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General discussion

Vista and touchpad problem

Feb 11, 2007 5:07PM PST

Okay, so I have a Gateway MX6650 laptop. I previously had Microsoft XP as my OS I upgraded to Vista Home Premium a few days ago. Here's my problem, I have a Synaptics touchpad and with XP I had figured out how to disable tapping, but it's back since I switched to Vista and driving me crazy, it's my only remaining issue I have to work out between my computer before vista and now.

I went to computer panel and tried to check the setting for the touch pad on there, but I couldn't find anything about tapping. Then I tried to update the driver from the synaptics website, and when I restarted my computer vista popped up saying there was known compatability issues. Also, I'm not used to updating drivers, so what do I click on in the extracted files folders, do I need to uninstall and reinstall the driver?

I really hate the tapping, especially since I'm a student and have to write papers, and the mouse jumping to another line in the page when I'm typing is really annoying, as is the random highlighting of stuff. Anybody got any idea of what I can do?

Discussion is locked

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If there are "known compatibility issues" ...
Feb 11, 2007 5:38PM PST

I'm afraid you've got to choose between
a) continue to use XP (in stead of Vista) until the manufacturer solves them (contact them to ask about the status)
b) use Vista and live with it

You're the only one who can tell what disadvantages each of these two alternatives has for you.

I can't tell you the details on driver updating in Vista. In XP the easiest way is to delete it from Device Manager, then reboot and see if the New hardware wizard pops up asking you for the drivers. If it does, point it to the folder you unpacked the new driver in. It should have a .inf file that handles everything.

By the way, did you run the Windows Vista Upgrade advisor before you upgraded, and did it warn you about these incompatibilities?
If you're laptop isn't advertised as "Vista ready" it might have issues indeed. Even when it is, there can be unexpected issues.

Kees

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TAPPING
Feb 24, 2007 9:49AM PST

I am on A dell Inspiron with the same problem your gateway, however my friends HP laptop is just fine after the upgrade. We are both running the same Vista Home premium editions, and have comperable equipment installed. The HP is able to disable tapping just fine, not my Dell however. Good luck working with microsoft and I wish you luck. Try going to synaptics.com and update drivers to see if that helps your case. It worked on the HP, but not the Dell. Good luck again.

Tim

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Vista Synaptics Solution
Feb 28, 2007 11:44AM PST

i've just upgraded my Dell E1505 to the Vista Home Premium OS as well but i went to the Dell Support webpage to dl the correct synaptics version. my touchpad features now work! good luck!

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Dell Touch Pad synaptics driver
Mar 10, 2007 9:06AM PST

I just updated my Dell E1505 to the Vista Home Premium as well, I also went to the Dell Support webpage and downloaded the Dell Touch Pad synaptics driver 32 bit and followed the instructions to install it. Then I went to control panel / mouse and changed the apropriate settings. No more clicking on the pad. Works good again.

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Touchpad problem.
Feb 28, 2007 7:52PM PST

Have you tried diabaling the touchpad all togerther, and use a Vista enabled external mouse instead ?

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Touchpad problem
Nov 19, 2007 9:32PM PST

I have a think pad with vista and also have trouble with this touch pad. Extremely unhandy. It fails to the tap feature constantly and the only way I can reset it is to reboot.

I have corrupted many files without knowing it. I will be working along then I'll notice my data is out of order or in the wrong folder. Then I will see that the tap has kicked on and I've been dragging data around.

I've had to scrap some websites because it was too time consuming to find all errors and fix them.

What a pain. Thank you Microsoft

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this might help
Jun 10, 2008 7:30AM PDT

had same problem myself with vista. try this it worked for me first time.

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Mouse.

2. From the tabs at the top, choose "Touchpad". Here, you should have a "Tap to Click" tick-box. Remove the tick from this.

If you only have 4 or 5 tabs along the top in this section, try installing the Synaptics touchpad driver from here :

http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm

Download and install the "Windows Vista 32-bit Edition v10.1.8" driver. Once this has been installed, you should see further options in the mouse properties, and also have the little icon in the system tray. This will then allow you to turn off the tapping function.

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great help
Sep 1, 2008 10:39AM PDT

Senrabst, you're solution worked perfect for me. I have been looking for hours for a fix for the touchpad problem. I stumbled onto your post. Nicely done. I thank you

joe

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cursor jumping when typing
Aug 8, 2009 3:35AM PDT

have an out of warranty vaio with Vista Home Premium and suffered with an over-sensitive ALPS touchpad while typing - almost as if hitting the keys was enough vibration to make the cursor jump. I was able to adjust this in the control panel > mouse > tapping > adjust sliders to suit or disable tapping.
I then done a search for some software and found this little beauty which freezes the touchpad during typing
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/TouchFreeze-Download-80581.html

I hope this helps some of you

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Jumping cursor and ALPS pointing device problems
Aug 8, 2009 2:12PM PDT

Thanks for the lead to Touch Freeze software for the 'cursor jumping' problem. I will try this. Has anyone had the pop-up of 'ALPS pointing device has stop[ed working'? also? I have had so many problems since I got Vista! Will let you know if Touch Freeze does the trick.

