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Touchpad Problem with G74

LottyDotty
Level 7
Well I finally got my G74 and so far I love it...however I just encountered a problem with my touchpad...

At first it worked fine..but it seems when I took it to my office and connected a mouse to it, ever since, the touchpad isn't working correctly...

Basically if I move my finger across it, sometimes the cursor doesnt move at all, sometimes it jumps when I use it, and sometimes it just moves very slow (where I have to move my finger over the touchpad several times to get it from one place to the other)

I updated the touchpad driver on the drivers thread http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?5224-Drivers-Apps-and-How-to-s

I updated the video driver, but havent updated any chipset drivers / bios drivers etc...

Any ideas / suggestions?....thanks!
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14 REPLIES 14

BrodyBoy
Level 10
So it worked fine until you used an external USB mouse, and hasn't worked right since? Whch driver did you install (when you updated)? Some G74s have Sentelic TP, while others have a Synaptics. It's important that you're sure about which one you have so you don't install the wrong driver.

Had same issue.

i Uninstalled curent drivers.
Rebooted.
Downloaded drivers from asus ftp server installed those. The one in the driver thread the one from teh site directly would not work for me.
Every thing came back the random mouse freezes and slowness when tyring to scroll if could scroll at all and what not.

Again, a hallmark of erratic touchpad behavior.....indeed, one of the reasons it's called "erratic"....is that it's intermittent and rather unpredictable. But the important point is that no "fix," no matter how consistently or inconsistently effective, is ever permanent. The behavior always resumes. (I'm talking exclusively about the now well-known hardware issue associated with these models, not software or driver issues.)

Regardless of what issue is actually causing the touchpad problem on your laptop, I would be a little wary about frequently re-flashing your BIOS as a temporary fix. Though the risk of a failed flash (i.e., bricked BIOS) is low, it's there with every re-flash.

LottyDotty
Level 7
Thanks for the reply...

that is correct, it seems to have started after installing the usb mouse, although that could just be a coincidence.

After running into the problem I tried installing the Sentelic Touchpad 9.1.3.5, rebooted, didn't fix it.. so then tried Sentelic Touchpad 9.1.7.7
, rebooted, didn't fix...

I then uninstalled driver completely and used default windows driver... rebooted, didn't fix..

I wasn't sure which touchpad I had so I then tried the Synaptics 15.3.17.0 and had the same problem... the Fn F9 works with the Sentelic drivers but not the windows default or Synaptics drivers, so I am assuming I have a Sentelic touchpad...

Any ideas?... I was definately working normally out of the box... but not now... (less than 1 day old)

Okay, all those driver installs are a problem in themselves. Especially the Synaptics (if you don't have a Synaptics TP), because it's hard to get rid of and it can actually alter your hardware IDs...making it difficult to even determine what hardware you actually have. (So, for future reference, it's a bad idea to install drivers randomly.....don't install anything unless you're sure it's appropriate for your model.)

Step one is to try and get rid of all those and finding out for sure what kind of touchpad you have. Go into Control Panel and uninstall all Sentelic and/or Synaptics entries. (If you use something like Driver Sweeper, it's probably a good idea to even clean up the Synaptics remnants with that.)

After all the drivers are removed, you can hopefully get an accurate hardware ID in Device Manager:
• Expand the “Mice and other pointing devices” section in Device Manager
• Double-click the listed device to open its Properties, and select the “Details” tab
• Select “Hardware Ids” in the drop-down list, and the device’s Hardware IDs will be displayed.

Sentelic touchpad Hardware IDs begin with ACPI\STLC and STLC, as in the example below. Synaptics hardware IDs entries will begin with ACPI\SYN and SYN. (Windows will have installed its own generic TP driver after you uninstalled the manufacturers' drivers, but the hardware should still be detected.)




Which G74 configuration do you have, BTW?

LottyDotty
Level 7
I have the G74SX-AH71

Prior to your post BrodyBoy I had done a system restore to the earliest point possible... and the default driver looked to be the Sentelic Touchpad 9.1.3.5.. before thinking about it, I deleted it though going through the description above... so I went ahead and looked at the device manager details and the hardware id is identical to the screenshot you have above...

Any other suggestions?... since i did the system restore and it looked to go to the original driver, I am starting to think that its a hardware issue... =(

Should I maybe try and do a fresh OS install?.. or would that mess up me being able to return it?...or are there some other things I should try first?

LottyDotty wrote:
I have the G74SX-AH71

Prior to your post BrodyBoy I had done a system restore to the earliest point possible... and the default driver looked to be the Sentelic Touchpad 9.1.3.5.. before thinking about it, I deleted it though going through the description above... so I went ahead and looked at the device manager details and the hardware id is identical to the screenshot you have above...

Any other suggestions?... since i did the system restore and it looked to go to the original driver, I am starting to think that its a hardware issue... =(

Should I maybe try and do a fresh OS install?.. or would that mess up me being able to return it?...or are there some other things I should try first?

Okay...that's good. If the factory restore installed a Sentelic driver, then you know you've got a Sentelic touchpad. If you were getting the same behavior after the restore, you're right....that's starting to sound like a hardware issue. But it's too soon to draw that conclusion....so let's go through some steps to rule out other possibilities first.

Is there any pattern to the behavior? Specifically:


  • Is it there immediately after start-up, or does it start after you've been using the computer awhile?
  • Does it get worse as you continue to use the computer (after the funky behavior starts)?
  • Does rebooting help at all?

And just to clarify, from your earlier description.....is the touchpad malfunction exactly the same regardless of what driver you use? Even the generic Windows driver?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm trying to see if this fits the pattern of a failed touchpad ground. When the piece of foil-backed tape on the back of the touchpad is loose, the grounding failure results in a pretty consistent pattern of erratic touchpad behavior. This kind of hardware failure can't be resolved with software fixes.

If this IS the problem with your touchpad, I would suggest you return the laptop and get a different one, if you still can. But again, let's try to rule out other possibilities jumping off that bridge....

LottyDotty
Level 7
...actually it looks like I fixed it... I updated the bios from 201 to 203 and now it seems to be working normally again....

I have been reading up on the issue in some other forums and it seems to be a widespread problem... in many cases it may work for a little while but then start acting up again... so I am crossing my fingers that it indeed was just a bios issue and not the hardware isssue that you are describing (which seems like what the problem would be if it randomly is working for a while then stops working after a while)...

Thank you for taking the time to help me out... I am so glad that I don't have to return it... kind of wished I did the bios to begin with so I didn't go to a previous restore point and now have to reinstall all of those programs, haha!

If it starts acting up again I will update this post.. but for now it seems to be working great!

thanks again!

LottyDotty
Level 7
Well this is interesting.. I started reinstalling all of the programs I lost by doing the system restore to previous point and the touchpad started acting up again... I switched over to a mouse for a while and just now wanted to check the touchpad and it stopped working all together (no movement, but buttons still worked and the touchpad was showing up in system tray... anyway, I had an idea and I reflashed the bios to the same 203, and sure enough, after reflashing it, the touchpad started working again....

I don't know if it was time that caused it to stop working again or if it was installing new programs... so I am going to monitor it some more and see how long it will keep working without installing any new programs... if it stops working again over a short period of time without me installing new programs, then its probably a hardware issue... however if it keeps working without installing new programs, then it was probably one of those programs that keeps messing it up...

However, the fact that I was able to fix it again by reflashing the bios again I think could be a major development....maybe everybody who is having the touchpad problems, all they have to do is reflash their bios to fix it... that would be cool if that was the case... anyway I will post any updates to help anybody else out that may have the same problem...