Touch pads.

I have an Hewlett Packard laptop. I have been experiencing all of the exact same problems that you have described. Frequently, when moving the cursor it causes the page to get smaller. Frequently, the cursor won't move unless I mess with it. Just like what you describe, my touch pad has been driving me crazy. If anyone has a solution to how to fix these issues, I would be greatly appreciative.

I have hated touch pads on every laptop I've owned or used. Until I got this Surface Book that is.
Not perfect but usable and light years better than any other I've used.

Glenn I suspect the effects of static. Try one hand on the laptop, preferably I'd suppose on a metallic part like a screw

HP laptops have a "feature" called Zoom Pinch which you can disable in Control Panel, in the mouse settings. The size changes make me think this might be the cause.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Video-Display-and-Touch/Screen-resolution-size-changes-when-using-touchpad/td-p/1044461

I finally bought a wireless mouse. Problem solved.
I never switch it off and those little triple As last for months

I would like to second this approach, there are likely control panel settings to disable various features of trackpads (which on windows laptops tend to be horrid) like the scrolling that some of them do when you touch the right edge or the zooming when it is multitouched.

And on this note, I will say that once you go to a computer with a great trackpad you will wonder why you ever tolerated this crap before. It's a central part of the input for the machine yet on most laptops it's absolute hot garbage.

Many thanks. I now no longer have to worry about unintended scrolling and zooming because of the fu--damned touch pad. I do a lot of writing, and there is nothing more aggravating than having to stop my train of thought in order to deal with zooming and scrolling issues at random intervals. There ought to be a law, and not just a law, but a f**king law. Again, thanks.