Touchpad Problems

[Java_Dude1]

Hi, about a year ago I bought a laptop, an HP DV4000. Up until now it's been working great, with very few problems. I decided to visit the microsoft site to see if there were any hardware/other software updates and it found one for my touchpad... so I installed it and it hasn't been working correctly since then. It moves around fine, but when I click stuff it doesn't respond unless I keep tapping it like 10 times. It works fine when I first start my laptop on, but after 5-10 minutes it starts acting up, and it getting really annoying.

I even tried rolling back the driver to the original one but it's not working. In the hardware screen, it shows up as an "Alps pointing-device (2-way)" if that helps at all. Thanks for any help!

 

[Washington]

Try the driver from HP themselves here -

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&dlc=en&product=464512&os=228

You may have to uninstall the previous one to go back to this one, but hopefully it will just let you install.

Good luck

 

[joxley1990]

Or, if that doesnt work, you may have a bad touchpad, although that would be the worst case scenario. Maybe, you could contact HP, and ask for advice, or technical support. Is the laptop still under warranty?

 

[Computer Head]

If the driver that Washington supplied doesn't work, try rolling back the drivers to the version that worked seamlessly. If now the touchpad still doesn't function like it should, I would have to agree with joxley on this one. But for now, try to download the driver Washington provided. Like I said, if that doesn't work, try rolling back the driver.

 

[Java_Dude1]

If the driver that Washington supplied doesn't work, try rolling back the drivers to the version that worked seamlessly. If now the touchpad still doesn't function like it should, I would have to agree with joxley on this one. But for now, try to download the driver Washington provided. Like I said, if that doesn't work, try rolling back the driver.

I tried upgrading the driver, and it appeared to work better for awhile. But then it went back to not working right when I tap it. I tried rolling back the driver to the original one, but it's still messed up too. So it must be the touchpad that's broken.

The funny thing is that I didn't buy the extended warranty on my laptop... I only got the 1-year one (it's for college, and I was pretty much maxed out at the time), and I think the warranty expires either today or tomorrow because I got it about a week before my birthday last year. :/

 

[Computer Head]

Yeah, probably hardware issues then. Check on your warranty just in case to see if it is still good, and give them a call to get a work order and a job #, if the warranty is still good. If not, some computer stores can replace it, but for a hefty pricetag. Try those two options and let me know what you come up with.

 

[Kage]

I don't know if this is true, but since touch pads use heat to work. Maybe in the hot weather, they are slightly affected? Wouldn't know for sure.

 

[Computer Head]

Touchpads commonly operate by sensing the capacitance of a finger, or the capacitance between sensors. Capacitive sensors are laid out along the horizontal and vertical axis of the touchpad. The location of the finger is determined from the pattern of capacitance from these sensors. This is why they will not sense the tip of a pencil or even a finger in a glove. Moist and/or sweaty fingers can be problematic for those touchpads that rely on measuring the capacitance between the sensors.

Sorry, Kage, but don't think that is it. I think his touchpad is just going bad on the axis detection.

Edit>>> In case you're not sure, capacitance is the electrical discharge from the body.

 

[Kage]

Thats an interesting quote. I didn't know they worked exactly like that.
I imagined one big heat pad, haha. As I thought they were heat related, not electric related.

 

[Computer Head]

If you want to read the entire page on touchpads, here's the link I pulled that quote off of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchpad

(Wikipedia, my friend)