Crazy-Assed Synaptics Touchpad

[Prisoner at War]

Hi, anyone else with this issue?

Every now and then the Synaptics touchpad becomes "wildly off the
mark"...I'd move it a little but the pointer goes way across the
screen! Worse, it doesn't simply land in a regular manner such that I
can recalibrate my own behavior in response to the sudden change in its
behavior. No, I'd touch the pad again, and the pointer would "shiver"
as if unsure whether I'd touched it, moved it, or which direction it's
supposed to go, and how far...this weird business usually happens with
the hard drive on a constant, steady whirl in the background, even
though Task Manager reports only 2% of the CPU (early last year's 1.6
Mobile Pentium, though I have 1GB of RAM).

Basically, the touchpad behaves erratically, almost epileptically, like
it's spazzin' out...this lasts for a few minutes, and then it's okay
again....

 

[Galen]

In Prisoner at War had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Hi, anyone else with this issue?

Every now and then the Synaptics touchpad becomes "wildly off the
mark"...I'd move it a little but the pointer goes way across the
screen! Worse, it doesn't simply land in a regular manner such that I
can recalibrate my own behavior in response to the sudden change in
its behavior. No, I'd touch the pad again, and the pointer would
"shiver" as if unsure whether I'd touched it, moved it, or which
direction it's supposed to go, and how far...this weird business
usually happens with the hard drive on a constant, steady whirl in
the background, even though Task Manager reports only 2% of the CPU
(early last year's 1.6 Mobile Pentium, though I have 1GB of RAM).

Basically, the touchpad behaves erratically, almost epileptically,
like it's spazzin' out...this lasts for a few minutes, and then it's
okay again....

Try adjusting sensitivity, hardware acceleration, and speed. No known exact
science for it. *grins* Sometimes they wander about of their own volition
and become nomadic pointing devices. Usually just slowing things down a bit
takes care of it.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Prisoner at War]

<SNIP>


Try adjusting sensitivity, hardware acceleration, and speed. No known exact
science for it. *grins* Sometimes they wander about of their own volition
and become nomadic pointing devices. Usually just slowing things down a bit
takes care of it.

Thanks for the tip, but I've tried that already. No, this thing just
goes "epileptic" sometimes. Hasn't anything to do with my speed,
though, like I said, there seems to be a correlation with the hard disk
spinning away in the background (doing what I have no idea since CPU
usage is at 2%).

So I'm not the only one? This is a characteristic of the hardware?
"Nomadic pointing devices"...heh....

 

[BillW50]

Thanks for the tip, but I've tried that already. No, this thing just
goes "epileptic" sometimes. Hasn't anything to do with my speed,
though, like I said, there seems to be a correlation with the hard
disk spinning away in the background (doing what I have no idea since
CPU usage is at 2%).

So I'm not the only one? This is a characteristic of the hardware?
"Nomadic pointing devices"...heh....

I have lots of weird things happening if I have tap to click turned on.
Have you tried turning this off and watching what happens? Also do you
have an external optical mouse connected? As those things occationally
goes spastic on some surfaces. Yes I use them and I am thinking about
going back to the old style ball rolling mice.

 

[Prisoner at War]

I have lots of weird things happening if I have tap to click turned on.
Have you tried turning this off and watching what happens? Also do you
have an external optical mouse connected? As those things occationally
goes spastic on some surfaces. Yes I use them and I am thinking about
going back to the old style ball rolling mice.

No, no peripherals plugged in, but maybe it's a tap-to-click issue, as
your suggest. I'd check that out -- but I'd have to wait for the next
time it decides to spazz out, which is irregular, though often enough
to constitute a major annoyance. But when it does spazz out again, I'd
have a hard time getting into the Control Panel!

 

[BillW50]

No, no peripherals plugged in, but maybe it's a tap-to-click issue, as
your suggest. I'd check that out -- but I'd have to wait for the next
time it decides to spazz out, which is irregular, though often enough
to constitute a major annoyance. But when it does spazz out again,
I'd have a hard time getting into the Control Panel!

