Cursor jumps frequently to top left

Question

I have a laptop with Ubuntu 16.04 dual booted with with Windows 10.Very frequently the cursor jumps to the top left of the screen.During this time touchpad function of tap to click and right click also stops functioning but touchpad buttons do work.After sometime it returns normal to be repeated again.Also when pressing the up arrow key in keyboard the issue stops before returning again.

The issue seems to occur very frequently in Ubuntu than in Win10.In windows the issue comes after a long usage(after about 30 minutes and that too goes away after sometime).In ubuntu it starts right after startup.Meanwhile recently i observed that sometimes during booting process in Ubuntu,the boot splash screen(the one with ubuntu logo) flickers randomly for some time before entering the lock screen..

• Computer-HP Pavilion
• OS Type-64 bit
• Touchpad-Synaptic Touchpad

Please help me..Too difficult to even type this.Has to press up arrow each time to type..

Answer 1

If it happens in both windows & linux on the same hardware, then try a "hardware test" (provided by the hardware manufacturer, usually run from windows).

And/or there's some "usability" setting, configured to a slightly different threshold between the two OS, e.g., "disable touchpad while typing" (just guessing), perhaps enabled Windows & disabled in linux. Or maybe one of these settings are configured to a different sensitivity level. (All this assumes it's not a hardware problem, but rather how your hands may be triggering the mouse to jump to the corner of the screen)

Also, fwiw, 16.04 is pretty old (released 04/2016); perhaps try 17.10 (released 10/2017) and see if that improves the situation. You can try a newer Ubuntu directly via a bootable USB, rather than re-installing. (Maybe try kubuntu, too, trying to tweak keyboard/mouse/touchpad settings.)