Mouse pointer issue (cursor "skips" or "slips" and doesn't change cursor image)

Question

I have a bizarre issue with my pointer.
Most of the time, it works fine.
Few times per week the following happens:
Everything looks normal but when I hover over something that should trigger a cursor image change, the cursor image remains the same.
Worse than this is that the cursor also "slips" a little just before I click, making work intolerable! Like, when I want to click a hyperlink or mark some text, it "slips" to the left and makes me misclick.

There is even a stranger thing: I wanted to take a video, to show how it looks like but on, the video itself, the pointer is just fine!
Again: while taking the video, I can see the problem but when I look at the recording, it's not there!

I am attaching a video from my smartphone to show the problem: Problem Visible Externally

Here's how the video recording utility is capturing a similar action: Screen Recording Somehow Gets It Right

• I've tried restarting the computer and it sometimes helps but often the problem persists. The problem just disappears after a while (to reappear later).

• I don't think it's related to the actual mouse (MS wireless keyboard and mouse) that I am using, because, even when I remove the wireless dongle, the same problem exists by using the touchpad of my laptop

• This is not a website or browser issue. When the system runs into this wacky state, the problem is affecting every cursor operation: websites, local java apps, native windows apps - everything... Here's a video of the problem showing when trying to resize the stock Win10 control panel window: Native Windows as well

Basically, I am looking for ideas on what is going wrong here and start fixing the problem at the source. I consider myself rather techie but I am not familiar with the pointer technology and I am baffled.

Any ideas what to analyze here to reproduce the problem?

Answer 1

I found a solution, I was seeing the exact same behavior described above. I'm using an HP laptop with a dock that has 2 external monitors connected, I believe that is where the problem exists. When disconnected from the dock the cursor issue never happens.

The solution for me was to undock, power cycle the dock, redock. That fixed it for me and a few other users.

Answer 2

Thanks for adding the videos. That immediately told me what your problem is.

As you hover a link to click it, the mouse cursor changes, but not to the correct cursor which makes it appear to move to the left, while it actually is not, so there is no misclick if you ignore the shift.

What you want to do is change your mouse cursor scheme to something different, apply, ok, and then revert back. That should fix it.

It is the hand icon that is set to a pointer rather than a hand.

If the above does not fix your issue, then it must be happening only on a specific website. If that is the case, the website may try to change the cursor for links but does it incorrectly. In that case, it is the website's fault. You can try a different browser.

Answer 3

I have the same problem. A work around is to turn trails on. This fixes the above - at least for me. But then the mouse has to always have trails set. I set it very short, but it still has a slight blur effect. Having trails though is better than not having the correct cursor for drawing apps, selecting text etc.