[SOLVED] Mouse cursor disappears while typing

[Krynn72]

Have a strange issue I can't seem to figure out. Customer bought a refurbished Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5120 (Win 7 HP x64) from us about 2 months ago. He came back the other day saying he couldn't stand how the mouse goes away when typing. So after checking it in, we notice that the cursor does disappear, but only under the following circumstances: You must be typing in a textfield, or typing program (word, notepad, etc), and while the cursor itself is in the active window or the text field itself. So for instance, if I am typing in notepad, if the cursor is in the notepad window (including the windows dragbar, menu bar, etc) the cursor will disappear until I move the mouse. If I move the cursor out of the window, it stays visible.

So far this is what we have tried:
-Tested with a usb mouse, and keyboard in various configurations, it still happens every time.
-Reinstalling/updating/rolling back Synaptic touchpad drivers
-Reinsalling/updating/rolling back AMD video drivers
-Customer said we could N&P no problem, so we tried that, no effect
-In the mouse pointer options, the checkbox for "hide cursor while typing" is always UNchecked.
-After I got called over to help on it, I tried booting into Linux Mint 15 XFCE and the same exact issue happens there.
-I check in the Bios and the only option relating to the touchpad or mouse is one to just enable/disable it. I tried disabling it to use a usb mouse and the issue remained.
-Reset Bios Optimized Defauls... same issue.

Not sure where to go from here. Maybe update the bios itself? Its clearly not a windows issue at this point, but I can't see how a hardware fault could cause this kind of very circumstancial issue.

 

[Xander]

"-In the mouse pointer options, the checkbox for "hide cursor while typing" is always UNchecked."

I've had it checked on every PC since that setting came out and it never goes away. It's in this text box right now as I type. I'd wager that setting is the problem but, unfortunately, I've no idea how to make it actually work right.

 

[Krynn72]

"-In the mouse pointer options, the checkbox for "hide cursor while typing" is always UNchecked."

I've had it checked on every PC since that setting came out and it never goes away. It's in this text box right now as I type. I'd wager that setting is the problem but, unfortunately, I've no idea how to make it actually work right.

Do you think Linux Mint 15 would just happen to have that same default setting? I'm typing in Linux Mint 17 on my personal Thinkpad and it isn't going away like it did on the Toshiba.

 

[mraikes]

There's nothing abnormal about that behaviour.

I can't say I ever gave it any thought but, just tried on three different computers (HP and 2 diff model Dells) and the same thing happens. Win 8, 7 and xp.

 

[katz]

There's nothing abnormal about that behaviour.

I can't say I ever gave it any thought but, just tried on three different computers (HP and 2 diff model Dells) and the same thing happens. Win 8, 7 and xp.

Same here - Win 7 custom built pc & a couple Win 8 laptops in the shop. I think it's one of those thing that you don't think about until you notice it.

 

[Markverhyden]

Have a strange issue I can't seem to figure out. Customer bought a refurbished Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5120 (Win 7 HP x64) from us about 2 months ago. He came back the other day saying he couldn't stand how the mouse goes away when typing. So after checking it in, we notice that the cursor does disappear, but only under the following circumstances: You must be typing in a textfield, or typing program (word, notepad, etc), and while the cursor itself is in the active window or the text field itself. So for instance, if I am typing in notepad, if the cursor is in the notepad window (including the windows dragbar, menu bar, etc) the cursor will disappear until I move the mouse. If I move the cursor out of the window, it stays visible.

So far this is what we have tried:
-Tested with a usb mouse, and keyboard in various configurations, it still happens every time.
-Reinstalling/updating/rolling back Synaptic touchpad drivers
-Reinsalling/updating/rolling back AMD video drivers
-Customer said we could N&P no problem, so we tried that, no effect
-In the mouse pointer options, the checkbox for "hide cursor while typing" is always UNchecked.
-After I got called over to help on it, I tried booting into Linux Mint 15 XFCE and the same exact issue happens there.
-I check in the Bios and the only option relating to the touchpad or mouse is one to just enable/disable it. I tried disabling it to use a usb mouse and the issue remained.
-Reset Bios Optimized Defauls... same issue.

Not sure where to go from here. Maybe update the bios itself? Its clearly not a windows issue at this point, but I can't see how a hardware fault could cause this kind of very circumstancial issue.

Typical behavior from what I see. Happens on my Mac as well.

 

[Krynn72]

Very strange that I never noticed this before. I just tried it on my Windows 8.1 desktop at home, and it shows the cursor while typing in everything except notepad, when it disappears same as the customer's computer. However, when typing in this reply box, or the url bars of both chrome and IE, Kingsoft Office Writer, and when typing the name of the notepad txt file, it stays visible while typing. In those same circumstances, it would disappear on the customer's laptop. But for me, it only seems to happen in Win8.1 with Notepad on my desktop, and not at all in Linux Mint on my laptop. Very weird how inconsistent it seems to be.

TBH I was going to just offer a replacement laptop in exchange and just try and figure this out, but if this is normal behavior then I guess that won't help since his replacement one will do it too. Going to make for a hard conversation, since I feel like he wont believe me that its normal, especially since we checked it in and spent time trying to "fix" it already lol.

 

[Xander]

Hey, you're right. It does disappear in Notepad - never noticed that (as I don't spend much time in it). I wonder if it's a software-based decision to listen to the mouse.cpl setting or not 'cause, seriously, that damn I-beam is on my screen constantly.

 

[14049752]

...and not at all in Linux Mint on my laptop. Very weird how inconsistent it seems to be.

This is the second time you've mentioned Linux Mint in this thread. You do understand that you're talking about different operating systems, with different software settings, right? The cursor disappearing is not a hardware thing, it's 100% entirely a software setting that's on by default in Windows. I'm sure there's a way to do it in Linux as well, but it's not a default.

 

[Krynn72]

This is the second time you've mentioned Linux Mint in this thread. You do understand that you're talking about different operating systems, with different software settings, right? The cursor disappearing is not a hardware thing, it's 100% entirely a software setting that's on by default in Windows. I'm sure there's a way to do it in Linux as well, but it's not a default.

Its actually the third mention, because I tested it on the customer's laptop in which it DOES happen by default, and on every text box I could think of.

 

[nlinecomputers]

The checkbox in mouse settings is supposed to turn that feature on and off but as you noticed most programs like Word and even little ol' Notepad ignore it. Not a damn thing you can do about. It is a part of the programs.

 

[Krynn72]

Thanks everyone for your help! Learned something new and useful.

(Is the Mark as Solved feature gone? Was going to close up this thread but I don't see it in Thread Tools)