Hi, I am not very tech savvy and recently my PC has been having issues with the cursor just jumping around all over the screen by itself. I am usually on the Internet and all of a sudden it will jump around my screen and sometimes new windows start popping up from the start menu, and then other times it just gets stuck whenever I move the mouse around. Sometimes it lasts for a couple of seconds and sometimes it stays stuck and I end up having to reboot. A couple of times it was still stuck even after I rebooted so I left the computer off for a few days and when I started it up again the cursor would move around but it doesnt take long before it gets stuck again or before it starts jumping around crazy on its own. I also hear a beeping noise from the CPU when it moves and gets stuck it goes "beep" so I dont know what is going on. I checked my system with spyware, adaware, and malware and found nothing, also I did a virus scan and found nothing. Also sometimes the move button on my mouse activates without me touching it and the page starts moving around on my screen. And also sometimes the page just jumps to the top of the screen on its own. I dont know what else to check so if you have any suggestions please let me know. I dont know a lot of computer terms or lingo so if you have any advice please keep it as simple as possible. I appreciate anything you can do. Thanks!

What type of mouse is it? Rollerball or optical?

This is basic, but it's the first thing to do before blaming the computer or software for it...

If roller, first thing to do is remove the ball and clean it and the wheels inside the mouse that the ball contacts.

If optical, make sure you're using it on a clean, smooth surface, preferably all one color. I've seen text and even woodgrain confuse the optic, causing similar goofiness.

For both types, make sure the cable itself isn't damaged, espcially nearest to the connector, where it tends to get sharply angled at times. Same goes for where the wire enters the mouse itself. The more use it has seen, the more likely the wire has been tortured once too many times, and is frayed inside, causing intermittent contact.

If you are NOT absolutely certain that the mouse itself is fine, replace it. New ones are dirt cheap, and $10 there beats the heck out of hours of software tweaking and settings adjustments.

If the new mouse behaves the same, it's a mere $10 lesson...and you can even return it for that $10 if you don't want it.

I've learned to treat the PC that same as my car. Replace the cheapest/easiest possible source of the problem first, and work your way toward the expensive and time-consuming bits.

As for a software culprit...it could be any number of odd things. You may have software running in the background you don't even know about that is eating up resources and causing erratic mouse behavior..anything from your own Anti-virus and/or system maintenance programs to an actual spyware or virus issue. If networked, the problem can be in transfers between the systems again eating up resources.

I recommend swapping the mouse with another (borrowed, bought... whatever- as long as it's a known good one), and if that doesn't correct it, THEN report back here and certainly someone else will be able to help troubleshoot it.

Good luck.