I can't find my tap to click enabled/disabled in the control panel. And
mine is a Synaptics Touchpad as well. The only place to disable mine is
right click on the icon in the system tray (by the clock). I keep mine
off all of the time, but after a reboot it gets turned on once again. I
don't remember that happening before. But it could have, since this
laptop is on 24/7 normally.

 

[Larry]

Hi, anyone else with this issue?

My Gateway notebook's touchpad (same company) does this, occasionally. I
clean the surface with alcohol to remove the film of finger and coffee and
those little buns my breakfast restaurant has and it works fine after that.

Look at the Synaptic tiny icon over in the lower right tray. Do you see
any pixels showing green on it when nothing is touching the pad? You might
also open the pad control panel by right clicking on it and reducing the
sensitivity of the pad a few notches.

Also be informed my ham radio transmitter drives it crazy, if you're around
any strong RF sources. Keying the transmitter sometimes drives it right
off the screen. Keep Bluetooth, wireless, cellular transmitters away from
it and see if the problem goes away.



Larry

 

[Sharon F]

Hi, anyone else with this issue?

Every now and then the Synaptics touchpad becomes "wildly off the
mark"...I'd move it a little but the pointer goes way across the
screen! Worse, it doesn't simply land in a regular manner such that I
can recalibrate my own behavior in response to the sudden change in its
behavior. No, I'd touch the pad again, and the pointer would "shiver"
as if unsure whether I'd touched it, moved it, or which direction it's
supposed to go, and how far...this weird business usually happens with
the hard drive on a constant, steady whirl in the background, even
though Task Manager reports only 2% of the CPU (early last year's 1.6
Mobile Pentium, though I have 1GB of RAM).

Basically, the touchpad behaves erratically, almost epileptically, like
it's spazzin' out...this lasts for a few minutes, and then it's okay
again....

Suggestions:
Clean the touchpad.

Try reinstalling the driver. If an update is available, might give that a
try. Download the Synaptics driver from the OEM site for your computer
instead of Synaptic. Or vice versa. I've had varying degrees of success
from both sources.

 

[Galen]

In Prisoner at War had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Thanks for the tip, but I've tried that already. No, this thing just
goes "epileptic" sometimes. Hasn't anything to do with my speed,
though, like I said, there seems to be a correlation with the hard
disk spinning away in the background (doing what I have no idea since
CPU usage is at 2%).

So I'm not the only one? This is a characteristic of the hardware?
"Nomadic pointing devices"...heh....

No you're not the only one - you've already tried to slow down hardware
acceleration? Hmm... I'd double check with the vendor and see if there are
updated drivers - as has been suggested it seems. If the OEM drivers don't
do the trick then certainly try the others.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Grayes Ghost]

Touch pads are inherently quirky.

I solved the problem with the one on my Toshiba Qismo by disabling it and
picking up a Microsoft USB Wireless Optical Mouse. Carrying it around is no
problem because it is small enough to easily fit inside the notebook case
and all you need is a very small work space to use it in. In fact, I have a
trimmed down mouse pad that I place on the base of the computer in the
general area of the (now) non-functional touch pad. In a pinch, it also
works quite well on the bare base.

Just a little food for thought - Graye

 

[Ken Blake]

Touch pads are inherently quirky.

I solved the problem with the one on my Toshiba Qismo by disabling it
and picking up a Microsoft USB Wireless Optical Mouse. Carrying it
around is no problem because it is small enough to easily fit inside
the notebook case and all you need is a very small work space to use
it in. In fact, I have a trimmed down mouse pad that I place on the
base of the computer in the general area of the (now) non-functional
touch pad. In a pinch, it also works quite well on the bare base.

I'm with you almost entirely. I hate touch pads and find them much slower
and clumsier to use than mice.

The only respect in which I have a slight disagreement is that I find I can
carry a full-sized mouse (and mouse pad) in my laptop case without a
problem, and I can always find a place to use them. The only exception might
be on an airplane, but I never use my laptop on airplanes.