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window vist atouch oad problem
Aug 11, 2009 5:02AM PDT

i hav had this laptop for over 8 months, and out of nowhere, yesterday, i jst left my computer for 1 min and after i came back, i realised thta whenever i tried the left and right clicks on ma laptop they wouldn't and i have been trying to figue out why but i cant...
i think the device is ' alps pointing device'...
oh yeah, i then went on my mouse properties and i saw that my left click was on click, but nothing was clicked when i tyried clicking on it...the right cick was on shortcut menu like every other laptop but whenever i right clicked the menu nevr showed up...and my 'both bottons' was on auto scroll... so am not sure my it is not working...
also, for example, i changed the 'both bottons' to click but kept the others same...then noth my right and left clicks would click , though i put ma right click as shortcut menu... and also if i changed my 'both bottons' to say shortcut menu but kept my left click on click, noth left and right click would go to the shortcut menu...
so its like whatever i do to the 'both bottons' happens to the left and right clicks though i never changed....if anyone knows how to change my clicks back to normal as in if i clicked my left click, it would be a normal click and if i clicked my right click, it would be the shortcut menu and if i clicked both the bottons, it would be auto scroll...plz i cud really use the help...

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left click - right click
Aug 12, 2009 7:36AM PDT

Go back to the mouse set up in control panel
Set left button to 'click '
Set right button to 'menu'
Set both button to 'auto scroll'
click 'OK'
Test left click by double clicking in test area and see sine wave
Test right click in test area and see "What's this?"

If a problem is indicated open Device Manager
Expand menu for 'Mice and other pointing devices'
Right click on pointing device font - interrogate 'properties'
Update driver using internet,

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thz
Aug 12, 2009 11:15AM PDT

thx mike for your reply but i am sad to say that it didnt help... i have already tried to set the default of the mouse properties but still mothing cahnges...and iu have tried what you have told me about the device manager and still nothing helped am sorry to say... 1 more that i forgot to say was that i realised that whatever i changed my 'both bottons' to the left click and the right click would be taht as well no matter what they are...so, for example if i set the 'both bottons' option to shortcut menu, then if i clicked the left or right click, the result i would end up with would be the shortcut menu even if i set the left click on click and right click on shortcut menu... but i am not sure hy it happens....could the problem be a virus or spyware or soething???....if u can answer that again mike, please help...and if not can anyone help me out plz!!!

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If nothing helps, it's a warranty issue.
Aug 12, 2009 10:40PM PDT

I've seen people not call this in and face many hundred dollar repair bills. Better than half of those will pay the diagnostic fee then buy an external mouse, disable the pad and carry on.
Bob

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kkk
Aug 13, 2009 3:01AM PDT

kk thz bob

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left click right click double click
Aug 13, 2009 6:03AM PDT

I would do this, as my OS recognises any new hardware on start-up.(Vista HD)
I would get a USB mouse up and running and then delete the alps software from the device manager.
Reboot the computer and let the software load automatically.
Go into the Control Panel and check the box for the default settings click 'Apply' click 'OK'.
As the previous poster has correctly pointed out, it is a warranty issue, but you need to prove the software.

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The bigger picture
Aug 13, 2009 3:23PM PDT
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=459994&start=0

I have done a bit more reading on the subject and come to the conclusion that the problem is not confined to Sony as any laptop with the Alps touchpad can be prone to failure. I note a lot of reports say the touchpad works in IE but the pointer works in reverse in firefox.(a known bug in bugzilla )
The renaming of firefox / netscape in the registry and the selection of the 'correct' driver appears to be paramount.
The driver that works for Vista Home Premium may not work for Vista Business for example. For this reason it might be useful if posters with this problem were to note their OS - browser - driver and problems.
Ironically HP have a help section for downloading ALPS drivers while Sony do not recognise the problem - its back to HP next time for me.

Vista Home Premium -Firefox -IE - Chrome - (driver 7.0.501.10)
Currently no problem - tapping disabled and touchfreeze installed
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Touchpad not working - Found a solution!!
Dec 2, 2009 11:18AM PST

Most laptops (if not all) come with a function key. You'll find one near the bottom left. The function key is labelled "Fn" and usually stands out from the rest - either the "Fn" is in a different color or the key as a whole. The function key works in conjunction with other keys on the keyboard especially the ones in the top row marked "F1" to "F12". The combination of function key with these keys lets you perform various tasks quickly such as shutting the screen, putting the computer in sleep mode, switching the wireless connection on and off etc. By keeping the function key pressed and then hitting one of the keys ("F1" to "F12"), activates a task. Thus, on my uncle's Lenovo laptop (and I've noticed this on HP and Toshiba systems too), you can activate and deactivate the touchpad by using the function key with the "F8" key. So if the touchpad on your laptop is not working and is unresponsive, it's not broken, you or someone else has accidently deactivated it with the function key.
By pushing the Fn key down at the bottom left of the keyboard, it caused the Function keys to drop down at the top of the screen, so you can pick out the correct Function key for the touchpad. On my computer it turned out to be the F9 key. All I had to do was hold the Fn key down and the F9 key at the same time to turn the Touchpad on. Hope this helps someone else out there!

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touch pad not working
Aug 16, 2010 12:08AM PDT

Here is a simple solution. There is really nothing wrong with many computers. Somewhere you may have mistakenly canceled the touch pad by pressing <Fn F7> Now try to click this again and smile. Since <Fn F6> darkens the screen you may have clicked wrong to begin with.
Cheers

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TOUCHPAD NOT WORKING
Oct 13, 2010 5:00AM PDT

Many reasons why touchpad stopped working. Try function keys (Fn + function key), restore drivers/BIOS, update touchpad/mouse/sypnastics options (sensitivity/area etc), reboot with CD ROM launcher and more. But before you try anything else, it probably is not a software or difficult problem. First, try the simple fix on YOUTUBE "hobbyunlimited" channel for touchpad repair.