue when using the mousepad. It's also the key that gets the most use
I'll investigate the mousepad function as well.

[Bealman]

A new mouse costs nowt these days.

Cleaning the trap afterwards is a PITA though 

[Newportnobby]

I've also noticed the RHS slide bar sometimes heads for the bottom of the screen instead of just edging down as I want it to, another sign the left click key is sticking