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Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/26/2008 4:55:22 PM

camille65

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Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
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Something weird is going on with my laptop touch pad/cursor. I left my laptop on for about half an hour, when I got back the cursor was zooming around from left to right but not up and down. I couldn't get it to go where I wanted to which meant I couldn't restart or anything.Did a cold reboot, still going on. So I installed a remote mouse I had hanging around and that works fine.Went back to trying the touchpad and again things went weird then weirder. I tried to click on 'new post' to make this post and a random page on cm forums would pop up. Over and over.Tried a different site and when I would click to the next page one of my home search pages would pop up. Help? Please use little words because I am a computer idjit.Thanks.

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/26/2008 7:06:53 PM

wkdshadow

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Joined: 2/6/2008
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Take a piece of toiletpaper and lightly damp it with some rubbing alcohol and clean the touchpad. An explanation: Touchpads work based on the properties of capacitance, either the differential capacitance inbetween two really tiny wires under that plastic surface, or the less accurate detection of transmitter field-effects.

If it's still doing it, tap your finger once onto an area of the pad really quickly, as if you're trying to not get burned by it. The firmware might be locked in a tap-zone mode of operation. If tapping the center doesn't work, try it again at the edges.

It may also just be dead, and you're out of luck.

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/26/2008 7:08:39 PM

HaveRopeWillBind

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Just taking a guess here I would say your touchpad driver has been corrupted. You will likely have to reinstall that and then re-add the touchpad as new hardware. You might be able to get a help-line tech from your computer manufacturer to walk you through this over the phone or to do it remotely online, or you could just go to almost any decent repair shop and they could do it.

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/26/2008 11:09:44 PM

Termyn8or

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I disagree. I think it is hardware. But the touchpad should be replaceable, and if not, there's always the mouse.

T

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/26/2008 11:53:15 PM

LadyRainfire

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Joined: 2/20/2008
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It could be hardware T, but the driver is something very easily updated online and usually doesn't cost anything to replace. Then a simple touch re-alignment and Camille could be back up and running and not out any money. However, depending on her laptop, she might need a whole shell replacement. So the driver is the quick, easy thing to try first. From there, I would suggest calling the company if it is still in warranty, if not, then a local reliable shop.

Oh, and also try wkdshadows suggestion as well... Electricity does build up on the circuits and it could be affecting it.

< Message edited by LadyRainfire -- 2/26/2008 11:54:49 PM >

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/27/2008 12:26:25 AM

wkdshadow

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I find it highly improbable that the driver's to blame. If the driver got corrupted, it would likely fail a CRC(cyclic redundancy check) check(one of those nifty redundant terms in use), and you'd have BSODs(The famous blue screen of death) like crazy. It's likely hardware.

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/27/2008 12:34:09 AM

LadyRainfire

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Ya but working tech support, unfortunately, you have to work through the steps before you get to what really is the problem. So even if you know the problem is "X", you still have to go through all the steps leading up to it. And if its a quick, simple step that costs nothing but a few minutes to try, what's the harm? It takes the sail out of the the tech support person when you say, I already updated the touchpad driver. And lets you move on to the next step.

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/27/2008 12:44:03 AM

wkdshadow

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Meh, that always pissed me off about when I'd call tech support. They'd suggest fixes that were the least likely first. Most tech support types aren't that good at failure analysis anyways, and are just reading from a checklist.

Foamy's got it right:
http://uploads.ungrounded.net/192000/192820_tech.swf
http://uploads.ungrounded.net/267000/267536_tech2.swf
http://uploads.ungrounded.net/300000/300237_tech3.swf
http://foamy.libertech.net/tech42.swf

http://www.illwillpress.com/vault.html

< Message edited by wkdshadow -- 2/27/2008 12:47:56 AM >

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RE: Laptop Touchpad/Cursor HELP - 2/27/2008 4:14:21 AM

Zensee

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Do the free stuff first. What's the harm?

You can dis tech support all you like but trouble shooting should be done by the book and the easy, free steps should be taken before the difficult expensive ones.

Z.

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