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Acer laptop erratic touchpad

Apr 28, 2017 6:03AM PDT

Previous discussions have been closed out, but I don't think anyone found the best solution to an erratic Synaptics touchpad on the Acer E-11 laptops. I tried out a solution for my Acer E11, E3-112, shown on a couple sites (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siNAg9cC4jQ). The solution is to solder a wire from the ground pads on the Synaptics board to the Acer main board. I then found that the wire wasn't necessary. The problem appears to be simply the connection from the copper pad on the main board, through the mounting screw, to the chassis. After I unsoldered the wire, the chassis mounting screw evidently contacted the remaining solder on the pad well enough to secure a reliable contact. Touchpad problem was gone.
If you check the surface resistance of the main board pads and the screw, you see that the screws are very good (you get 0 ohms with the lightest contact), but the pads are touch and go. The solder layer apparently gives a better connection from the mainboard to the screw (and then to the chassis). This also explains why stresses on the chassis that couldn't affect the touchpad -- e.g., adjusting the lid, lifting a corner of the laptop -- would often start the cursor craziness. All the same, I cleaned copper pad with isopropyl alchohol and the underside of the screw head with emory paper, just for good measure.

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