Touchpad Controls

C

ctowers

The laptop I'm using has a Synaptics Touchpad that I need to constantly
readjust because it periodically returns to the original settings. It
especially seems like I'm always readjusting the "Enable Tapping" and "Touch
Sensitivity" controls. Is there a way to set them once and make them
permanent? I've been making the adjustments from the Mouse icon in the
Control Panel.
 
C

ctowers

Thank you. The computer is an Acer Aspire 1640Z with Win XP-MCE and the
Synaptics Touchpad. Synaptics instructions say to get the driver from Acer
which says to download and install Driver v7.12.13. After I do that, it will
work OK for a while and then change back to the original settings after a
short period.
Can you tell me where the settings are kept and if there is an easy way to
lock them?
 
B

Bert Kinney

From the Acer site, the latest version appears to be Version 7.12.3
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_1640z.html

This was in the readme file included with this driver.

NOTE REGARDING SAVING OF SETTINGS:
----------------------------------
Windows 2000 / WinXP does not save any of the user settings for users
belonging to the "Guests" user group. This includes special TouchPad
settings as well as all other user settings. If you want your
settings to be saved, make sure your user account does not belong to
the "Guests" group using the User Manager program (you must be
Administrator to change user settings).

To make adjustments to the touchpad, double click on the touchpad icon on
the taskbar next to the clock.

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
 
C

ctowers

There seems to be a conflict at the (2) Acer sites.
The documentation for the driver I have installed indicates v7.12.13 and was
obtained from - < http://tinyurl.com/2watju >
The one you reference indicates a newer version (v7.12.3) but the setup will
not run because it says the one I have installed is newer and must be
uninstalled first.

The driver I have is from panam-acer while yours is from euro-acer, any
suggestions for what to do?
The installation and settings instructions in the readme is the same for
both
drivers.
 
C

ctowers

Bert, this was my question and the reply from Acer Support -

=============================================
Question:

System: Aspire Notebook
Operating System: Windows XP
Subject: Synaptics TouchPad V6.2 Driver
Acer-panam & Acer-euro have different drivers shown as being the newest
available for the Synaptics TouchPad and none of them will let an
administrative account keep new settings for more than a few hours before
returning to the original settings. Please help.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer:

Thank you for contacting Acer America. I apologize for the delay in
responding to your inquiry. This issue could be due to software or hardware
corruption. To rule out software I would suggest you back up your important
files and then reinstall the factory software using the Acer System and
Recovery CDs that shipped with the computer from the factory again.
Thoroughly test the system in the factory configuration prior to installing
any additional software or hardware. If there are no issues, install your
additional software and hardware one at a time, testing thoroughly after
each installation. If the issue occurs with only the factory software, or
you can not run the recovery this could indicate a hardware issue requiring
service. In this case you would need to call our telephone technical support
line at 1-800-816-2237 for assistance. Currently we are experiencing high
call volume, so please expect your hold time to be longer than normal. When
you call in, please have your serial number and contact information ready to
expedite your call.

Regards,
Acer Online Support Team
=============================================

And as you may have guessed, I am not interested in returning to "factory
configuration" thank you! I guess I will have to live with what I've got.
 
M

Marshall Price

ctowers said:
Bert, this was my question and the reply from Acer Support -

=============================================
Question:

System: Aspire Notebook
Operating System: Windows XP
Subject: Synaptics TouchPad V6.2 Driver
Acer-panam & Acer-euro have different drivers shown as being the newest
available for the Synaptics TouchPad and none of them will let an
administrative account keep new settings for more than a few hours before
returning to the original settings. Please help.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer:

Thank you for contacting Acer America. I apologize for the delay in
responding to your inquiry. This issue could be due to software or hardware
corruption. To rule out software I would suggest you back up your important
files and then reinstall the factory software using the Acer System and
Recovery CDs that shipped with the computer from the factory again.
Thoroughly test the system in the factory configuration prior to installing
any additional software or hardware. If there are no issues, install your
additional software and hardware one at a time, testing thoroughly after
each installation. If the issue occurs with only the factory software, or
you can not run the recovery this could indicate a hardware issue requiring
service. In this case you would need to call our telephone technical support
line at 1-800-816-2237 for assistance. Currently we are experiencing high
call volume, so please expect your hold time to be longer than normal. When
you call in, please have your serial number and contact information ready to
expedite your call.

Regards,
Acer Online Support Team
=============================================

And as you may have guessed, I am not interested in returning to "factory
configuration" thank you! I guess I will have to live with what I've got.
Click to expand...
This may be completely off-base, but it occurs to me that you could get
the thing working, export a text-file version of your registry, and then
when it screws up again, make another text-file registry output, and
then compare the two using FC at the command line. That way, assuming
the touchpad settings are stored in the registry, you might at least be
able to find out where they are. (I've never tried such a thing myself.)
 
B

Bert Kinney

Agreed, that's lame!

It's worth trying one more time.

Download the latest driver from this link and run setup.exe to install
http://www.acerpanam.com/flex/acerdrivers/bin/drivers.html?CFID=2783252&CFTOKEN=33807842

1. Uninstall the existing Touch Pad driver.
2. Shut the notebook down
3. Start the notebook
4. Confirm the touch pad is functioning with the standard mouse driver
5. Log on to your system as "Administrator", or as another user with
administrator privileges
6. Attach all pointing devices that will be used on the notebook
7. Restart Windows after the installation is complete.

If the driver has been installed correctly, after you have restarted
Windows you should see the TouchPad Icon in your task bar next to the
clock. Also, a dialog box entitled "Information about your TouchPad"
will pop up. You can prevent this dialog box from coming up in the
future by checking the "Stop showing me this message" checkbox.

If the setting are not saved then troubleshoot using the Clean Boot method.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
 
C

ctowers

Hello Bert, I"m in the process of doing what you suggest. For some reason
the antivirus utility became inoperative when the touch pad driver was
uninstalled, so I had to also uninstall and reinstall it also. I setup the
touch pad the way I'd like to keep it, so now it's wait and see if it
reverts back to the original settings. I have two active "Administrator"
accounts and it's interesting that the "information" dialog you mention only
pops up for one of them.
 
C

ctowers

The settings lasted about three hours and then reverted back to the
original ones.
Next I installed a Generic Synaptics Device Driver from
http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm (the one for XP is v8.3.4).
So far, after several hours the settings are holding, I'll let you know if
that changes.
 
C

ctowers

Marshall, I attempted to do something similiar to what you suggest a few
months ago but I was not able to identify an area of the registry where the
settings were being maintained. Thanks for the thought though.
 
C

ctowers

After more than two full days, the settings are holding and everything seems
fine. Thank you.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Oversensitive touchpad on modern laptops 0
Turning off the touchpad 2
TouchPad Pointer Erratic 3
Laptop touchpad jumping mouse 1
No touchpad 6
I disabled my laptop touchpad and now can't enable it 8
Hardware reinstallation problems 4
touchpad information 1

Top