Is this caused by a virus or is my new laptop faulty?
 

My cursor sometimes jumps around so when I type. Could it be a virus or is there something broken on my laptop? I can't repeat the problem at will so it's really irritating when it happens.

You were any jewelry like watch or bracelet? Keep a cellphone near the laptop?

Could also be messed up drivers. Seen it happen before.

Yes to cellphone near the laptop. Bad driver, as in bad mouse driver? I use a USB wireless mouse. Could that be it?

Are you brushing your palm on the touchpad?

I've played with a laptop or two where it was nearly unavoidable, annoying as hell.

Next time it happens, just reach over with your hand and nudge the mouse.

It's happened to me from time to time and when I nudge the mouse over a bit, it stops.

I think what is happening is that the infrared beam is on the edge of something on the mouse pad and something is occurring that makes it signal itself that it is moving. Sometimes it moves left to right and other times it moves up or down.

Now that he has said it's wireless, it could be anything. I'd start by moving the cell phone a good distance away and then what John mentioned. You can also try and put a piece of white paper under the mouse for a bit and see if that helps. If it does, John was on the right track, as some don't like busy mouse pads or wood grain in tables, etc...

I'd still suspect the touchpad. Check to see if there's a setting in the touchpad driver to automatically disable the touchpad if a mouse is connected.

Just remove the wireless mouse and see if the problem persists....

Overlly sensitive touchpad? My old Dell 610 was like that. Constantly pissing me off.

Try disabling it if you have one.

Sometimes having two different mice connected and active can cause this issue. Seen it on a Win7 workstation where the cursor was jumping every where. I pulled both mice (one a bluetooth the other standard USB) and connected one and it went away.

Thanks guys. I'll try all recommendations out and report back. This place is better than Dell tech support!