Re: Touchpad problems with latest kernels

Dmitry Torokhov
2006-08-14T15:41:31Z

On 8/14/06, Andreas Mohr <andi@rhlx01.fht-esslingen.de> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 10:38:04AM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics is a
> > pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled somehow,
> > hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or cutting every
> > lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave instead of
> > responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've gotten hand
> > cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that abomination to
> > stop such goings on.
> >
> > So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics touchpad
> > situation.
>
> I'm seeing issues as well on my Dell Inspiron 8000 (yes, it has a Synaptics,
> NOT ALPS as usual on Inspiron):
>
> (without a mouse plugged in) after random times the pointer exhibits
> clear signs of craziness, moving on its own (mild issue) or jumping
> uncontrollably (worse) or being completely off-screen most of the time
> (worst).
>
> IIRC (I'm quite sure about this) the very first time that I've seen
> this phenomenon happen on my notebook was around 2.6.9,
> and I attributed this to broken/grown-old hardware on my notebook
> (thus from then on mostly running with external mouse attached),
> but since several people now report very similar issues
> one would think that it's a driver calibration or touchpad setup issue
> instead of actually broken touchpad hardware.
>
> Plus, I'm sometimes having issues with pointer movement (cursor won't advance
> any more unless I stop touching the touchpad for a few seconds to let it
> reset somehow - probably a bytestream hickup issue).
>
> Any clues?
>

Yes, you might want to reseat your touchpad connector and vacuum the
case a bit. Inspiron 8000 is almost the same as 8100 and I am using it
constantly ;) Well, I thought my keyboard broke because PgUp stopped
working but it recovered after I got a hairball from under the key.
Just make sure you do not pull ACPI battery info to often.

--
Dmitry